r/gaming • u/Force_Hammer • 17h ago

Microsoft to impose time limits on Xbox cloud gaming subscribers as costs continue to climb

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/03/microsoft-xbox-game-pass-cloud-limits.html
11.2k Upvotes

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409

u/Uchihagod53 PlayStation 17h ago

Fucks over the few people that use the cloud gaming

140

u/PromiscuousScoliosis PC 17h ago

Stadia all over again

48

u/ExtensionParsley4205 17h ago

At least Stadia didn't have monthly limits

74

u/Florgio 17h ago

… they also no longer exist. Probably because their bean counters realized this.

10

u/lavapig_love 16h ago

No game service will exist with these limits.

4

u/SuperSocialMan PC 16h ago

Nah, it's because literally no body used stadia lmao.

And we all knew it was dead on arrival cuz Google made it, and anything they make outside of the core suite never lives for long.

2

u/Ok_Security1721 4h ago

Ironically if more people used stadia it would’ve been even worse for them. Cloud gaming is expensive as fuck for a company to run, and that cost only goes up the more people use it and the longer they use it.

It’s not like a thousand people downloading a 20 GB game from their data center once and playing it for 100 hours, it’s a thousand people playing for 100 hours while the data center streams each person 10GB per hour of play.

It’s a bad business model for a subscription and an even WORSE business model for one time purchases like Stadia was doing. 

God damn the stadia was so stupid. 

1

u/JediBurrell 9h ago

Yeah but we received refunds.

1

u/MrTastix 1h ago

Stadia's business model was doomed to fail. It had no market and Google had no way to make one.

Stadia was basically designed for people who are interested in playing AAA titles, have high-speed fibre internet, but are then somehow casual enough to not own a modern console whatso-fucking-ever.

Then Google had the audacity to charge a lump sum for both the console AND the right to play any worthwhile game, which at that point you're just gonna ask yourself why not just buy a fucking regular ol' PS4/5 and be done with it?

But nope, it got worse! Because now you're reliant on them having actual servers near you. Which you'd think wouldn't be a problem for motherfucking Google but you'd be wrong because fuck you.

Stadia existed as an exercise in suffering. A masochistic example of how much stupidity Google could inflict upon itself. If I wasn't already convinced of Google's basic ineptitude given their historic string of failures I'd be almost convinced the whole thing was a deliberate psyop to fuck with the company from the inside.

0

u/JuanRunJunior 14h ago

It’s because google is a trash company outside Gmail, Android and YouTube. Search is dogshit riddled with AI and paid listings. Everything else they do they start a service and then disappear like it never existed. They are the worst example of profitability on something like this because it was half assed and they walked away from it. You can’t do something at the least level of effort and then say “well no one wants it” and be taken seriously. It’s like making undercooked food and blaming customers for not wanting to eat at your restaurant. The same is true here. The value proposition is shit so it’ll have price hikes and then die. Not because it’s unsustainable, but because they’re not actually doing a good job in what they provide. Unlimited usage at $20 a month would be a steal.

1

u/SeroWriter 16h ago

Stadia made you pay for the games on top of the monthly subscription. And there was no way to play games you already owned you'd have to buy them again and the version you bought was Stadia exclusive.

3

u/ExtensionParsley4205 15h ago

tbf the monthly subscription was optional, you didn't need it to play games you purchased on the Stadia store. If I recall it gave you a stream quality boost and a monthly selection of free games. but yeah there was no way to bring your own games like with GeForce Now.

1

u/adepssimius 13h ago

But the ease of use was next level. It truly was like having every device you owned just being your console. None of the login/waiting stuff you get on GeForce now and you could switch between phone/TV/computer seamlessly.

If cloud gaming has a service problem, stadia had solved it for me.

1

u/EnkiiMuto 7h ago

Stadia also refunded people for their purchased games iirc.

15

u/Wolfram_And_Hart 17h ago

In 5 years that’s all Xbox and probably Sony are going to offer if hardware prices keep going up.

2

u/RockinMadRiot 16h ago

Sonys already offering it but it's premium alone. I think that's where Microsoft messed up, they are offering it to all rather than just offering it free to ultimate.

I understand people are happy about the disk to digital stuff but not enough are questioning what the company will look like when it's goes digital and what's expected to come.

7

u/True_to_you 17h ago

Only thing I use it for is cloud gaming for a few games that aren't available on PC. This sucks because I put in time. 

5

u/comdude2 16h ago

My mobile plan comes with game pass ultimate for free for another 3 years, and I don’t own a console anymore (PC mainly). Losing the ability to play more than 15 hours a month with my partner is going to suck. I’m not going to be paying for the extra hours, I really hope they change their mind / change the usage. 15 hours a month is a joke

-2

u/Melancholic_Noodle 15h ago

Free? Lol. What a joke.

You're paying for it man, ain't no such things as a free lunch. And no you don't need the "super deluxe pro Super tits ultimate" phone plan at $199 per month to get "free game pass".

You need a basic ass phone plan that's $10 and just works. And use the money you save to buy a phone you actually want. And spend the rest on games. You're welcome

2

u/MyGuitarGentlyBleeps 13h ago

Some dollar store George Carlin shit 😂

1

u/comdude2 4h ago

Wow… lots to unpack there…

Firstly, I think it’s for me to decide what I need, not you.

Secondly, I already have the phone I want. I am frugal with phones in that I’ll buy a decent model and then keep it until it’s not really fit for purpose anymore. 8 years on the last phone and 3 years on this one. I own the phone so considering you’re trying to tell me that a selectable “free” perk is a scam and I should buy a worse tariff to get a new phone…?!?! Have you seen the price of phones nowadays???

Thirdly, I’m not from the US so $199 a month on a phone contract is an absolutely absurd idea to me. I pay £33 a month for unlimited calls, texts, and data with no reprioritisation during busy times etc. I live out in the sticks so the strong signal everywhere and the fact I can use my mobile data to work from home etc if the internet goes out or I’m away is the reason I’ve gone for that plan. At the time, there wasn’t a better deal for the conditions I wanted.

Lastly, you could have phrased that whole thing differently and just come across as giving advice. However, you chose to assume a bunch of things about me, my choices, etc, and you were wrong. Don’t tell people what to do.

2

u/CottonActualII 12h ago edited 12h ago

Yeah, all three of them are going to be annoyed!

2

u/bigred83 11h ago

It was pretty convenient to play on my phone since I sold my Xbox. RIP

2

u/zooble_57 5h ago

I use cloud gaming A LOT on my Xbox One. This fucking sucks ass.

5

u/Admirable_Zombie5245 16h ago edited 16h ago

Cloud is pretty amazing, I use GeForce Now and with the Ultimate tier I get access to a 5080 and 4K/120HZ Gameplay on my OLED TV. Looks native and get access to Ultra RTX 4K gameplay

I was surprised, I'm recently back to cloud gaming after 5+ years

2

u/OUTFOXEM 14h ago

What games do you play on it?

1

u/876oy8 9h ago

cloud gaming is one of those things that everyone defaults to hating and obviously I understand why, but I was abroad for a month and 100 hours of geforce now for 9,99 was a bit of a godsend

played high end games better on a crappy work thinkpad than my desktop could and never noticed issues with latency or something. with what it costs to update my desktop PC I could buy 10 years of geforce now, and it plays games off my steam account like any other device so its not like im renting the games or something 

i had such a bad impression of these systems due to gamer talk and it was honestly a bit insane. 

3

u/BRAINDAWG101 17h ago

I used it for a few hours but GeForce Now had so much higher quality that there's really no comparison