This Fortnite update could be a huge knockback for Xbox Cloud Gaming
Having Fortnite on Xbox Cloud Gaming may be overlooked to most players, but accessing Epic Games’ multiplayer goliath without a console has certainly kept me entertained in a pinch. Although you’re at the mercy of your connection, as long as you’ve got an active Xbox Game Pass membership, playing Fortnite for hours has never been an issue. However, a recent discovery by Better xCloud creator ‘redphx’ could be troublesome for hefty sessions.
Addressing the potential Fortnite issue in a fresh post on X, it appears that Xbox could restrict the battle royale game with a time limit imposed on “free tier” players. Typically, there’s a virtually endless duration to play FPS games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 or Machine Games’ excellent Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. However, there’s still the possibility that this could affect Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription holders.
Microsoft Gaming has yet to confirm whether it will implement this change to the flagship subscription service. Within the datamined screenshot from redphx, a feature set to seemingly upsell incentives to players expresses the intent to give “priority queue access” while noting the “minutes of free play time per session.” At the time of publication, the change doesn’t appear to affect Fortnite, or any other titles for that matter.
Should it be implemented, it would mean that streaming traffic and queues for Xbox Cloud Gaming could be improved to some degree, possibly selecting those with a higher tier membership to gain precedence over free users.
Fortnite joined Xbox Cloud Gaming in May 2022, marking the first free-to-play game to do so. All players need is an Xbox account, with no subscription required for Xbox Game Pass. After the game was delisted from the App Store, streaming it through Xbox Cloud Gaming became an efficient way of playing the game on iOS devices.
With the launch of the Epic Games Store on mobile last year, the game finally returned to iPhone and iPad devices. Alongside an unexpected crossover with rapper T-Pain, Fortnite recently launched Chapter 6, Season 2, bringing all-new POIs, weapons, and more to the game’s crime-themed update.
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