r/gaming 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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3.1k

u/PromiscuousScoliosis PC 17h ago

15 hrs per what?? That can’t be per month right???

3.0k

u/JTalbotIV 17h ago

Oh it's per month. They really don't want xbox to succeed.

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u/OPMajoradidas 17h ago

Shitttt. That's like one days worth

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u/Jops817 17h ago

Yeah that's like, a Saturday free. That would stress me out making sure I am maximizing my time, better not idle at all, might even join the piss bottle meta over it because can't waste any time (jk, maybe).

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u/welzed11 16h ago

Wild that they have the audacity to limit it this much when their cloud gaming is worse then PlayStations. PS5 cloud gaming has 4k resolution which Xbox doesn’t, HDR which Xbox doesn’t, better image quality and less latency 

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u/TheWizardGeorge 16h ago

I mean honestly I pretty much never use it because of how much worse it is than both Playstation and GeForce now, despite having had(canceled earlier this year) game pass for so long.

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u/AdorableTuck 16h ago

I tried playing black ops zombies on pc last week end. I didnt want to make room on my HD so I tried it through the cloud. The blurriness during movement made it the worst experience. I've played POE2 and Destiny 2 on geforce now and they dont look that blurry.

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u/TheWizardGeorge 14h ago

Yeah, it was quite bad when I tried it. It's crazy because when I do GeForce now directly on my pc, you can't tell it's not being played native(have a 4090 build with 9850x3d) for any of the games that use the 5080. Granted, I do have fiber internet and my connection is wired, however it is VERY noticeably worse. Like, significantly worse bordering, on unplayable in comparison.

Then, when I try playing on my iPad it just feels like there is so much more latency. I genuinely thought it was maybe me or my network, so I even tried it on my cellular network and even my wifi at work. Same. Results with both my iPad and z fold 7.

The fact that it's so bad and it's limited to 15 hrs is insane. It's embarrassing, even, because it's like they're playing a telltale game or something and intentionally picking all the worst choices lol.

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u/Jops817 16h ago

Yeah I've used it to try out a few games I was curious about but not buy the game curious. It was good for that but has outgrown its usefulness.

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u/razo18 16h ago

Have they finally gotten around to adding the elusive rumble feature to cloud streaming? Mind you I haven't tried it in quite some time but it seems like such a simple feature to implement.

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u/TheWizardGeorge 14h ago

For xbox controllers, yeah. Not sure about others, but I imagine they do as well.

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u/Dazzling_Line_8482 11h ago

I thought the PS limits you to PS4?

Isn't that a problem? Or are most new games available for both 4 and 5?

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u/nostalgic_gamer95 13m ago

Xbox cloud gaming is really good on the steam deck though. What trash by Microsoft.

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u/tevert 16h ago

Gotta balance pissing against all those verification cans you have to drink

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u/Jops817 16h ago

Such is the struggle...

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u/Koolco 14h ago

Its so strange because other services don’t have caps on the total service, but do cap session times (geforce now has a cap of 8 hour sessions). It is wacky that they consider 4 hours a week the “premium” experience.

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u/Jops817 13h ago

Yeah, I work 4 days a week, and probably average an hour on workdays just as a decompress thing, so basically this means I cannot play when I actually have off. So dumb.

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u/MandoFett117 16h ago

The return of the poopsock!

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u/Ch33s3m4st3r 15h ago

Don’t worry, you can pay for extra hours :)
-Microsoft

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u/DEVIL_LOCK PC 16h ago

Yeah the jrpg crowd isn't gonna like this one.

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u/iccs 17h ago

Im not saying 15 hours per month isn’t a pittance, but in one day? Jesus

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u/Deathdy 17h ago

Why, what's wrong? 15 hours of gaming. 2 hours of sleep. 1 hour of bathroom stuff. And uuh. 5 hours of gooning. The final hour is contemplating your life.

