Xbox Cloud Gaming is losing its all-you-can-stream model. Microsoft has announced new monthly caps on how much game streaming is included with each tier of its Game Pass subscriptions, ending the unlimited access that had been a selling point since 2020, when the service was still known as Project xCloud.
The changes take effect in November. Under the new structure, streaming time is metered based on your subscription level, marking a significant shift for players who rely on the cloud rather than downloads.
The New Game Pass Streaming Limits
Starting in November, each Game Pass plan will include the following monthly streaming allotments:
Game Pass Ultimate (EUR 20/month): 15 hours of streaming.
Game Pass Premium (EUR 13/month): 10 hours of streaming.
Game Pass Essential (EUR 9/month): 5 hours of streaming.
Subscribers who exhaust their monthly hours will have the option to buy more streaming time, though Microsoft has not yet shared pricing or availability for those add-ons. Importantly, access to downloadable versions of games included in a Game Pass subscription is not affected by these limits.
Players without a Game Pass subscription will also be able to purchase timed access to streaming versions of eligible games they already own on supported devices. In June, Microsoft began testing a free “stream with ads” option, allowing players to reach their cloud libraries at no extra charge.
How Microsoft’s Limits Compare
The move puts Microsoft in a different position from its competitors. Sony offers streamable versions of select PlayStation games with no time limits, but only to subscribers of its top-tier PlayStation Plus Premium plan at EUR 17 per month. Nvidia’s GeForce Now service caps individual play sessions, ranging from one hour on the free ad-supported tier to eight hours on the EUR 17-per-month Ultimate tier. GeForce Now users, however, can start as many sessions as they like in a day and can buy single-day passes for access to more than 2,000 streamable titles.
Who Actually Pays More
Microsoft acknowledges the new caps will mean a higher cost for some customers, but the company says the change will affect only 4% of Game Pass subscribers. Based on an estimated 30 million total subscribers, that works out to roughly 1.2 million people who currently stream often enough to trigger additional payments under the new system.
How many Game Pass members use streaming at all remains unclear. In 2022, Microsoft highlighted milestones as its service passed 10 million and then 20 million users, figures that likely included many who tried it once. Last year, the company reported that Xbox Cloud Gaming usage had risen 45 percent year over year and that it had streamed 500 million hours of games during the 2025 fiscal year.
Microsoft framed the decision as a matter of sustainability, stating that the cost of providing cloud gaming grows as more people use it and play for longer, and that monthly limits allow it to keep offering the service while investing in reliability and performance. The new caps take effect in November.
Source
Image: arstechnica.com
