There is some Xbox weirdness going on today after a report on Tuesday from Tom Warren at The Verge that Microsoft would have exclusive game streaming rights to Grand Theft Auto 6. That open up a lot of questions, including the possibility that GTA 6 could technically come to PC via streaming, but Microsoft stepped in to clarify this pretty quickly. Though “clarify” is used loosely here.

Xbox’s Matthew Ball issued a statement that caused Warren to issue a correction. It reads:

“While the excitement for GTA VI and XBOX is great to see, it has also led to some misreporting. We are looking forward to launching GTA VI on XBOX November 19, though the game will not be streaming exclusively or to PC.”

I have reached out to Xbox to try and further clarify what he’s saying here, but what appears to be the case is:

  • The report that GTA 6 game streaming is exclusive to Xbox is wrong; it will be available to stream on other services as well.
  • GTA 6 will not be streamable on PC at all, dashing hopes of a workaround, as players will be forced to wait for the official PC release.

Either way, the fact that GTA 6 is (probably?) still streaming on Xbox raises questions about how this will work with the new cloud streaming time limits that Xbox is rolling out that same month in November. The new “free” caps are:

  • Game Pass Ultimate: 15 hours of cloud gaming
  • Game Pass Premium: 10 hours of cloud gaming
  • Game Pass Essential: 5 hours of cloud gaming

Microsoft has said additional hours can be purchased separately, but for a game like GTA 6 , we’d be talking what, 50, 60, 80 hours in a month for some players? So it doesn’t seem viable to try and purely stream the game as opposed to playing it normally on an Xbox console. The caps were criticized when they were first announced, and the cost-cutting measure may dampen the idea of the service growing to be a larger part of the market with low caps and à la carte time purchases.

It seemed to be good news when the report came in about Xbox exclusivity, but if none of that is true, then we’re back to Rockstar and Sony doing their “best place to play” GTA 6 campaign, which highlights the PS5 Pro as the most powerful console out right now. A console that is sold out almost everywhere that GameStop is now selling for $1,300-$1,400 used. This is the hardware market we’re in.

Again, I am trying to get more clarity on whatever Ball was saying, and I will update when I hear back.

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