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u/Driftysilver 16h ago

That sounds like a great Saturday to me. What's the problem?

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u/Solid_Wind_3234 16h ago

Not enough gooning obviously

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u/OblivionJunkie 16h ago

The gooning/contemplating can be redistributed as needed

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u/Solid_Wind_3234 16h ago

Oh phew, that makes things better then!

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u/urixl 15h ago

Gooning while contemplating, gotta be efficient dudes!

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u/Driftysilver 16h ago

Hahahahaha

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u/SuperSocialMan PC 16h ago

5 hours is crazy holy shit

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u/St0rmr3v3ng3 14h ago

People who say they have no time to hang out be like:

15 hours of gaming. 2 hours of sleep. 1 hour of bathroom stuff. And uuh. 5 hours of gooning. The final hour is contemplating your life.

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u/rbrgr83 14h ago

1 hour of bathroom stuff. And uuh. 5 hours of gooning.

6 hours of gooning, got it

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u/almostoy PC 16h ago

And that one hour is the catalyst that puts it all back into the aforementioned tail spin.

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u/FrankSand 16h ago

We found Jynxzis burner profile.

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u/sembias 14h ago

The final hour is contemplating your life.

You mean grinding fresh bud, right?

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u/highersense 16h ago

You definitely never played classic WoW

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u/stone_magnet1 16h ago

Me at 6am: is that the sun???

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u/HungryDiscoGaurdian 16h ago

Me on a Tuesday: shit the servers are going down again?

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u/Telekinendo 14h ago

Me playing Crusader Kings: I'll just finish this war. I'll just plot this guys assassination. I'll just redo some laws. I'll just- why the fuck do I hear birds, its only like 11.

Its 11AM?!

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u/_Ocean_Machine_ 14h ago

You think to yourself that you'll go to bed once you're done with that questline, and then you hear birds chirping out the window.

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u/iccs 16h ago

Only retail, but classic I could definitely see being played in my sleep 🤣

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u/tylerjehenna 14h ago

Or any elder scrolls game on launch day

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u/RetPala 12h ago

I clocked more than 24h once on a MUD during a holiday break

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u/siggydude 16h ago

If you get 8 hours of sleep, you get 16 hours of being awake. If someone turns on their console first thing in the morning and has it on all day, it's easy to hit 15 hours of playtime. 15 hours a month for a subscription that costs that much is insanely low to me

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u/PMagicUK 16h ago

I work 12 hour shifts and audio book limits are hit in literally a shift and a bit.

15 hours is fuck all.

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u/thejokerlaughsatyou 15h ago

Does your local library have Libby? If so, it has free audiobooks with no time limits!

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u/_Ocean_Machine_ 14h ago

Back when I worked a 4/10 Libby was a lifesaver; I love music but I can't stand to listen to it for ten hours straight. And the one free book per month you get through an Audible sub is almost an insult.

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u/PMagicUK 15h ago

Its the UK so dunno. According to google some might use it.

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u/dj92wa 14h ago

Look into it! I’m in the US and it’s incredible app. Your library curates what’s available and it’s all connected via your library card, which in case that’s not a thing over there, is a free registration anyone can do with their local library.

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u/JoeVanWeedler 16h ago

I get 2-3 hours per day, more on weekends but this would cap me out after a week or less.

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u/ChristopherRobben 16h ago

That's probably just active game time too; you leave it sit on the pause screen for too long and you may have just wiped out a day.

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u/Jops817 16h ago

I wouldn't say that every day is healthy, but certain release days, or social/multiplayer games with things like raids and stuff like that, you can hit that mark pretty easy on occassion.

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u/klingma 16h ago

You're home sick or injured with nothing else to do, yeah 15 hours can add up pretty quick then. 

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u/DigNitty 16h ago

My first thought was 15 hours a day is plenty **for most users.

There are a few out there who it would adversely affect.

