According to a recent report from The Verge, Xbox Cloud Gaming is to have a free ad-supported version of the service. In testing internally, the service will permit one-hour game sessions of five hours free per month, posing a great change with serverware currently eating into the prospect of purchase later.
What does this mean for the regular candidate, though? Well, one would definitely be using cloud gaming without a subscription to PlayStation Game Pass Ultimate. Now it seems Microsoft is trying to test a method of playing for free anyway… with a few catches: The ads. The ad-supported version is alleged to be streaming some games from the current user in their possession, games eligible from Free Play Days, and then a handful of Xbox Retro Classics. We are told that ads shall last approximately two minutes before the commencement of said game session.
Of course, the community has been… sort of polarized with some players being damned mad while others see this as an avenue to do a platform for all. Diamond In The Rough commented without hesitation: “THIS IS SHIT!!!” E_Manny, just about halfway, observed, “This was something that was behind a pay wall that can be used for free now.”
Beyond doubt, an ill-against-will started to bloom. SummNoB0dy somewhat with dread: “it’s probably gonna be low quality, low speed, etc. unless you pay out the nose.” DEXSTR99, with even louder words, flat-out said: “nobody wants cloud gaming, its ass and with ads its superass.”
It was particularly nicely timed, just following the price hike for Xbox Game Pass. User Combo had to say, though: “Sucks that the price hike will ruin what should be a really cool announcement.” So it’s almost like they’re trying to balance out the expensive with some accessible ones – though an open question remains: how well is that going to work?
Some gamers have seen through the whole thing. There’s an interesting insight here from Jourden Reid: “This is Microsoft seeing that Gen Z isn’t buying games, so they need to expand their audience to third-world people who can only afford a phone. We’re not the target audience anymore.” This would really make a whole lot of sense if one would really take it down this road: lower investment barrier is because you don’t have to carry expensive hardware for cloud gaming!
The very idea of showing ads during a game session has pretty much been raising eyebrows. User Ray Oid joked what that might actually look like, suggesting ads “before fighting a boss” followed by a hilarious GIF. Meanwhile, Odder Commentary shared an interesting historical perspective: “This is everything Steam was fighting against: forced ads within gaming.”
And the practical implication. Weird does sound the one-hour session limitation. This might have been an excellent way to squeeze casual games in-between lunch breaks and waiting times; however, for competitive games, it might just add on to more frustration. Picture yourself in a Warzone match, and suddenly your timer goes off. User Matt really nailed that feeling:
