r/gaming • u/Force_Hammer • 17h ago

Microsoft to impose time limits on Xbox cloud gaming subscribers as costs continue to climb

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/03/microsoft-xbox-game-pass-cloud-limits.html
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u/Ickyfist 17h ago

Just get rid of cloud gaming at that point. It's clearly not worth the cost.

At the very least they should remove cloud gaming from game pass. Most people don't use or want it. You could also lower game pass prices or improve the service.

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u/ScottyBOzzy 16h ago

It's the only thing I use. Hockey and Baseball and NCAA games do not exist on PC. I only use gamepass for sports games. Seems I'm going to unsub, though.

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u/Ballwhacker 16h ago

NCAA is now on PC.

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u/ScottyBOzzy 13h ago

That made my day. Thanks.

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u/GoodLunchHaveFries 16h ago

I just want to play The Show on my PC😭

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u/PaulSach 15h ago

Yeah, xCloud was my only lifeline to playing the NHL games with some of my friends and cousins. Guess I won't be able to really do that anymore :/ (I'm not gonna buy a PS5 just to play sports games lol)

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u/ComprehensiveNorth1 15h ago

also the Mac users sobs

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u/yzeerf1313 16h ago

Unless they are planning on offering an unlimited tier they effectively are with this change.

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u/savedawhale 13h ago

All they have to do is get rid of physical media, increase the price of digital games to crazy prices, and limit access by subscription tier. Hardware will be too expensive because they've banned Chinese products (consumer products as national military threat) that would keep costs down, so unless you plan to climb the corporate later, you'll take what you can get.

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u/Hobbit_Sam 16h ago

I was in a store the other day and it honestly amazed me that many of the games said an Xbox game pass subscription was required to play, even things with single player.

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u/Sacrous 15h ago

Hmm, that's new to me. I know multiplayer requires Xbox live, same as PlayStation. But what single player game, or any game actually, requires game pass? Are you sure you read it right?

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u/jormugandr 14h ago

More likely that they'd remove it, keep the price the same and add a higher tier with cloud gaming. But the old tier that costs the same would also lose a very important feature that you can only get with the cloud gaming tier, so you are basically forced to pay more and end up in the same place. Rinse and repeat.

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u/gkryo 9h ago

The only time I used cloud gaming was when I was traveling. XBox controller on my phone was fantastic. If I hadn't been WFH on non-busy days, I probably would've used it at work. I haven't really missed it since getting rid of Game Pass when they jacked up the price.

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u/KML42069 16h ago

I use it all the time. You can access it from any computer browser, even one on a phone.