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u/Tenthul 16h ago

I mean the college/unemployed range of people have A LOT of free time, and I'm sure it's not an insignificant part of the market for Xbox. People really underestimate how easy it is to game the day away sometimes. It's basically a dream day for the people who DON'T have that time anymore and grew into their lives.

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u/IdleSteps 16h ago

It's 15 per month.

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u/klipseracer 15h ago

ikr. Just because a few people can do that does not mean everyone does or should or will.

For those users they can buy more time apparently.

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u/control_09 16h ago

Pretty much every subscription based platoform will have this issue one way or another. It's like going to a gym. If you are a regular gym goer like I am then you're ending up putting more wear and tear into the machines than the gym recoups on you. The gyms make money on the people that have memberships but don't actually go there.

Gaming has the issue of you're not into it unless you're REALLY into it most of the time so there's not the horde of casual people who would purchase a subscription.

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u/Fach-All-Religions 14h ago

bro it's right. it's 15 hours worth.

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

[deleted]

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u/MrWildspeaker 17h ago

That’s literally 30 minutes a day. Absolutely insane.

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u/A_Furious_Mind 16h ago

I watched a lot of infomercials in the 90s. In only 30 minutes a day you can:

  • Get abs

  • Jazzercise or Sweat to the Oldies

  • Shape your body with home resistance training

  • Learn a new language

  • Learn to speed read

  • Learn to play an instrument via CD-ROM instruction

  • Organize clutter

  • Meal prep

If it's enough time to do that, it's adequate time for gaming.

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u/MrWildspeaker 16h ago

With Game Pass Ultimate, you can finish your daily gaming chores in 30 minutes or less! Don’t wait, call now!

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u/shel5210 16h ago

Im sure it also doesnt count time spent not playing but in a game. Like setting at a menu screen. Imagine forgetting to close the game down when you went to grab good or change laundry or something and you burn all your gaming time without playing

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u/ShoddyMembership7180 16h ago

I have 224K gamer score. Never used cloud gaming once.

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u/MrWildspeaker 16h ago

I just realized this is literally if you don’t own gaming hardware. Makes more sense, but that’s still a laughably small time allotment if you’re a gamer. But then again, if you’re a gamer you probably own something to play games on… kind of a weird niche.

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u/abarrelofmankeys 16h ago

Nah, not long ago they were pushing it as being functional on smart TVs. My Samsung has it. To go from hey you don’t need a console to pay more than a dollar an hour is certainly a change in direction.

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u/QF_Dan 16h ago

Looks like Xbox and Sony are fighting to be the worst company again

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u/ChainsawVisionMan 16h ago

The new console wars are the race to the bottom.

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u/tyrenanig 1h ago

Funny how some people think this is good for business, “competition” lol

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u/Buck-Stedman 10h ago

My thoughts exactly. A new console war for who can make the worst choices

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u/OblivionJunkie 16h ago

Always have been

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u/BitingSatyr 16h ago

Do people care about cloud gaming again?

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u/-Sinn3D- 16h ago

We will once we are priced out of all hardware

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u/Galinhooo 14h ago

Most don't, it seems like it will affect 4% of the users so it is low enough. On the other side, it cuts a lot of the """ potential """ costumers so those will talk shit.

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u/DR_BEANHAMMER 16h ago

That's insane. My wife and I are grown adults with full time jobs and a household to manage and we game roughly 2 hrs per day on weekdays and can put in 10ish hours on the weekends.

I am so glad I built a pc before prices shoehorned people into cloud gaming.

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u/OblivionJunkie 16h ago

Built mine in 21/22', gf built hers in 23/24'. We're very thankful lol

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u/DR_BEANHAMMER 16h ago

I am glad i mever listened to all the people saying to wait. "I'm just going to buy this 4070TIS instead of waiting for the 50 series, and get another 4gb nvme too" just in the nick of time. Most of the used stuff in my computer is worth way more than I payed for it.

