Industry insiders are reporting to several news outlets that Microsoft is getting ready to announce a version of Xbox Cloud Gaming supported with ads, with some employees testing the service to play selected titles for free without having a Game Pass subscription.

According to The Verge, the new version of Cloud Gaming will allow users to stream games they own, alongside some eligible "Free Play Days" titles, letting users try out games over a weekend. The Verge's sources also claim that the testing currently has two minutes of preroll ads before the game is available to be streamed for free, with the current limit being allowing up 1 hour of streaming session, with the maximum being 5 hours per month.

This ad-support free version of Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available for PCs, Xbox devices as well as handheld devices, and through the web. with an apparent public beta about to be released soon, with a full launch in upcoming months after the public beta.

Source

 

[pedro702]

I mean yeah free gaming and all you have to do is watch a few ads. People will still complain about this.

did you read the entire article?... 1 hour per day max and 5 hours per month total max... your not going to be playing much lol

 

[K3Nv4]

did you read the entire article?... 1 hour per day max and 5 hours per month total max... your not going to be playing much lol

Well people are complaining about it so I guess I did and was correct about my initial thought.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Absolutely stupid. I'm not against an ad supported plan, especially if they're gonna increase the prices by 50% (going by game pass here), but at least make it a decent amount of streaming time. Better yet, shrink the display and run banner ads or something. That way the game doesn't get interrupted.

Well people are complaining about it so I guess I did and was correct about my initial thought.

People are complaining because Microsoft found a way to monetize a trial. This isn't being done out of the goodness of their hearts. They're gonna bring in far more doing this than they're giving away in streaming.

 

[digitalforums]

Ads will be played before the game starts, there will be no ads in between gaming, it will be like the geforce-now free ads streaming servuce

 

[Ondrashek06]

With the recent massive price increase for Gamepass, I really don't believe that the advertising won't be YouTube-tier - or worse, Ready Player One-tier.

Post automatically merged: Oct 4, 2025

1 hour per day max and 5 hours per month total max...

5 hours per month? Yikes.

 

[gnmmarechal]

This is perfectly fine imo - it's enough to try it out and see if it's worth it for you.

 

[Deleted member 702243]

whats the alternative? let the world go to shit and stay silent about it? no alot of these people are just brainwashed idiots because they have been manipulated by big companies since they came out the womb.

if u want to see more violence and civilization to continue to unravel in real life u keep letting companies do what they are doing.

as the world burns, we take turns, losing concern, cause we all gotta earn.


keep up the cyclical nature than i guess is your method of handling this.

btw im not confrontational with people. its the ideas that i have to be confrontational with. maybe some people can be awakened through some confrontational communication where we point out their slave actions helping corporations continue the downturn are a major part of the problem.

terminally online behavior

 

[gdnspk]

1 hour per day- per game, or per total? I'm assuming per total. And do they just kick you off at the end of the hour? That sounds... awful, for online games if you're mid-match, or anything where you'd have to save manually(Autosaves aside, because they can be unreliable, but are usually better than nothing). I mean, sure, it's free, but it doesn't sound good. I don't even care about the ads- the chexbox home screen is full of them anyways.

 

[Vixi]

1 hour per day- per game, or per total? I'm assuming per total. And do they just kick you off at the end of the hour? That sounds... awful, for online games if you're mid-match, or anything where you'd have to save manually(Autosaves aside, because they can be unreliable, but are usually better than nothing). I mean, sure, it's free, but it doesn't sound good. I don't even care about the ads- the chexbox home screen is full of them anyways.

It'll probably be intended for single player games.
The multiplayer games which aren't COD or free to play are dead on Xbox anyway.

 

[shadow1w2]

As long as I can mute the ads between ganes I think ads in game streaming services are okay.
If they bring up a notification with "take a break watch this ad to keep playing" I'd likely willingly click and sit throigh it.
Dont like it forced or interupting is all and the Geforce Now ads arent so bad like that.

Now if they put ads ibto the paid version thats an instant drop.

