Xbox Cloud Gaming, the online service that allows gamers to play hundreds of console games on phones, tablets and other devices is reportedly down or inaccessible for many around the world. After users from different parts of the world complained that they were experiencing high queue times when trying to play a game, Microsoft acknowledged the issue via its official Xbox Support, saying that users "may be experiencing issues launching Cloud Gaming titles." The tech giant also asked users to keep an eye out for updates on the official Xbox Status page, which says that the outage started on December 27 12:12 AM. The page also suggests that a resolution is still "pending", so it is still unclear how long the service outage will last. Users may see an incorrectly high wait time when attempting to launch a cloud gaming title. Our teams expect that users will be able to connect faster than the elevated time shown. — Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) December 27, 2024 When launching a game, users say that the queue page does show up, but with a wait time of anywhere between a few minutes to a couple of hours. For those wondering, there is hardly any queue time on normal days, and when there is one, it's usually a few minutes. According to user reports on Twitter and Reddit, people said they were unable to launch games on the service irrespective of the device. As it turns out, the problem to be affecting everyone globally. In the last few months, Microsoft has been aggressively pushing Xbox Cloud Gaming as an alternative to consoles, adding three new Call of Duty titles to the service, but the recent outage may remind some that these online services are not that reliable after all.
