Microsoft’s Big Bet: Free Xbox Cloud Gaming with Ads Incoming – What It Means
Behind the Decision: Microsoft quietly signaled this strategy earlier in 2024–25, and now sources say it’s official. The New York Times reports a Microsoft official confirmed internal tests of a free, ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming program gamespot.com dailytimes.com.pk. Tom Warren at The Verge notes that Microsoft Gaming CFO Tim Stuart hinted at a free tier nearly two years ago, and the company has been clear it wants to make cloud gaming more “affordable” and “accessible” theverge.com. Indeed, Xbox executive Jason Ronald recently said a lower-cost cloud plan “opens up the opportunity to make it much more affordable, and make it