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u/hghpandaman 14h ago

your build is very similar to mine 13700k, 4070TI, 32 gigs of ram and 8 tb storage. I'm SO happy i built mine when i did

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u/TopAcanthocephala271 16h ago

Nobody is shoehorned into cloud gaming. You can still download your games and gamepass games and play them locally. Are you doing your 2 hours of gaming on the cloud service? If not this doesn’t effect you at all.

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u/JTalbotIV 16h ago

I'm broke, but got into pc emulation on my phone fairly recently, and oh my word is it feeling timely.

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u/Suitable-Horse1630 13h ago

Yup. Pretty easy to put in 20+ hours of gaming a week (or any of your other favorite recreational activities) for any functional adult that's capable of taking care of themselves, and has basic time management skills.

Anyone stupid enough to fall for the cloud gaming scam deserves it at this point.

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u/Low_discrepancy 2h ago

Pretty easy to put in 20+ hours of gaming a week (or any of your other favorite recreational activities) for any functional adult that's capable of taking care of themselves, and has basic time management skills.

yeah if you have no SO and kids and no other hobby, sure

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u/fuckshitballscunt 13h ago

Right? I did a full upgrade to a 4080 and 64gb ram right before everything went to shit. Had been saving for months and timed it perfectly by blind luck

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u/CMDR_omnicognate 16h ago

Honestly I think this should be more telling on how the collapse of ai is coming. If they can’t sustain more than 15 hours per month of cloud gaming for $23 a month, imagine how much it’s costing for all the ai companies to generate images of minions getting crucified, or people on Twitter asking grok if the moon is real…

This speaks to a much bigger, more desperate problem for… well all of these companies I think.

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u/JTalbotIV 15h ago

One can hope...

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u/ruiner8850 16h ago

I bought a Firestick that came with a free month of Ultimate to stream and it was nice to have since I have never owned an Xbox and only have a PS4. I actually planned on getting another month or two during the winter when I'd have more time to play. This announcement has ended any thought of that.

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u/Christmas_Queef 16h ago

Wtf Nvidia geforce now cloud streaming service gives 100 hours a month and even that isn't enough for active gamers lol.

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u/sahneeis 16h ago

well its not succeeding because this cloud gaming shit is not making money and they cannot throw all that shit into the bin

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u/Zwischenzug32 16h ago

Oops i left it on pause

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u/coby_of_astora 16h ago

I've really never seen a company punch themselves in the dick with a smile as much as Microsoft does. That said, I have pc game pass bc value is good and I get to try a lot of indie titles before I buy them and I've never used cloud gaming.

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u/Psyco19 16h ago

15 hours a month is dog shit, I get that in 1.5 days these days and that’s with a kid when she’s off to bed I’m playing games once chores are done

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u/NarcolepticSeal 13h ago

Exclusively cloud gaming? Less than 4% of subscribers currently surpass the limits they’re proposing. I’m really struggling to understand how everyone, including a huge number of people who don’t use the service, are seeing this as a massive issue. They’re moving away from cloud gaming due to costs to keep Gamepass as affordable as possible and pushing towards better long term digital ownership with the disc to digital system.

Personally, if it’s between unlimited cloud gaming and the price going back up to $30 a month or keeping it where it is and putting limits in place, one is the obvious better choice imho. I’m sure I’ll get dunked on for this comment but I’m really, really struggling to see the massive problem with this when the majority of people don’t even use it.

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u/Psyco19 13h ago

They are moving away from cloud gaming? They’re making computers too expensive they’re basically making gaming a luxury you’d think they’d lean in more into it, in about 3 years if things don’t even out most people won’t be able to afford gaming at all

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u/NarcolepticSeal 12h ago

I mean 4% of current subscribers use more than the new limits, I think that speaks volumes as to how many people like cloud gaming. I’d rather them cut costs through that than remove a huge portion of the library and stop day one exclusives altogether or hike the price back to $30/mo.

