Xbox Cloud Gaming to impose monthly playtime caps with add-on hours

Microsoft will start restricting Xbox Cloud Gaming with monthly hour caps starting in November: Essential tier gives 5 hours, Premium 10 hours, and Ultimate 15 hours per month (Ultimate supports up to 1440p). After included hours are used, players can buy more cloud time through the Xbox Store; pricing and availability will be announced in November. Importantly, you won’t need a Game Pass subscription to access cloud hours, and Microsoft says the change aims to balance costs with reliability, affecting about 4% of subscribers.