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/Fluffy_Charity_2732 16h ago

Which is funny because streaming direct from my own pc via steam link is 50x less latency than cloud dogshit. And that’s when I’m on the road via WiFi. And tried all the premium cloud providers from my fiber at home 

Cloud gaming is bullshit on purpose. They want to see how shit they can keep the service in order to make it “better” when they need to look like they are improving it

Anyone using cloud gaming right now is dumber than shit

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u/082426grateful 15h ago

I remember when publicly traded firms could just say the word “cloud” and their stock price would surge.

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u/REDDITATO_ 13h ago

See "AI" now. Round and round we go.

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u/ThatOneComrade 11h ago

Can the next investor buzzword come around and pop the bubble please.

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u/vkevlar 13h ago

they're trying to replace that with "AI", it doesn't seem to be having the same effect, fortunately

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u/EmmatheBest 12h ago

No, I don't...because Square Enix's stock has kinda not been doing anything for awhile. :p

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u/flyinhighaskmeY 10h ago

lol...that isn't how it works. publicly traded firms don't control their stock price. Wall St. actors do.

The price isn't surging because they said "cloud". That's just how its being explained to people who don't understand how the market works. Its the same with Ai. Those prices are moving where they are because someone needs them to move where they are. The news stories are just bullshit cover.

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u/yung_dogie 16h ago

Yeah streaming from my home PC via Sunshine/Moonlight or Steam Link is noticeable but far more playable than when I tried a friend's cloud gaming subscription on his home internet connection. Plus when I do personal streaming I'm usually on phone hotspot -> laptop (of course stability of the connection was an issue but that undoubtedly would've been the case with the same setup for cloud gaming services)

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u/waddlesticks PC 12h ago

I have the opposite problem.

Steam link is absolutely trash for me even locally, whilst sunshine/moonlight combo or cloud gaming in gamepass is low latency without hiccups.

I had to change ISP provider though for gamepass cloud to have good latency though.

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u/Rhysati 12h ago

I have the exact same experience. Cloud gaming is laggy, input is delayed, and you get kicked if you idle for like 5 mins.

But I stream from my PC to my friends place via WiFi connected to my handheld and I can play Spider-Man. It feels like I'm actually at my PC.

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u/vinyljunkie1245 15h ago

I guess I'm dumber than shit then because I used it all the time and I have no issues whatsoever with latency or lag. I can't tell the difference between playing in the cloud via gamepass and the game installed on my Xbox. I have a fibre connection though.

It saves me having to move games back and forth from internal and external storage if I feel like playing something different now games are so big storage wise and MS giving such small internal storage.

I know I don't own those games but I'm fine with that. I buy the games I want but at the moment the ones I want are on Gamepass and I don't pay for that as I get it through Microsoft Rewards by getting gift cards. I easily have enough to keep the top tier free. I've only paid for about 6 months of Gamepass since it started.

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u/JuanRunJunior 14h ago

It’s amazing how easily people can call someone stupid as shit for having a different opinion isn’t it? I have the same experience streaming PC games so I must be dumb as shit too.

My favorite part with these people? “hAvE FUN NoT OwNiNg yOuR GaMes” they’ll say, while playing on Steam, a digital storefront, that doesn’t sell physical copies, that allows third party launchers so your games require them, and then they’ll start insulting you. I have paid games on Steam that don’t work if the launcher encounters an error, and I’m sure they do too, but we are the dumb people in their eyes. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/the_original_kermit 14h ago

Anyone that equates physical games with ownership basically gets a downvote for me.

It was never ownership. It’s always been a license, and I don’t expect a future where it isn’t that way.

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u/[deleted] 14h ago

[deleted]

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u/MaltySines 14h ago

30fps has been standard on console for most games a decade. Yeah it's not gonna be enough for the hardcore, but most of the gaming audience is fine with it like how most people don't care that 24fps isn't the optimal movie framerate. It just feels natural because it's been standard for so long

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u/exposarts 15h ago

are the people that use cloud gaming cause they can't afford a high end gaming pc also dumb? Not every country is considered a first world country

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u/zgillet 14h ago

Those third-world countries are getting fiber now?

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u/Brad1895 14h ago edited 13h ago

It's almost* the worst option of all. Period

You pay a subscription for access to a gaming system you have zero control over. If Microsoft decides the business model isn't profitable after a few years, you're out of luck.

