Earlier this week, Microsoft announced an up to 50% price increase for Xbox Game Pass, offering the compelling value proposition of "What if one month's access to a new Xbox-published game cost almost a quarter of the price of just buying the damn thing and owning it forever?"
Microsoft's explanation for the price hike was that it was seeking to offer "more flexibility, choice, and value," and it's apparently got similarly flexible plans for game streaming—assuming you don't mind sitting through ads to enjoy it. According to reporting at The Verge, sources at Microsoft say that the company has been running internal tests of a free, ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming, with a public beta test and full launch planned in the coming months.
"Sources tell me the internal testing includes around two minutes of preroll ads before a game is available to stream for free through Xbox Cloud Gaming. Microsoft is also currently testing a limit of one hour for sessions, with up to five hours free a month," The Verge's Tom Warren writes. "These limits may well change when the service is officially launched."
The ad-supported offering would, according to those sources, allow you to stream "some" games you own, alongside eligible trials from Xbox Free Play Days and Xbox Retro Classics games.
Microsoft CFO Tim Stuart publicly alluded to a potential ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming tier in 2023. But considering the longer wait times and lower resolution cloud streaming being offered to Essential and Premium-tier Game Pass subscribers as part of the new pricing scheme, it's probably safe to assume that users of the free version will be enjoying a less-than-optimal experience during their hypothetical five hours a month.
What's unclear, however, is whether subscribers to the PC-only Game Pass plan—which is the only Game Pass tier that makes no mention of Cloud Gaming—will only have access to the ad-supported Cloud Gaming option. Pricing aside, that exact confusion over the specifics of what, exactly, you're meant to be paying for is a massive part of what makes Game Pass so maddening.
Personally, if you're only looking to stream games you already own on your local network, I'd recommend the free, open-source solution of self-hosting Sunshine on your gaming PC and streaming to your other devices via Moonlight. You'll still be installing and running games on your hardware, but it's given me the best results when I'm looking to escape from the confines of my desk while enjoying good picture quality and low latency.
And, you know, no ads.
