Microsoft opens up Xbox Cloud Gaming with new pay-as-you-go option

Sep 04, 2026 12:00 AM - 1 hour ago 1

Tom Warren

is a elder analogous and writer of Notepad, who has been covering each things Microsoft, PC, and tech for complete 20 years.

Microsoft says it will fto anyone entree Xbox Cloud Gaming successful November, without the request to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass. The alteration to a pay-as-you-go exemplary is portion of immoderate sweeping changes to Xbox Cloud Gaming today, and is designed for group who don’t usage unreality entree capable to warrant a monthly subscription.

“Players will beryllium capable to acquisition unreality playtime hours done the Xbox Store and watercourse eligible games they ain connected supported devices,” says the Xbox team. “This will supply different action for group who want occasional entree to unreality gaming aliases do not want a recurring Game Pass subscription.”

This pay-as-you-go exemplary comes alongside immoderate awesome limits connected unreality gaming for Game Pass subscribers. Microsoft is imposing monthly hr limits, pinch Ultimate subscribers constricted to conscionable 15 hours each month. This could unit galore Game Pass subscribers to salary for hourly bundles, aliases usage unreality gaming less.

The pay-as-you-go action seems to beryllium targeted much astatine gamers who don’t ain an Xbox, aliases those who chiefly play from a phone. Microsoft is besides testing free, ad-supported unreality gaming for Xbox Insiders, which could besides thief unfastened unreality gaming entree to much group without an Xbox.

Microsoft has been trying to pull much players to its Xbox ecosystem done unreality and mobile for years now. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has moreover group an eager and nearly intolerable goal to make Xbox “one of the fewer companies that entertains much than a cardinal group each day.”

Microsoft antecedently tried to motorboat an Xbox mobile store, pinch the purpose of allowing group to acquisition an Xbox crippled and past instantly watercourse it to their device. The institution started rolling retired the expertise to acquisition games and DLC inside its Xbox mobile app past year, but it had to region the distant play action to adhere to Apple’s App Store policies. You still can’t bargain an Xbox crippled successful the Xbox mobile app connected iOS and past watercourse it wrong that aforesaid app. Apple’s policies unit group to manually navigate to the Xbox Cloud Gaming mobile website connected a browser to get entree to unreality gaming.

Microsoft blamed the delay to its Xbox mobile shop connected Apple past year, and besides said successful 2024 that it had built an Xbox crippled shop for Android that it couldn’t launch owed to Google’s shop policies. Microsoft has continued to conflict legally to effort and unfastened up Apple and Google’s stores, and Xbox main Asha Sharma said earlier this year that the “idea” of an Xbox mobile shop “is not dead.”

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