Xbox Cloud Streaming Outage Lasts 24 Hours, Microsoft Confirms

On December 26, Microsoft confirmed that there were issues with its Game Pass cloud streaming platform, leading to complaints of long wait times and disconnections from players. The outage, which started around 12:00 p.m. ET, affected Game Pass Ultimate subscribers who could play a variety of games across different devices like phones, tablets, and TVs. As of 4:30 p.m. ET today, Xbox has yet to provide a timeline for when the streaming service will be fully restored.

Xbox support acknowledged the problem about an hour after it began and directed users to the official Xbox status page for updates. However, the situation hasn’t improved much since then. A follow-up post on December 27 at 10 a.m. ET stated that users might see inaccurate wait times when trying to launch a game on the cloud. Nevertheless, based on user comments, many people are still unable to connect and play games on their devices.

As of 3:30 p.m. ET, the Xbox support page mentions that they are close to resolving the issue. It’s likely that the problem will be fixed in a few hours after this post is live. This outage comes at an inconvenient time given Xbox’s recent marketing push, suggesting that everything connected to the internet is essentially an Xbox. This season, many kids and teens may have received Game Pass subscriptions, thinking they could just stream games without the need for a console.

However, this incident serves as a reminder that while you can stream games on your phone, it’s not the same as playing on an actual Xbox. An Xbox can function offline and play games without an internet connection, unlike phones. Perhaps, there should be more clarity in the ads promoting Xbox on every device.