Meta announced it’s partnering with Microsoft to bring a “starter edition” of its cloud-based XBOX Game Pass to Horizon+, Meta’s own VR game subscription service. In the coming weeks, Meta also says it’s pushing out Xbox gamepad emulation for Quest’s Touch controllers too.
The News
The new Xbox Game Pass addition brings a library of 50+ non-VR games to Horizon+, allowing users to play titles such as Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Overcooked 2, Grounded, DayZ, Deep Rock Galactic and more. That essentially adds 50 percent more games to the service’s current library of 100+ VR titles.
There is a caveat. The new “starter” version bundled with Horizon+ only brings 10 hours of cloud gaming each month, albeit still priced at the regular $60 annual, or $8 per-month subscription fee. You can however download games to an Xbox console or Windows PC and stream to Quest without limit.
Notably, like the Xbox Game Pass integration first released on Quest in 2023, these cloud-based Xbox games aren’t in any way ‘VR-fied’, as they play on a flat virtual screen, which can be sized from theater-size up to 26 feet.
What’s more, Meta says it’s also finally bringing Xbox gamepad emulation to Quest Touch controllers, as before users would need to pair a newer Xbox gamepad to Quest via Bluetooth. Meta says it’s rolling out the update “in the coming weeks.”
In the meantime, you can learn more about Xbox Game Pass availability and pricing for your area here, and about Horizon+ availability and pricing here.
My Take
Valve is set to release Steam Frame, which puts a heavy focus on playing both traditional games locally and streamed from a capable PC, so it’s pretty clear what Meta’s game is with the new Xbox cloud streaming add-on to Horizon+.
And even though Meta isn’t funding VR games nearly at the same rate since announcing it was pivoting Reality Labs to focus more on smart glasses and AI, adding in “free” cloud gaming each month is a pretty cheap way for the company to maintain some feature parity with Steam Frame while slowing whatever market share it may lose in the process.
Still, the biggest differentiator is that Meta and Microsoft are only offering a taster of Xbox cloud games on Quest, as it’s limited to 10 cloud hours per month unless you buy the full Xbox Game Pass, which at the $10 tier (separate from Horizon+) allows for standard unlimited cloud streaming.
If you’re looking to casually dip into traditional games, it’s a clear value add any way you slice it, although it’s pretty clear the funnel is to get you outright purchase an additional Xbox Game Pass once those short 10 hours are up—unless you’re willing to stream from a computer or Xbox console. That, to me, is where the value add stops making so much sense.
Unlike Steam Frame, which will admittedly cost way more than a Quest 3 or 3S, you can’t download those flatscreen games on Quest directly and play them offline. And once you stop paying for either service, provided you want to exclusively cloud game on Quest, you’ll lose access to some portion of your subscription game catalogue in the process. Whatever the case, Horizon+ subscribers should be pretty happy they can play something new, that’s for sure.