Still if I could play the games I own via stream for free with a few none intrusive ads each playthrough I think thats a fair trade.

For me the PC tier with streaming is the better deal now.
Wish it was cheaper but it was worthless to me without streaming, especially since Im ditching windows now.

Oh dang they must be anticipating windows getting ditched for linux pretty hard soon.

 

[K3Nv4]

Absolutely stupid. I'm not against an ad supported plan, especially if they're gonna increase the prices by 50% (going by game pass here), but at least make it a decent amount of streaming time. Better yet, shrink the display and run banner ads or something. That way the game doesn't get interrupted.

People are complaining because Microsoft found a way to monetize a trial. This isn't being done out of the goodness of their hearts. They're gonna bring in far more doing this than they're giving away in streaming.

Isn't it good that they're bringing more to offer in a world where consoles have little value?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Neat idea, 5 hours per month isn't very much though. 5 hours per month per game would be OK. Enough time to try out games properly before deciding whether to buy. 5 hours total is barely enough to try out 2 games. But hey, free is free. I still think that GeForce Now's free tier is much better. Granted, GFN doesn't come with any games. But the free tier is actually usable as your primary way to play games. Not great, but usable.

 

[doorbell8423]

.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Isn't it good that they're bringing more to offer in a world where consoles have little value?

No because it's their own fault consoles have little value. They're not doing anybody a favour by hiking prices and then introducing a nearly useless plan.

 

[doorbell8423]

.

 

[Retrojunkies]

I mean yeah free gaming and all you have to do is watch a few ads. People will still complain about this.

Because its pointless streaming a game you own on a console when you can just play the game off its disc or install data with no Internet drops or adverts.

Said it many times already, sh1tb0x wants to turn gaming into sh1tflix.

 

[yankii]

Said it many times already, sh1tb0x wants to turn gaming into sh1tflix.

That's actually disrespectful to Shitflix because at least they let you rip their entire library with a free trial.

 

[Ampersound]

Getting a chance to try before you buy is pretty nice. If you look at it another way, I'd say xbox found a clever way to monetize game demos.

Smart take,
that would actually be useful.

However I highly doubt they will put new releases on there, for 'free'.
Especially since they made a big deal regarding gamepass, about new releases only appearing in the most expensive tier.

 

[Abraham32]

View attachment 531286​

Industry insiders are reporting to several news outlets that Microsoft is getting ready to announce a version of Xbox Cloud Gaming supported with ads, with some employees testing the service to play selected titles for free without having a Game Pass subscription.

According to The Verge, the new version of Cloud Gaming will allow users to stream games they own, alongside some eligible "Free Play Days" titles, letting users try out games over a weekend. The Verge's sources also claim that the testing currently has two minutes of preroll ads before the game is available to be streamed for free, with the current limit being allowing up 1 hour of streaming session, with the maximum being 5 hours per month.

This ad-support free version of Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available for PCs, Xbox devices as well as handheld devices, and through the web. with an apparent public beta about to be released soon, with a full launch in upcoming months after the public beta.

Source

eww ads, but why

 

[AndorfRequissa]

this is like going to a buffet that has a regular buffet (physical media) then a lower tier buffet which is dirt (gamepass), and the lowest tier is shit (whatevet this garbage is called). but hey eating shit is free is what the waiter says when asking which tier u want. and if u dont like the taste of shit for free u can pay a little for some dirt to eat. hey if u eat dirt long enough or buy in bulk well even throw in some tree bark and make it a little cheaper. if u want the regular buffet u must pay a very high price to eat what u used to be able to eat when we just had one buffet option. but hey we got options now



people who are trying to paint this like this service actually provides anything but shit and getting people used to eating shit to say its okay there is some sustanance in this shit is just mindboggling to be. alot of people i guess dont mind having stockholm syndrome and giving up their freedom and choices just to feel like they fit in with their abusers.


wake up people. u are either a braindead idiot or if u are past ignorance is bliss then ur just a bad person if u support this stuff. its like punching a kid and stealing his lunch money. u support this type of stuff thats the type of person u are imo. horrible human.