You need solid internet and to be close to the data center running that machine. If you don't, you're going to have a really bad time trying to play anything but minesweeper.

You don't need a high end gaming PC. You don't even need a midrange pc. The number of games you can play on an old PC or a build from mid 2010's hardware will last you a long, long time. The price of those parts are going to be cheaper than the cost of a subscription, and you get to actually own the hardware.

  • The only reason I can see someone doing this is if they want to try the hobby before dropping hundreds (or sometimes) thousands on a setup.

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u/the_original_kermit 13h ago

Your last sentence basically explains it and contradicts your first.

If you had $100 to spend for the rest of the year, you’re going to be better off with cloud gaming.

I don’t like it, and I would never do it. But it’s somewhat ignorant to ignore that if you consider cost per hour of gaming, it’s near the top of the charts in the low hours range.

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u/Brad1895 13h ago

Asterisk added.

I don't think it's that cheap in terms of cost per hour though. If you want to play at all any given month, you have to pay the subscription cost. You don't pay on months you'd don't play provided you're on top of canceling the payment for a given month. I don't see how that's much better than owning the hardware outright if you intend to play for low hours over the course of years.

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u/the_original_kermit 9h ago

Yeah, but you can basically play for like $400 a year.

Let’s say you game 10 hours a weeks. That’s about $0.77 an hour.

Now you have a hard core gamer. They spend $4000 on their machine. They would need to game 100 hours a week to get the same dollar per hour.

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u/exposarts 12h ago

You cannot play games like cyberpunk 2077 with path tracing or rtx on an old pc lol.. at least with good performance. But like I said, based on where you live, affording a high end pc isn't so easy. Ethernet is very cheap, but what does matter is whether you are close to a data center as that dictates your latency. Some get to have 5-15ms latency which is decent/good, others have to deal with 60ms+ latency because they are far from a data server which is unplayable. So when it comes down to some casual gamers who cannot afford a high end setup, they would rather pay the $10-20 fee to play single player games with maxed out graphics and 120 fps on the higher tier and have a good experience assuming they use ethernet and are close to a data server.... That is a far better bargain for most adults than say netflix/spotify subscriptions, it costs almost nothing and they get a lot in return.. But if you can afford a high end pc setup, that will ofc always be better as you get mod support for all games, no limitations to library, no time limits, and native latency is always better as we all know

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u/GPTforGood 12h ago

Literally nobody was claiming you could run cyberpunk with raytracing on an old PC lol you're arguing with clouds.

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u/exposarts 12h ago

You missed the point entirely, and just argue with semantics, boring.. He said, "You don't need a high end gaming PC. You don't even need a midrange pc. " I am saying an example of why someone would want access to a high end system/rig.. An old gaming pc isn't enough for many people

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u/Brad1895 11h ago

At no point did I suggest playing cyberpunk with raytracing of all things. You even made two huge assumptions, being physically close to the site and having low latency internet on top of that. Those two were part of my original argument. Not everyone heck, most users will not fall into those categories.

I hate to use the term "living within your means," but something similar applies here. There are tons of games that have come out over the years that can run on just about anything. You do not need a top of the line pc to enjoy the hobby unless you're trying to push the settings to max on every new release. Many of us are more than happy to enjoy the lifetime of content already out there.

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u/exposarts 5h ago

"being physically close to the site and having low latency internet on top of that" I did not say those were requirements, more so that is what you need for a great/close to nativelike experience.. I'm sure people in non first world countries wouldn't mind playing modern games with great graphics/performance with around 50ms or even more. Now if you are playing a competitive fps game, that would be unplayable ofc..

You do absolutely need a decent pc(at least $1500) to enjoy most modern titles at decent frame rates, because many devs apparently think that optimization shouldn't be a priority.. Think the new monster hunter title, stalker 2, dragons dogma 2, etc. But of course, there are many older games that aren't as demanding, in that case a low-mid end pc will work decently. I'm mostly talking about gfnow or boosteroid, people are willing to pay $10-20 for these services to play modern games with good performance, that don't run well on their current machines and aren't able to afford a good rig.

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u/MaltySines 14h ago

I only play games once. It's fine if they take shit out of the rotation that I've played because I'm never booting it up again once I've finished. I pay $20 and can beat 2-3 modern AAA games that I'm interested in in a month. If there's nothing I want to play I just unsub

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u/Brad1895 14h ago

Hold up, are you talking about game pass or cloud gaming? Because I don't have beef with game pass aside from Microsoft fucking up the pricing.