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u/Cute-arii 16h ago

Wow, that's sucky. Even the FREE tier for GeForce Now is better than that. 100 hours a month.

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u/AeroDbladE 16h ago

I'm right there with them. I hope xbox cloud loses as much money as possible.

This kind of shitty mobile data ass business model should not become mainstream.

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u/Kempeth 15h ago

Microsoft and ruining their gaming service.

Name a more iconic duo

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u/Paco-49 15h ago

Damn, that's 2$ per hour. My Framework has already paid off at this point.

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u/ThriceFive 15h ago

Guaranteed to snap off when you are at the end of a big multi hour raid or on the Bosses third and final life

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u/MrBeanWater 15h ago

If they they think their losing money now, just wait till the mass cancelling of game pass tanks their stock again.

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u/DarXIV 14h ago

But I was told the CEO was bringing back the Xbox golden age!

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u/thegta5p 13h ago

That’s the death of xcloud. GeForce now gets you unlimited play sessions for 10 bucks a month.

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u/Razbyte 11h ago

Pretty sure thats their intention. It was pretty obvious that Game Pass is killing the xbox, so they are trying hard to make the hemorrhagic features less appealing.

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u/Neirchill 9h ago

Everytime they do something that appears to be in the right direction they do something like this. I think they literally have a team of people throw out brainstorming ideas and they close which ones to pursue based on throwing a dart while blindfolded.

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u/Sharp-Philosophy-555 15h ago

I THINK they're talking the luna service for the cloud hours, not the stuff you'd download onto your own system. (of course, I think their ultimate goal is to work people towards not downloading and always streaming, and there you go... pay for your games by the hour.)

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u/mpgd 14h ago

For me 15h would be plenty. But there are months in which I can play a lot more and it's not enough.

For that price I can get a shitty pc from Facebook marketplace or a 2nd hand console. After 2 years I'd be saving a lot of money.

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u/ToughHardware 14h ago

i assumed that was per day and I thought that was reasonable.

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u/Debt101 14h ago

jesus, even on the highest tier people don't even have an hour a day.

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u/Atrampoline 14h ago

I'm convinced that Microsoft is actively trying to kill off Xbox.

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u/WorryNew3661 13h ago

That's insane. Can you imagine if the everything is an Xbox thing had worked? They'd be burning money

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u/ShitPost5000 13h ago

Holy shit, ya, cloud gaming is dead before it could even turn a profit lmfao.

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u/Amberawesome24 4h ago

This has to be a joke. It cannot be 15 hours a month for the highest tier. Smh Five hours wouldn’t even cover a weekend

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u/Ok-Friendship1635 2h ago

I can't wait for the AI generated terms and conditions with zero review done that says 15 Hours per Hour

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u/WorthPlease 17h ago

First thing I thought, huh that's gotta be like 15 hours a day right? Couldn't be a week.....holy shit.

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u/yung_dogie 16h ago

15 a day would be reasonable, that's definitely one of those situations where you're thinking "well, this is an edge case that I should've thought of but isn't really what I had in mind" like if someone stayed 8 hrs at a McDonalds constantly refilling one drink cup or something

But 15 for any other typical unit of billing time above per day is pretty damn silly

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u/DidYouPayForWinrar 13h ago

I could see 15 a week being reasonable for some people. Even something like 4 hours per day would be reasonable for a lot of people especially if they let hours roll over.

15 a month though lol?

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u/NooneKnowsIAmBatman 10h ago

15 per week isn't top tier billing quantity. That's a lower tier number, a realistic top tier weekly would be over 40 per week

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u/jormugandr 14h ago

Right. Or people who just leave the cloud stream on 24/7 because they can. I can see wanting a limit so they eventually get disconnected.

