Microsoft is reportedly testing a new tier of free Xbox Cloud Gaming that allows people to stream select titles they own, Xbox Retro Games, or are currently in the Free Play Days state, which lasts over a chosen weekend. You’ll be able to access it through the PC app, console, mobile, or web browser.
This report comes from Tom Warren at The Verge, who states that this free form of Xbox Cloud Gaming requires users to watch approximately two minutes of pre-roll ads before they can start playing. While there is no word of more ads being shown as you play, the current model includes a limit of playing up to an hour during a session, with a five-hour limit for the entire month, though those limits may change.
Warren says that the ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming will soon be put into a public test beta, with full launch happening in the months ahead.
Is Free Xbox Cloud Gaming with Ads Worth It?
With the recently announced Xbox Game Pass changes, Cloud Gaming has finally graduated from its beta state that it was in over the last six years. With that, it is now available in the two lower tiers of Game Pass, now named Essential and Premium, though both experiences are slower and have lower performance standards than what Ultimate subscribers get.
While it is hard to say that allowing a user to access something for “free” isn’t worth it, at the end of the day, we are talking about being forced to watch an ad-roll for games you already own. Yes, you can’t normally stream them from any device without a Game Pass subscription, but it sets a weird precedent going forward, which is too commonly said in gaming nowadays. There is a path going forward where Microsoft could try to push more ads in your normal gaming experience, with this just being the first step.
