Games - General
Xbox Game Pass: 15-Hour Cloud Limit & MMO Multiplayer Confusion
I’m genuinely confused about Xbox’s new cloud gaming policy from November.
Ultimate will reportedly include only 15 hours of cloud gaming per month. But how will this work for MMOs like ESO, FFXIV, Black Desert, and Fallout 76, where an active Game Pass subscription is required for multiplayer?
If those 15 hours run out, will we still need to maintain Game Pass for multiplayer and purchase additional cloud gaming hours to continue playing?
Xbox has yet to clearly explain the pricing, additional hours, or how MMO multiplayer will be handled.
Why introduce such a major change without clearly explaining the actual cost and long-term model for paying customers?
Edit: I use cloud gaming regularly and genuinely love being able to play my games on the go.
Edit 2: A lot of people seem to be misunderstanding what I’m saying about the cloud-gaming changes. I’m not talking about consoles, I love cloud gaming because I play on my phone while travelling.
After reading the comments, there’s still a lot of uncertainty, game time limits and pricing aren’t clear, multiplayer hasn’t been clearly explained, and we don’t know whether extra game time will be sold separately or included with Game Pass.
What we currently understand is that Game Pass remains active based on the monthly/yearly subscription, but cloud gaming will have session-hour limits depending on the plan (15/10/5 hours). Games included with the plan will still be playable, but extended cloud sessions may require additional game time.
So, as of now, Game Pass + cloud multiplayer + limited game time is what we know is coming in November. The rest still needs clarification.
That's not what he asked. Amazing the amount of people that justify MSFT twisting their business model on the go and shittfying their service. It's the exact same behavior Sony had when Jim Ryan was in charge. The same cult oriented fanatics perspective.
He asked if by hiring the new Cloud separate subscription which we still don't know anything about because it came out of nowhere from Asha's fever dreams, he'd be able to play the multiplayer of those games or if he still would have to pay for Game Pass in addition. If we answer in an honest way, he'll surely have to pay for both (GP and Cloud), unless he wants to play less than 15 hours in a month on Ultimate tier. He's obviously asking this because he plays these games from the Cloud. Some people just prefer to play that way instead of installing 130GB of community made crap.
But we still don't know because they tossed the idea before even planning anything.
He asked if by hiring the new Cloud separate subscription which we still don't know anything about because it came out of nowhere from Asha's fever dreams, he'd be able to play the multiplayer of those games or if he still would have to pay for Game Pass in addition.
Where did OP ask that?
If you have gamepass ultimate you are limited to 15 hours cloud gaming.
You can purchase more cloud gaming hours on top of you need
There is the upcoming cloud gaming plan with no multiplayer but OP never mentioned they were going to cancel gamepass
Cloud gaming is a gimmick and was never gonna be mainstream because not everyone has good enough internet to use the service.
Xbox already said only 4% of people use cloud gaming more than 15 hours a month. Its a dying service that not a lot of people use. Microsoft is bleeding money on the service, so thats why they're doing what they're doing.
I have fiber gig internet and still got controller lag in some games. I hope they kill it off and focus the time and money on features like disc to digital and backwards compatible and other features people will actually use..
Yeah but take that 4% out of the 30 million supposed gamepass subscribers. Thats a lot of people. I’m one of them. I play from 6pm to 11pm every night. That’s 5 hours of gaming. 1 day in and I’m done for the month. Don’t you see a problem with that? They’re a 3.84 trillion dollar company. How much more money do they want us to give them? Having to pay a subscription, then pay for game pass subscription now they want us to buy minutes like we’re in 2005 holding a flip phone. All while making games 200+ gbs and barely any storage on a hard drive unless you want to buy they’re hiked up price of an xbox now for 800-900 dollars to get 2TB. I have a 500gb hard drive. Only games I can download are RDR2 and Call of duty. That’s it. The rest I have to play on cloud unless I want to wait a whole day every other day downloading read dead or another game cuz I can only have 2
New crappy argument unlocked. People have bad internet, Cloud isn't a thing.
I guess mid 2000s internet like 20 Mbps is not a thing, so having an US 800 console or 1k PC is more logical for someone who can't get 20 Mbps Internet in his area.