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u/Own-Shop9773 44m ago

they plan really should have been 2 hour per day for lite users , 4 hours per day for medium and maybe 8 hours per day for heavy and 15 for ultra.. or make it lower but rolling 7 days or something more reasoable than 15 hours a month.. the age of usage anxiety!!

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u/shankartz 14h ago

Who's gaming 15 hours a day?

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u/WorthPlease 14h ago

I was thinking it was a weird case where people were sharing an Xbox and between them using it all day and night

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u/ShaoKoonce 7h ago

My days off. At least 15 minimum with meals and training in-between.

If I had a family, it would be much different.

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u/shankartz 5h ago

You should get more sleep.

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u/ShaoKoonce 5h ago

I only sleep four hours a day. The only time I sleep longer is when I drink. I don't drink anymore. But then again, being autistic will keep me hyperfixated on anything I am doing. Only social interaction and going out will exhaust me prematurely.

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u/Zalvren 13h ago

I mean 15 hours a day would be a useless limit, might as well not have one, the amount of people that pass that is basically so small that it doesn't matter

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u/Mr_Industrial 16h ago

$22 for 15 hrs? Might as well just go to an arcade at that point.

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u/_Ocean_Machine_ 14h ago

Shit, an arcade would be better because then you can at least get out of the house and hang out with friends.

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u/PromiscuousScoliosis PC 16h ago

Oh look, pre-9/11 arcade prices

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u/ll30yd 17h ago

It's OK, you can buy more

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u/LezDoTheBoogerWooger 17h ago

Wait until "the 15 hours per month are supported by ads. Do you want more? It's 2.99 per hour with ads, 3.99 without ads! PLAY MORE!"

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u/49e-rm 16h ago

PLEASE DRINK VERIFICATION CAN TO CONTINUE

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u/letsgotgoing 17h ago

I guess in the infancy of the all-digital future, I'll buy games from GOG.com to own my digital games without DRM, and, of course, physical versions of retro titles.

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u/PsyOmega PC 16h ago

One day it'll get so bad there'll be roving bands of feral gamers, breaking into corporate offices to steal the last remaining PC's capable of running independent operating systems and local rendering. Sure it'll be intel HD gpu, but everyone will still be playing cs2 and fortnight anyway

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u/jormugandr 14h ago

Make sure you keep good care of your current PC. They're doing all they can to price the average gamer out of PC affordability. Those GOG games won't do much good if you need to spend 5k on a new PC.

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u/JimmyDejesu 17h ago

This is the same situation right? Warning people about a shitty idea (in this case cloud gaming ) and people ignoring it anyway and ruining another part of the hobby

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u/fozzy_bear42 17h ago

They one day the drop the ‘L’ from the motto and say what we’ve all been thinking.

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u/Cachar 15h ago

Currently they don't want you to play more. Microsoft wants to lend OpenAI money, so OpenAI can buy GPU compute from Microsoft. 

I wish I was joking.

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u/LezDoTheBoogerWooger 13h ago

Next Xbox pad will have copilot button in the middle. 

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u/Distorted0 1h ago

You joke but they have already replaced one of the windows keys on laptops with a dedicated copilot key.

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u/jonstarks 16h ago

they just love stepping on rakes

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u/x_Animus_x 16h ago

It directly states in the article they plan to test ad supported streaming.

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u/LilStrug 16h ago

This made me think of the meme video with kid waking up in the middle of the night to the TV ad of the guy asking,’ hey punk, wanna talk some shit? Call me now, let’s start some shit.‘

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u/TwoMoreMinutes 16h ago

“DRINK VERIFICATION CAN TO CONTINUE”

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u/PhotonBarbeque 17h ago

I could at the arcade too. Then I bought a computer for home. Now I’m… paying to use it by the hour to stream a game in from outside my home…???

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u/GokuBlack722 17h ago

If you have a computer why are you streaming these games to it instead of running them natively

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u/frogguts198 17h ago

He didnt say he had a good computer.

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u/Kabirdb 17h ago

why do you think people stream games? Cause their pc can't run the game decently.

Have you seen pc parts prices?

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u/WillametteSalamandOR 17h ago

So you’re outsourcing your costs to someone else but don’t expect to pay for it?

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u/Zarkanthrex 16h ago

Unfortunately, if you didn't get into PC over the last 5 years or so, you are kinda screwed with rising prices. My 3080 is chugging for now. Im fucked if it dies. Same with my ram.

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u/OralSuperhero 14h ago

Xbox came pre installed on my Alienware. Some titles are only available on that platform. Never was tempted to use it but it's there.

I really hope steam doesn't go down this path

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u/DatedReference1 17h ago

Article says they did not specify fees for more hours. I'm sure it's coming but they're waiting to see how unpopular this is before they give a price.

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u/S31Ender 5h ago

We know the base minimum at least.

22 dollars for ultimate at 15 hours and 15 dollars one tier down at 10 hours is 7 bucks.

15 for 10hours and 10 for 5 hours is 5 bucks.

So an hour is worth at a bare minimum, one dollar.

Eff that.

We know what this really is.

“There will be a new addon package for 7 dollars per month to give unlimited cloud streaming.”

And now we’re back to 30 dollar true ultimate.

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u/Korotan 16h ago

I am not paying Cloud Gaming. But if I would, I would accept 1cent per hour.

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u/dontcha_wanna_fanta 17h ago

In a true capitalist fashion

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u/Hartia 17h ago

wow....15 hrs is like something i'd use in a few days. if Sony does this too, the portal is practically useless as my main portable while ps5 is off. There goes any hopes ps4 game streaming would come to the device.

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u/JimmyDejesu 17h ago

I feel like Im having dejavu.

warned people against going all digital now its inevitable.

for the love of god dont encourage cloud/streaming games, its a stupid idea

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u/Endure94 16h ago

Selfhosted game streaming? Hell yeah.

Corpo game streaming? Hell nah.

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u/Stahlreck 15h ago

tbf I have a feeling demand for this would be rising because of current hardware prices so...nothing selfhosted can fix really.

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u/Endure94 15h ago

Theoretically a cool friend could let you play on their pc when they arent using it.

But then youd have to have friends, and friends with OK hardware to do it.

Yeah, actually, youre right on this one.

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u/ExtremePrivilege 16h ago

The plan is that hardware becomes too expensive for the average consumer. A $13,000 PS6 or a $25,000 gaming PC to run anything remotely modern. At that point the vast majority of gamers will require cloud gaming and the subscriptions that go along with it.

Thats where we’re headed. The question is how long it will take to get there.

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u/PromiscuousScoliosis PC 16h ago

Then once you have your captives, jack those prices up higher bby

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u/dfddfsaadaafdssa 16h ago edited 16h ago

The upcoming generation. I would be surprised if Sony isn't already designing a thin client version of the PS6. They will probably call it the PS6 Lite or some shit. Manufacturing costs are simply too high and there is enough money on the table to justify its existence.

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u/ohgeeLA 15h ago

Keep trump in office and I give it about 10 years.

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u/cheese83746 15h ago

Fuck it, just going to mod all of my old consoles.

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u/SgtBaxter 14h ago

good thing I have thousands of steam sale games waiting to play.

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u/roadkill21288 14h ago

It will backfire, fortunately for gamers. Nobody is becoming MORE financially secure in the near future, unless they’re already secure(wealthy). Despite what these corps think, gamers won’t subject themselves to endless misery like call of duty.

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u/Njoybeing 13h ago

Exactly how I saw this announcement. Xbox has seen reactions to projected prices for Helix. They know there are a lot of gamers who can't, or won't, pay what it is expected to cost consumers. All those gamers will look to cloud gaming so Xbox is pre- emptively jacking up the price of cloud gaming.

It's amazing to watch how they scheme to exploit even their poorest players. It's like they want us to find another hobby.

