[STEAM] Reports of ad-supported Xbox game streams show Microsoft's lack of imagination

[Steam 0]

Currently,

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's

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Cloud Gaming service is limited to players that have a

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. Now, new reporting suggests

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is planning to offer non-subscribers access to game streams paid for by advertising in the near future, but only in extremely limited circumstances.

The latest wave of rumors was set off late last week when The Verge's Tom Warren

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with a message mentioning "1 hour of ad supported playtime per session." That leaked message comes after

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that

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has been "exploring video ads for free games for quite some time," à la

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.

Don't get your hopes up for easy, free, ad-supported access to the entire Xbox Cloud Gaming library, though. Windows Central

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that

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will be using ads merely to slightly expand access to

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. That program currently offers subscribers to the Xbox Game Pass Essentials tier (or higher) the privilege of streaming versions of some of the Xbox games they've already purchased digitally. Windows Central's unnamed sources suggest a "session-based ad-supported access tier" to stream those purchased games will be offered to non-subscribers as soon as "this year."

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