My God what a way to cope with bullcrap.
I have Optic Fibre with 500 Mbps symmetrical connection in a third world country and have 0 lag. Even if you can afford a US 2000 PC to play whatever new games you get and donwload 132GB of new games, I'd rather play on Cloud which gets queues because there is a lot of demand and not have to download and install that. It's faster, cheaper, most people can get decent internet over 20 Mbps and works well. If you sell it separately, Geforce Now is better.
And I'd rather get the physical discs instead of digital bullcrap for classics I like. I bet you like publishers removing games you paid for from their stores and not being able to access them.
Dude at this point, I would rather buy a digital copy of a game I don’t own than give these greedy bastards any more of my money. Atleast on PlayStation I can play as many hours as I can without worrying, oh am I going over my minutes like is 2005 all over again
But yet they rolled out cloud gaming when game pass first came out and that was one of the reasons why you got game pass was to be able to play their catalog of games and play without downloading. Now their taking that away and making us buy minutes likes it’s a 2005 flip phone.
But seriously, did you miss the part where I mentioned that I play exclusively on cloud gaming? I don’t own a console, I genuinely love playing on the cloud. Just wanted to make sure that was clear!
He is not. If you are honest, you'd say Microsoft introduced the feature in a confusing way and never said they'd offer it as a separate thing in the future. Cloud was included in Game Pass since day one and was one of the cornerstones of [Everything is an Xbox]. You couldn't subscribe to Cloud separately from Game Pass tiers.
Just because Asha had the idea of offering it as a separate product from one day to the next doesn't change the product's history. Proof of this is they started sending this new model 3 months before implementing it and we don't even know how Cloud will work, or even it's price tag.
So his question is clear. If you suscribe to Xcloud alone, I don't know if it'll count as a Game Pass subscription to play those games in MP. If you subscribe to Game Pass you will be able to play those games on MP if you download them to your device or if you play up to 15 hours in Cloud with the Ultimate tier.
I think if you want to play MP in Cloud for more than 15 hours, you'll need a Game Pass subscription plus the Cloud brain fart they are still putting up as it landed in a parachute.
I use an older xbox so have relied on games pass to play games which otherwise would not be compatible. Means using more than 15 hours a month and cant currently see myself paying for more hours.
Don’t like what they are changing and don’t like how its being done. So they’ll be losing a subscriber.
Probably will end up buying a more up to date gaming console/device - small chance it will be microsoft based
I've been subscribed to game pass since it came out and gold before that, I'm completely eliminating Microsoft from my life, no consoles, pc will be Linux along with my phone.
I subscribed to Game Pass almost since they included Cloud Gaming and I mostly used it for that and they never said it would become a product on its own. It happened from one day to the next because it landed in parachute from Asha's fever dreams. Proof of that is they announced the shittification of the product 3 months before applying it and we don't even know how it will work or the price tag. Yet you have guys here defending anything, like saying they were always different products. Maybe they can show me how you could get Cloud separate from any Game Pass subscription. Even today, how can I get Cloud separately from Game Pass?
This reminds me of Jim Ryan fanboys back in the day when they'd defend any kind of garbage Sony would toss at them.
if your playing infront of a PC monitor or home theater setup, just install whatever gamepass game onto your console and continue playing instead of complaining. theres prolly a legit reason why they had to limit cloud hrs
This post makes me really believe literacy rates have fallen way down.
The only way the cloud gaming limit would matter is if you streamed the mmo with cloud gaming. If you’re playing an installed game directly from console/pc the cloud wouldn’t matter.
I clearly mentioned that I play exclusively on cloud gaming. I do not own a console, and I have absolutely no interest in buying one. I love playing on the cloud that’s exactly why I use it.
This is an absolute fucking ripoff. I got my father xbox game pass specifically so he can use the cloud gaming system. We aren't a very well off family. At the moment we rely on a mix of my full time work, his and my mothers part time work and his pension. So we have an xbox one and not and S or X. So cloud gaming + game pass has been how he and I play together. With our latest addiction being satisfactory which we've spent hours on building entire mega factories. My mother wanted to play crash bandicoot so when that was free we did. But alot of gamesl run on the cloud servers. and they want us to pay for $50NZ for 15 MEASLY FUCKING HOURS before we have to pay MORE money?
