Xbox Cloud Gaming now has a free ad-supported version that’s rolling out as part of Microsoft’s bigger push to bring more ads to Xbox. Jonathan Stringfield, who worked on Activision’s advertising push and is now doing some of the same work in his title as GM for Xbox Media Solutions, said in an interview that people shouldn’t see this as a move by Xbox to cram ads into all of its games.
“There is zero world where there is intention–written, explicit, implicit, or otherwise–that ads will be an option in all games. It might not even be the case on all features of the console, et cetera,” he told GamesBeat. “Where we want to have these integrated is places where it makes sense–where it can actually provide value in a positive way. Even if that means the total reach that we can have is going to be perhaps smaller than if we brute-forced it, that’s okay.”
Stringfield went on to point out how the gaming industry today is at a crossroads if the existing model is to survive. Many are saying it won’t, or shouldn’t, but Stringfield said if it does, then companies either need to “dramatically increase the price of games” or “find other mechanisms” that allow companies to make more money and keep the business healthy.
Stringfield, whose job is to help sell ads, said ads could be a way forward.
“When we talk about advertising–and things that are adjacent to it that amount to recurrent revenue, whether it’s subscriptions or otherwise–what this allows for is an alternative,” he said.
Xbox chief strategy officer, Matthew Ball, previously said Xbox’s intention was not to “cram ads in everything.”
“Ads should be used to offer more affordable alternatives alongside today’s ad-free experiences, in the hopes more could play as a result. Similar to how Netflix and Disney+ have ad tiers with all the same content, but at half the price or so,” he said. “At no point do I even mention in-game ads. I personally believe interrupting the gameplay experience would be bad.”
For Xbox Cloud Gaming, users can now stream their own games for free with ad-supported cloud gaming. Alternatively, people can purchase ad-free cloud playtime, or they can subscribe to Xbox Game Pass to get more time. However, starting this month, Xbox is putting hourly caps on how much people can stream before requiring them to pay more.
The ads on Xbox Cloud Gaming come in the form of pre-roll ads that people watch before getting into a game; they don’t interrupt gameplay, however.
Video game prices have remained largely flat over the years, and this is part of the problem, some experts have said. Without price increases, the math just doesn’t math when development costs and other expenses are factored in. For his part, Stringfield said price increases for games would not be “terribly popular,” so he’s looking at other systems, namely ads, to fill the gap.
The biggest game of 2026, Rockstar’s GTA 6, costs $80 for its standard edition, scaling up to $100 for the Ultimate Edition and $400 for a collector’s edition (which doesn’t include the game). For comparison, GTA 5 launched in 2013 at $60–that same $60 is worth about $86 today after inflation. This is why Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes GTA 6 is a true bargain–it’s “cheaper” than GTA 5 was some 13 years ago, he says.
But GTA 6 isn’t the first game to charge $80–Nintendo ushered in this new era in 2025 with Mario Kart World.
People like former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden have said for years that companies refusing to raise prices was actually detrimental and has caused numerous systemic problems, contributing to the situation the industry finds itself in. Layden said the price of new games ought to have gone up $10 for each new console generation, and when that didn’t happen, companies made efforts to extract more money from people with things like microtransactions, battle passes, and subscriptions.
One Bank of America analyst believes the rest of the industry should follow Rockstar and start charging $80 for games. If more companies raise prices to $80 like Rockstar is doing with GTA 6, that doesn’t mean developers will stop hawking things like microtransactions, DLC, and battle passes. Instead, these efforts to increase ARPU will likely continue in concert with price hikes because why would a company cut off, or scale back, a revenue stream?
