On December 26, Microsoft confirmed that its Game Pass cloud streaming platform was not working as expected. More than 24 hours later, many players are still complaining about long waits and disconnections. This outage comes at a time when Microsoft is pushing a novel marketing slogan that claims that everything connected to the Internet is… Xbox.
As reported EngadgetStarting around 12 a.m. ET on Thursday, users began complaining about long waits and disconnections when trying to play games via the Xbox cloud streaming service. This option is available to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers and allows them to play a enormous library of games on multiple devices, including tablets, phones and TVs. However, as of 4:30 PM ET today, Xbox doesn’t seem to have a timetable for when streaming will be available to everyone again.
On December 26, about an hour after the outage began, Xbox Support tweeted that the company was “aware” that “users may have issues running Cloud Gaming titles.” The account asked people to check for updates on the official Xbox status page. The situation has not improved much since then.
December 27 at 10 a.m. ESTthe company posted another announcement stating that users may see long wait times when launching a cloud game, but this wait time is not correct. However, checking the comments below the post and elsewhere, it still seems like people can’t even connect and play games on their phones or other devices. As of 3:30 p.m. ET, the following message appears on the Xbox Support website: “We are close to solving the problem.”
I expect this issue to be resolved, probably a few hours after this post (or sooner). But the timing couldn’t have been worse.
During the holiday season, Xbox really pushed the idea of using cloud streaming options can replace the console. You don’t need an Xbox console if you’re a Game Pass subscriber with a phone or intelligent TV. You can simply stream all these games instantly. As a result, I imagine that during the holiday season, many children and teenagers turn to Game Pass to be able to do this Stream games without your parents having to buy an exorbitant Xbox.
Many people are likely using cloud streaming for the first time this holiday season and, well, this outage is a very stark reminder that while you can stream games on your phone, it’s not an Xbox. The Xbox console can work without an Internet connection and play games offline. The phone can’t. Maybe Xbox should make this more clear with all those cute ads promoting every device as an Xbox?
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