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
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u/pepcorn 17h ago

Per MONTH. 

Hilariously awful offering. If they can't afford to offer cloud based services, then GO BACK TO SELLING PHYSICAL MEDIA INSTEAD.

123

u/JimmyDejesu 17h ago

This seems obvious doesnt it lol. And yet

87

u/pepcorn 17h ago

They don't like solutions where they can't trap their customers into giving them money for barely-a-service forever.

31

u/TheDrewDude 16h ago

And yet they would sooner destroy their own company then give ownership to their customers. Fucking joke.

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u/Remnant_Echo 16h ago

Also notice the note: "Players will be able to pay for additional hours beyond the caps"

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u/pepcorn 16h ago

Basically trying to milk their most dedicated users for more money.

13

u/Mauamu PlayStation 15h ago

I don't think you need to be one of the "most dedicated users" to hit those caps in a month to be honest.

3

u/pepcorn 13h ago

Yeah, you're right.

2

u/PrivilegeCheckmate 12h ago

And yet

That would be LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE!!!

35

u/Little_Obligation_90 17h ago

They want their cloud servers used for AI and Azure. Not poor gamers.

2

u/HeadintheSand69 16h ago

My company insisted I use ADF for some bullshit and it priced out to like 100k/yr. When you consider how much they make compute cost, cloud gaming just cant compete.

1

u/Little_Obligation_90 16h ago

Neither can local hardware. With RAM prices as they are, gaming and gaming devices are quite literally a waste of silicon. For Samsung, for MS, and everyone else.

Apple at least makes big margins selling phones. Console makers don't have that.

1

u/Cloaked42m 14h ago

Then you reduce the graphics quality a touch and start producing better overall games.

5

u/EIiteJT PC 16h ago

But they want you paying them all the time. They don't like the one time payment. They want to milk you.

3

u/Big-Cartographer-166 16h ago

And miss the oportunity for charging you per hour?

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u/pepcorn 16h ago

It makes me so happy that people have grown sick of subscription services and are slowly abandoning them.

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u/Big-Cartographer-166 16h ago

I hate suscriptions most of the time I avoid them, I even use office 2013 to not pay for fucking 365.

1

u/KevinIsADork 8h ago

You can still download the games and play them for unlimited time. 

This isnt a defense of them, but my girlfriend loves game pass, and the cloud gaming feature always felt more like a demo of a game, see if you liked it before downloading it, especially since games run pretty badly on cloud streaming, if at all.

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u/pepcorn 8h ago

Yeah, you do make a good point. I guess I'm mad because they dare charge for their bad demos in the first place (not just xbox), and then they enshittify how people can use their services and what's being offered (again, not just xbox). 

They could be so much more user friendly each step of the way and choose not to be. I'm tired boss.

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u/Ok_Security1721 4h ago

But sharehold sad!?

-1

u/edgiepower 16h ago

Or, reverse that, go back to buying physical media.

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u/pepcorn 16h ago

I can't, the games I want aren't being released as physical media.