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Xbox wants you to pay 24 to 40 cents per hour to stream games you bought
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Xbox is testing a new way to pay for streaming. Players can buy hours of cloud play, even for games they already own. The price is about 24 to 40 cents per hour.
What happened
Microsoft started selling Xbox Cloud Playtime packs to Xbox Insiders, a group of testers. Before this, streaming was mostly included with the Game Pass subscription. Now, people who do not subscribe can buy playtime and stream games they own on supported devices.
Key numbers
- 10 hours cost $4, about $0.40 per hour.
- 25 hours cost $8, about $0.32 per hour.
- 50 hours cost $12, about $0.24 per hour.
- Purchased playtime does not expire until it is used.
- Insiders can also stream games for free with ads, but with longer waits and lower quality.
Why the price is tricky
Cloud streaming means the game runs on Microsoft's computers and you watch it on your device. These packs cost extra on top of the game you already bought. A Game Pass subscription, by contrast, includes some streaming hours in its monthly price. Older services, like Sony's PlayStation Now, also charged for streaming, and Google's Stadia shut down in 2022.
Why it matters
Paying for each hour can feel unfair when you already bought the game. The story asks whether many people will want to pay for streaming on its own. The answer will show whether cloud gaming can work outside of a subscription.
What to watch
- Whether these introductory prices stay the same after the test.
- Whether non-subscribers buy many playtime packs.
- How well the ad-supported free streaming works for players.
- Whether more game companies offer pay-per-hour streaming.
Glossary
- Xbox Insiders
- A group of people who test new Xbox features before they are released to everyone.
- Game Pass
- A Microsoft subscription that gives players access to a large library of games for a monthly fee.
- Cloud Playtime
- Hours of game streaming that players can buy one pack at a time, instead of through a subscription.
- Cloud streaming
- Playing a game that runs on a remote server, so the game is streamed to your device over the internet.
- PlayStation Now
- Sony's earlier game streaming service that let players rent or subscribe to play games over the internet.
- Stadia
- Google's game streaming service, which shut down in 2022.