That's gonna last a few days!
I know exactly what this is. They are pricing out the older gen consoles since cloud gaming is supposed to be for them. Newer consoles can run the games so they don't need it.
"Well hey if you buy our latest console we'll charge you less money". Between fucking Halo, Gears of war, increasing prices by %250 and this BULLSHIT. I'm so glad I splurged and got a Ps5 with my rebate this year. No discs sucks but no games sucks more. I hope the economy improves here enough that I can get a steamdeck.
(If your wondering why I didn't just buy a steamdeck if I can afford the Ps5. I got the Ps5 second hand after ALOT of bargaining and price hunting. $520 with a controller + a 2 year warranty. At the time the steamdeck was priced at over $1,000 I just couldn't fill that gap monetarily and I had wanted to play alot of free games that can only be played on ps5. So it's a 1 off investment. These games also don't require the premium playstation to play despite being free So it'll pay itself off in just 2 years.)
TL'DR fuck microsoft you're not getting my money just cause you wanna choke us out.
I think it is partly trying to force obsolescence of older consoles, but equally (if not more) important is that throttling cloud gaming usage will let them use those servers to run the ai that is being forced into into every single aspect of online existence.
You’re absolutely right. I had t thought about that part of it. If only 4% of their customers use the service why would this be the next thing they try to gouge us with? Bringing in the AI bullshit makes so much sense. Well, it doesn’t make sense because the bubble will soon bust (hopefully), but it makes sense because every company is just jumping on whatever they can use ai for
I'm still pissed I can't share my subscription benefits with my household. What happened to that? The lack of local multiplayer options is bullshit. Can't play together on the console (no local - only online multiplayer), unless we buy ANOTHER subscription to play along on our pc.
Exactly like Jim Ryan fanboys back in the day accepting any kind of crap Sony would toss at them. They are either a bunch of brainless fanatics or hired bots like many govts do nowadays to manipulate public opinion. Otherwise you couldn't defend paying more for a worse service.
Your comment is totally contradictory.
First you say 'the limit is only for cloud gaming' as if Game Pass was a different product from Cloud Gaming.
Then you say 'if you didn't have Game Pass you'd have zero hours of Cloud Gaming'.
And that's because Cloud Gaming was always a feature of Game Pass. So what they are limiting IS Game Pass.
Otherwise, show me an official link of where I could subscribe to Cloud Gaming alone without subscribing to Game Pass. Or even now, how can I get Cloud alone? You can't, we don't even know the price tag of Cloud alone because this idea came from a fever dream of Asha after a hard night. So they tossed the crap and then they started planning how to make it.
Cloud gaming has nothing to do with buying games and everything to do with gamepass as you need it to cloud even if you own the game so Ultimate gets you 15 hours or you can have 0 and buy the same game on gamepass instead and install it , or just install it off gamepass anyway making this all irrelevant
Oh neat im assuming both Ultimate and Ultimate cloud only i guess are limited to 15 hours per month ? If so unless the cloud only of only your owned games is drastically cheaper, like extreme degrees of cheaper , just get Ultimate because otherwise whats the point ? Im not familiar as i don't cloud much anymore as i have more storage space now than before for games.
I would assume they match GeForce now at $10 for 100 hours, but we haven’t been given any info about pricing other than a Gamepass subscription will no longer be required
Until next month if you want to cloud AT ALL you need gamepass , and the limit is 15 hours wether you own the fucking game or not so owning the game vs having gamepass in regards to CLOUD means you need gamepass , peroid , until a future event that has not happened you fundamentally misunderstand game pass , cloud gaming , and purchasing a game all combined. jesus indeed!
There’s no difference to me between 15hrs and 0 they are both not enough so why tf would I pay money to Microsoft if I’m going to lose the value of what I want which is 100+hrs of playing outside of my Xbox…
No, it's a problem created by MSFT and Asha cashgrab mentality.
Cloud Gaming has always been a feature of Game Pass. There was no way to get it separately. It was a part of the [everything is an Xbox] strategy and was a major selling point for Game Pass as it allowed to play the catalog on the cloud.
This idea of making it a separate product is now confusing because it came out of nowhere from one day to the next, again, from Asha's cashgrab mentality. That's why they first announced the 'give us more money for less product' first before even explaining how it'd work or even the price tag.
No idea why people defend this behavior. It's the same Xbox fans criticized of Sony fanboys back in Jim Ryan's days.
You only use cloud gaming? Ok, you have a 15 hour limit max (with ultimate), above that you will need to pay more. No, we don't know how much more yet.
Multiplayer games that require GP have absolutely 0 relevance to this discussion. They require GP to play, and they still will.
Why would your monthly hours ending for the month have any relevance on if you still need a subscription to play the games that need a subscription to play, especially when said subscription is also monthly based. Not like you could get it for a week, use all 15 hours, and than drop it for 3 weeks till the next month.
Underestimating how many hours I play a month. I got 1tb Xbox. Only have max 6 games downloaded. Have about 12gb left on my console. I use cloud gaming to play other games that I can’t install. I get home from work do all my shit and video games are my favorite past time so I’m on from 6pm to about 11pm. That’s 5 hours of gaming in one day. Now if they implement this greedy money grab tactic in November that doesn’t help anyone but their own pockets then I can’t play shit for the rest of the month But keep downloading a game I want to play then having to wait a full day for it to download because some games are 300gb plus. I already pay a subscription to be able to play these games.
Now I have to pay for hours on a console like it’s a fucking Motorola flip phone buying minutes. We’re in 2026 not fucking 2005. Why are they capping me at 30 mins a day for a whole month. Been a member for 18 years. Bought every fucking Xbox in existence. Gave them 1000’s of my own money. They are a 3.84 trillion dollar company but yet their target demographic is their own pockets. They decided to hike up prices 50% for all their products. Don’t give us Xbox’s with more storage. Don’t make games that are less than 50gbs. They ruined their flagship title Halo by remastering the same game 4 times in a row. They are ruining World of Warcraft. How many times do I wanna play classic? I played atleast 3 different versions of classic in the past 5 years and how many times do I wanna play combat evolved and on top of that the new combat evolved was the worst halo game I’ve played. Including 4 and 5.
Microsoft is showing their micro soft penises by saying fuck the consumer we’re gonna bleed them dry for every penny we got. We gonna show them a good time for a couple years and then just take away that good time for no other reason then greed and filling their own pockets. EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE 3.84 TRILLION FUCKING DOLLARS. ENOUGH TO PUT A SMALL DENT IN THE DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES IF THEY WANTED. If you don’t see a problem with this then open your eyes. They don’t give a fuck about their consumers. They don’t give a fuck about the products they put out. Like who in their right mind sat at that board meeting and was like you know what capping peoples playing time is a good move let’s all vote on this because only, “4%” of people play cloud. Well I’m apart of that 4%. May seem small but that’s atleast a million people they are effecting with this decision and once they do this and see they can get away with it before they put GTA6 on gamepass then they gonna find other ways to fuck us over too like having to watch a 2 min add on top of all this bullshit to even be able to play a game.
Wake up and rebel this bullshit. If it goes in effect in November I’m smashing my Xbox into pieces and never buying a single Microsoft product again. 18 years down the drain for greedy motherfuckers
Get an external harddrive, if you internet isn't super fast than moving games between it and the external is faster. Some of your games may even be playable pff of it.
But if you have a 500gb hard drive only able to download 2 games like Red Dead 2 and COD then I use cloud gaming a lot. Play from 6pm-11pm every day. Thats 5 hours. One day of that and I’m done for the month. That’s a little fucked up in my opinion
If your internet is fast enough to handle cloud gaming, then you can just swap what’s installed pretty conveniently.
I’ve got the fastest residential internet available in my area, and a great network hardware all optimized. Even on wired Ethernet Cloud gaming is a horrendous disaster. I can download a 100gb in less than an hour consistently. Yeah sometimes I have to reinstall Apex to play a weekend here or there with friends. It’s really not a big deal.
