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/ExtensionParsley4205 17h ago

At least Stadia didn't have monthly limits

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u/Florgio 17h ago

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

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u/lavapig_love 16h ago

No game service will exist with these limits.

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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.

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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. 

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u/JediBurrell 9h ago

Yeah but we received refunds.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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u/EnkiiMuto 7h ago

Stadia also refunded people for their purchased games iirc.