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u/JuanRunJunior 14h ago

I’ve been using GeForce now on my Mac mini for a few months with no perceptible lag on a fiber connection. I’m not great at BF6 and I have no idea what you’re talking about. It works perfectly fine on every game in multiple genres I’ve tried. Maybe Xbox cloud sucks, but the blanket statement that it’s dogshit, shit service and doesn’t work isn’t incorrect. I won’t be using it for long, once I tire of BF6, but saying PC cloud gaming is dogshit isn’t even remotely true.

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u/puffbro 6h ago

Yea a lot of people didn’t realise bandwidth is only part of the story, server’s location matters a lot more on what latency one would get from streaming.

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u/Smokester121 15h ago

I gotta make sure I can do it on the road. Gotta set it up.

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u/RetPala 12h ago

There is no "better" or "improving it"

This is a race to the bottom. The end game of a business is just fanning out on the streets to lasso "customers" to convert their biomass into fuel like some Mad Max/Matrix combo

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u/GlastoKhole 11h ago

I have a gigabit internet connection. I download 25gb games in a handful of minutes at most. Even with everyone on my network in the family when I check I’m pulling in no less than 600mb a second at peak times. Yet when I loaded cloud gaming on my Xbox last week the menu for the game was lagging hard and looked like it was 480p. I gave it a few minutes and loaded the first mission up and just noped out. Why the fuck are they pushing this shite? Nobody and I mean nobody will use it except maybe the odd boomer. people who game typically have a hard on for high fidelity or super fast response times down to milliseconds. It’s half the reason people push for like 120 frames. But this shit. Nobody will get behind it

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u/LooneyWabbit1 5h ago

I agree with everything you said except one.

"Nobody will use it except the odd boomer"

Nah. Tons of people are completely blind and disconnected from their hands. Look at all the pushback every time a game releases with shit optimisation. People will be running 78 fps at 4x frame gen upscaled from 480p and claim the game looks and runs great.

People are already running around with 60ms additional input lag playing locally and apparently seem to have no idea. Tons of morons jumped to use and defend Stadia when that was a thing. This'll probably go over just fine tbh 😔

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u/ennuiinmotion 10h ago

It's all a race to see how cheap you can provide a product or service and still keep customers. Making things better is never in the calculations.

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u/Mofaklar 9h ago

Yeah, I dont think its necessarily latency. As in, network specific lag. It should be possible to keep this to about +20ms Which shouldn't really cause to much of an issue.

I think they are screwing people with hardware allocations/platform.

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u/Trrollmann 4h ago

On purpose? I finished Halo Infinite on highest difficulty on cloud gaming. Latency was an issue, annoying for sure, but not bad enough that I'd buy the game.

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u/hogswristwatch 2h ago

Huh, works great for me. You sound fat.

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u/MaltySines 14h ago

The latency is fine in good network conditions if you're close to the server. I can beat Doom Eternal on ultra violence and it doesn't feel any worse than console. It's not like a high end pc but for people used to console it's gonna be fine (again if you're lucky enough to be closer to a server)

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u/9966 14h ago

Stadia worked great. Very low lag, instant boot. Shame it died.

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u/Admirable_Zombie5245 16h ago

I have access to a cloud 5080 and use it to play on my OLED TV at 4k 120fps with ULTRA RTX setting, it’s amazing for just $20/mo

Feels native, no latency. But hey keep enjoying your probably 4060ti card

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u/LR0989 16h ago

Enjoy no mods, a fraction of the games, and no ownership? Lmao and just wait til the time limits / price increases start rolling in

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u/Narfi1 16h ago

I haven’t used it in over a decade but Shadow PC just gives you a windows desktop, you can do anything you’d do on your own windows PC

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u/ubelgooble 16h ago

name checks out.

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u/Fluffy_Charity_2732 15h ago

Don’t need all that for your Roblox, kid. Your mom know you use her card?

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u/Long-Broccoli-3363 13h ago

My kid's dad is a technology mennonite, uses a flip phone, minimal stuff etc because of his religion.

I got him a logitech gcloud, and set up tailscale on it back to our house, apollo/artemis, and boom, he can play like he's at home, he cant even notice the difference.