Xbox has landed a deal for the exclusive game streaming rights to Grand Theft Auto VI, according to a report published on October 6 by The Verge, which attributes the deal to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans.
The report says the arrangement would leave Xbox Cloud Gaming as the only service able to stream the game to players at launch. It adds that it is not clear how long the agreement runs.
Microsoft has announced nothing.
The report also says Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told employees at an all-hands on October 6 that Microsoft is getting ready to do something around the game that “no other platform holder is doing”.
She was speaking to staff rather than publicly, and in that account she named no deal and no service.
What the GTA 6 Xbox Cloud Gaming deal would mean at launch
Rockstar Games has not announced a PC version of Grand Theft Auto VI.
On the report’s account, that leaves streaming as the route to the game for PC players who would otherwise need an Xbox Series X|S or a PS5.
The report dates the streaming rights to November, which is when the cloud gaming changes Microsoft announced in September take effect.
It puts no price on the arrangement and no length on it, and it does not place the game in the Game Pass catalog.
The town hall itself is on the record. Matt Booty wrote on Xbox Wire on September 22 that “At our October 6 town hall, we will come together as an ALL-XBOX team to reflect on our progress and look ahead to one of the strongest game lineups in our history”.
That is as far as Microsoft has gone in public.
Xbox Game Pass cloud hours cap at 15 a month from November
The metering underneath all this is official and dated. Xbox Wire said on September 3 that “Beginning in November, we’re changing how cloud gaming is included with XBOX Game Pass”, with each plan getting a set number of hours.
The post lists 15 hours a month for Game Pass Ultimate, 10 for Game Pass Premium and five for Game Pass Essential. Eligible subscribers stream without a monthly limit until the change lands.
Microsoft’s own estimate is that it will “impact 4% of Game Pass subscribers”.
Once the included hours are gone, Xbox Wire says subscribers will be able to buy additional cloud playtime through the Xbox Store. Hours, purchasing options and features may vary by market.
How the pay-as-you-go cloud option works without Game Pass
From November, Xbox Wire says players will also be able to buy cloud playtime through the Xbox Store with no Game Pass subscription at all, and stream eligible games they own on supported devices.
Pricing, the list of eligible games, market availability and how players check their remaining time are all held back to November. The reason given is cost: “the cost of providing cloud gaming grows as more people use it and play for longer”.
Streaming can also give Xbox One owners access to eligible games built for Xbox Series X|S without an immediate hardware upgrade.
The alternative is new hardware, and Micron telling investors memory supply stays tight through 2028.
None of the caps are in force yet. They begin in November, which is also when Xbox Wire has promised the detail on what extra hours cost and which games can be streamed.
The exclusivity is a report, and Microsoft has put nothing on the record about it.
