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
11.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

227

u/welzed11 16h ago

Wild that they have the audacity to limit it this much when their cloud gaming is worse then PlayStations. PS5 cloud gaming has 4k resolution which Xbox doesn’t, HDR which Xbox doesn’t, better image quality and less latency 

60

u/TheWizardGeorge 16h ago

I mean honestly I pretty much never use it because of how much worse it is than both Playstation and GeForce now, despite having had(canceled earlier this year) game pass for so long.

8

u/AdorableTuck 16h ago

I tried playing black ops zombies on pc last week end. I didnt want to make room on my HD so I tried it through the cloud. The blurriness during movement made it the worst experience. I've played POE2 and Destiny 2 on geforce now and they dont look that blurry.

1

u/TheWizardGeorge 14h ago

Yeah, it was quite bad when I tried it. It's crazy because when I do GeForce now directly on my pc, you can't tell it's not being played native(have a 4090 build with 9850x3d) for any of the games that use the 5080. Granted, I do have fiber internet and my connection is wired, however it is VERY noticeably worse. Like, significantly worse bordering, on unplayable in comparison.

Then, when I try playing on my iPad it just feels like there is so much more latency. I genuinely thought it was maybe me or my network, so I even tried it on my cellular network and even my wifi at work. Same. Results with both my iPad and z fold 7.

The fact that it's so bad and it's limited to 15 hrs is insane. It's embarrassing, even, because it's like they're playing a telltale game or something and intentionally picking all the worst choices lol.

6

u/Jops817 16h ago

Yeah I've used it to try out a few games I was curious about but not buy the game curious. It was good for that but has outgrown its usefulness.

1

u/razo18 16h ago

Have they finally gotten around to adding the elusive rumble feature to cloud streaming? Mind you I haven't tried it in quite some time but it seems like such a simple feature to implement.

1

u/TheWizardGeorge 14h ago

For xbox controllers, yeah. Not sure about others, but I imagine they do as well.

1

u/Dazzling_Line_8482 11h ago

I thought the PS limits you to PS4?

Isn't that a problem? Or are most new games available for both 4 and 5?

1

u/nostalgic_gamer95 14m ago

Xbox cloud gaming is really good on the steam deck though. What trash by Microsoft.

0

u/eelam_garek 13h ago

Sony will follow suit, guaranteed.

-1

u/inosinateVR 16h ago

has playstation gotten better recently? I always heard it was the complete opposite and PS Now or whatever it’s called is a lot worse than xbox cloud

edit: maybe I just got it mixed up with Geforce Now

1

u/welzed11 16h ago

Nah Xbox cloud gaming has always been worse since the generation started in 2020. Xbox cloud gaming only just got 1080p in 2021 and 1440p in 2025, they’re a long way away from catching up to Playstation

1

u/inosinateVR 15h ago

yeah I think I must’ve gotten it mixed up with Geforce Now in my head

1

u/TheWizardGeorge 14h ago

It's fine when I'm streaming from my home console and I'm on the same network. The streaming can be iffy depending on the network set up. Like if you have a wireless internet service(for example, tmobile home internet or att air), then it's bad due to the CGNat(carrier grade NAT - it reuses IPs and creates lots of issues in peer 2 peer games and sometimes when you stream games on ps, but not GeForce now for whatever reason).

If you have fiber, it's great. Copper is hit or miss.