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u/lbreakjai 12h ago

People will just shift to something else. Same way traditional sports broadcasts lost relevance to video games.

Between libraries, public domain, and second hand, the cost of a book tends towards 0 for hours of entertainment. I spent more time reading public domain classics on a ten years old kindle these last couple of months than I spent playing.

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u/ExtremePrivilege 12h ago

Sure, many hobbies have become unaffordable for most hobbyists.

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u/between_ewe_and_me 15h ago

That's not really what deja vu is

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u/Fantasy_masterMC 16h ago

It's effectively $1.2 per hour of gaming. I don't know what the fuck they're doing, but if this is legitimately the price of cloud gaming even now, with modern technology, the concept is doomed (not that I mind).

More likely they're trying to see how much of the infrastructure they can repurpose for AI while still gouging their customers for as much as possible, or they have some other excuse for a massive price increase that doesn't actually reflect their costs.

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u/DrAstralis 16h ago

At 15 hours a month I'd now be scared to even leave a game on to go to the bathroom. Why would anyone pay for something this anti consumer?

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u/RRR3000 15h ago

You get 100 hours per month on the free tier of GeforceNow. Insane to limit it to 15 hours for the most expensive Gamepass tier.

Honestly a better deal to connect them and play your Gamepass titles on GFN, quality is better too imo (but will depend on your location/distance to a datacenter).

Maybe that's the idea though, move people away from xCloud so they can repurpose their own datacenters for AI and offload the streaming costs to others.

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u/RamboMcMutNutts 12h ago

Throw in the factor that a lot of games are padded out and don't respect player time at all.

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u/cgull629 16h ago

Lol that's like one gaming weekend

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u/ExO_o 16h ago

even per week, 5 hours for essential would be a joke

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u/CloudDweller182 16h ago

Man they don’t have to worry, ‘m from Estonia so i don’t have access to it anyway..

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u/workingbored 15h ago

It has to be a typo. Maybe 150 hours?

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u/iceph03nix 15h ago

Right?

I was like... As a daily average limit, that feels like you could sell it as a health and safety feature.

A week those numbers feel low.

A month and you're just gonna have an exodus

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u/h0tel-rome0 15h ago

I only play 15 hrs a month cause I’m an adult 😢

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u/PromiscuousScoliosis PC 12h ago

Oh I hear you dude I have a young kid who never sleeps lol

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u/a256340 14h ago

This is the final nail for me The very first time I hit that limit I'm done with GP

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u/rbrgr83 14h ago

This is 30min per day.

Just what I want to do after a hard day at work. Sit down and play my 30min daily allotment of video games.

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u/PromiscuousScoliosis PC 12h ago

Honey are you okay? You’ve barely touched your 30 minutes of Xbox

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u/rbrgr83 16m ago

stares out window with sense of longing

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u/The_Particularist 14h ago

We are literally back to the days of paying for your dial-up internet by an hour. lmao

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u/oliveberry4now 13h ago

Dont worry you can pay for more if you exceed it.

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u/MyGuitarGentlyBleeps 13h ago

15 hours per hour

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u/jahmic 11h ago

Is it bad that I thought this was per day?

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u/PromiscuousScoliosis PC 11h ago

Legit had considered that but was like nothing is measured like that it makes no sense. Same with weekly lol

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u/NooneKnowsIAmBatman 10h ago

That's fucking absurd pricing!!!

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u/littymctitty710 9h ago

Yea I’m going to cancel my membership and buy a ps5 now this was the last straw. What the actual fuck?!

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u/PromiscuousScoliosis PC 9h ago

Oh brother, you think ps is going to treat you much better? For how long?

Just get a pc already. Why pay $900 for a PlayStation when you can get a very solid gaming pc from micro center or even Costco for the same price

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u/TheRetardedGoat 49m ago

Surely not 15 a month hahaha that's fucked.

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