“I want to play video games, but I don’t have the expensive hardware to play them.”
That’s the problem that services like Game Pass and GeForce Now solve, albeit with yet another subscription that many of us are tired of paying. Microsoft’s solution to the solution is now out in an Xbox Insider preview. It’s called “Cloud Playtime,” allowing you to pay a flat fee for set streaming hours outside of Game Pass.
This could be a little confusing, so let me lay it out for you. You might want to pay for Cloud Playtime under the following conditions:
- You don’t currently subscribe to Game Pass, and
- You don’t have an Xbox or gaming PC, or you want to stream games to another device, and
- You own the game you want to play, either on Xbox or PC through the Microsoft Store, and
- The specific game you want to play is on the list of supported titles (generally, available on Game Pass)
That’s a very narrow set of circumstances. But for those people, I don’t think this is a bad deal. You pay by the hour: $4 for 10 hours, $8 for 25 hours, $12 for 50 hours. The hours you buy don’t expire, you play on any qualifying game until your time runs out, even if it’s months later. If you’re only interested in one or two games and you don’t want to pay $15-23 for a month of the full Game Pass lineup, it makes sense.
I’ve seen some users bemoan this as “paying to play the games you already own.” Which is true, if you’re comparing it to the Netflix-style, all-you-can-eat setup of Game Pass. But you’re also paying to play those games on Microsoft’s cloud hardware, and stream it. If you were playing it locally you’d still be paying for the electricity on your PC or console. We’re back to an arcade sort of setup… and you’d be hard-pressed to find any arcade that would let you play a game for an entire workday for just ten bucks.
Since the cheapest Xbox console on store shelves right now costs $500 USD, the option to play through Halo: Campaign Evolved for less than the price of a combo meal isn’t without a certain draw. Of course there’s a reason the consoles cost so much, and a big part of that is Microsoft’s own doing. But that’s another rant entirely. With the component prices of the next-gen, tentatively-titled Xbox Helix rumored at $1,200-1,800, something tells me this setup could suddenly appeal to a lot of gamers.
Given the cavalcade of crappy choices open to consumers at the moment, paying by the hour for streaming games isn’t the worst option. Right now it’s available to Xbox Insiders, who can also try it for free with advertising. There’s no word on when or if that’ll make it out of the testing phase.