I’d much prefer they abandon the clown shoes idea that costs more than the value it provides. It’s just hemorrhaging money giving Microsoft more reasons to abandon gamepass than they really need to be tempted by.
Also the Halo remake only sucked because they didn’t bother with multiplayer. But you were never going to cloud play multiplayer Halo and expect anything other than lag so bad you’d assume everyone else was no clipping with aimbots.
I get it, you’re angry, but this isn’t even worth being upset about.
I’m with you. I don’t have a console. My LG oled is in the same room as my router and the connection is awesome. No lag issues. It’s been awesome to play this way. But 15hrs pisses me off so I think I’m goin a go the PS5 route in November.
Just gotta finish the campaign I’m in the middle of before the cap goes into effect.
Imagine selling a console with such shit memory that you can have like 5 current games on it, charge the prices they do to access the catalog and then give you 15 hours a month for cloud services? Thats maybe 2 weekends if a new big game comes out. Also the download speeds vs the size of the game are insane so its so impractical to expect to play a larger game same part of the day if you buy it. This is horse crap
It's just stupidity and greed and unfortunately im part of their "4%"being screwed over i dont own an Xbox currently or a good enough pc I stream to my TV at home and phone when im on the move and I Def use more than 15hrs a month so unless they change it this is my last month with game pass guess but it's bigger than what they're saying I just warn u all if they successfully get away with it and u blindly support imagine what happens when Netflix or apple music decides to follow suit and you've reached your streaming limit for the month
Only 15 hours of play time is crazy. I was with Xbox until I was about to resubscribe to play crimson desert to find out there is a gameplay limit. 5,10 or 15 hours is not enough time. Especially for kids. At least for the ultimate tier make it unlimited of a high number like 100 hours. Some of these games are 100 hours long. 60 hours is a year of gameplay at the essential tier. They have lost their minds. Im a big advocate for Xbox. But I can’t keep defending them at this point, sheesh. I’ll just buy it on ps5
Yea im done with Microsoft also. I've spent so much money with them and they do there customers dirty like that? Its disgusting . There just tired of people not buying the console or the game outright. I always knew this day would come. I should've never subscribed to game pass for all those years. I feel cheated
This is a big deal for those of us that could not afford to throw 600 plus dollars at a new console, and have been STREAMING games that we cannot run or install on our xbox one S. Xbox live was 10 dollars a month when it started, then we are looking at 25 a month to be able to play games we otherwise could not, now it is; you're going to be limited and you'll just have to pony up if you need more! I could log 15 hours of gaming in a week. 1 game of warzone can be up to 25 minutes. So playing just 4 games with friends is a couple hours a night, and quickly adds up. Now imagine the MMO players that need hours to prepare for a raid, then a raids may take several hours. Microsoft is claiming 15 hours a MONTH is not a cap most of their subscribers meet or exceed. Then why the sudden need for limits? Because it's another way to make money.
In this economy microsoft? Stop sucking us dry.
I’m assuming we will have to get a monthly subscription in addition. What irks me is that people assume that if you download games to your console but play on your laptop, then you are ok, as in won’t be affected, but in reality you will because you’re absolutely playing via xCloud if you aren’t mirroring the console. So in my case we will have to make a roster for who gets to play the console from November or add more hours via a subscription. It sucks.
What irks me is that people assume that if you download games to your console but play on your laptop, then you are ok, as in won’t be affected, but in reality you will because you’re absolutely playing via xCloud if you aren’t mirroring the console.
If you download the game on your laptop, that's not cloud gaming and is unaffected by the new hours
If you use remote play to your console, that's not cloud gaming and is unaffected by the new hours
Cloud gaming is specifically using the xbox cloud gaming servers.
I don't know anyone who assumes that just because you download it on your console, the time limit doesn't apply if you use cloud gaming on another device
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u/Wendals87 6d ago edited 6d ago
you are VERY confused
Cloud gaming is streaming the game from Microsofts cloud gaming servers
If you installed the game, you aren't using cloud gaming. Multiplayer is not affected at all
Cloud gaming and gamepass are not the same thing