Microsoft woke up today and decided your "unlimited" cloud gaming isn't. Starting this month, Xbox Cloud Gaming gets a 15-hour monthly cap for Game Pass subscribers — and once you burn through it, you're buying extra hours through a new pay-as-you-go option. Yes, the service sold as "your whole console, anywhere" now comes with an odometer.
The dashboard now tracks your cloud hours like minutes on a 2005 family phone plan. Five hours left? Hope you spent them well.
Fifteen hours down, and the service starts rattling its cup: insert coin to continue. There's real money logic here — Microsoft says streaming costs keep climbing — but metering the thing they marketed as unlimited feels a lot like 2011 mobile data with better graphics.
The pay-as-you-go option also works standalone — no subscription, just rent your gaming by the hour. If that sounds like progress, I've got a data center in your basement to sell you.
Watch the full breakdown in the video above — under a minute, zero fluff.
Source: CNBC — Jordan Novet
