Xbox Cloud Playtime Lets Insiders Buy Streaming Hours—but You Still Need to Own the Game
Microsoft is testing a new pay-as-you-go option for Xbox Cloud Gaming. Xbox Insiders can now purchase Xbox Cloud Playtime hours through the Xbox Store and use them to stream eligible games they own on supported devices.
The move follows Microsoft’s decision to significantly reduce the game-streaming access available to Game Pass subscribers in September. The company previously said that non-subscribers would soon be able to buy cloud playtime for games they already own.
In its announcement, Microsoft listed the following introductory prices:
- 10 hours: $4, or about $0.40 per hour
- 25 hours: $8, or about $0.32 per hour
- 50 hours: $12, or about $0.24 per hour
Purchased Cloud Playtime remains available until it is used, Microsoft says. That means players do not have to worry about their purchased hours expiring before they can use them.
Xbox Cloud Playtime charges you after you buy the game
The pay-per-hour model brings to mind classic arcades, where players paid a quarter or two for a few minutes of gameplay. However, modern game streaming has generally favored subscription services or one-time purchases that allow players to access games at home.
At $0.24 per hour for the largest pack, Xbox Cloud Playtime may not seem unreasonable at first. The catch is that the streaming fee comes on top of the price of the game itself.
Unlike an Xbox Game Pass subscription, which includes monthly cloud-streaming access to hundreds of games as part of the subscription price, these Cloud Playtime packs require players to purchase cloud-playable games. For some games, Microsoft says, free-to-play access is sufficient.
In other words, players may have to buy the game first and then continue paying for the time they spend streaming it.
The arcade pricing worked in part because players did not have to buy the game in advance. That is not the case with a la carte Xbox cloud streaming.
Credit: Getty Images
How Xbox Cloud Playtime compares with Stadia
Microsoft’s pay-as-you-go Cloud Playtime model differs from Google’s failed Stadia experiment. Stadia offered unlimited streaming across devices for games purchased through the platform.
However, Stadia purchases did not allow players to download those games for local play on a PC or console. The value proposition changed further when Google shut down Stadia in 2022, making those purchases unplayable, although Google offered full refunds for Stadia purchases at the time.
For now, Microsoft’s Cloud Playtime pricing is available only as a test for Xbox Insiders. Its long-term availability and pricing have not been established.
Source: arstechnica.com