r/technology • u/heeroo0 • 10h ago
Software Microsoft Announces Big Changes to Xbox Cloud Gaming, Switches to Monthly Hour Limits
https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-announces-big-changes-to-xbox-cloud-gaming-switches-to-monthly-hour-limits679
u/captnconnman 10h ago
“Oh, NVIDIA technically only gives you 100hrs/mo of priority bandwidth with GeForce NOW Ultimate, I wonder what the limi-DEAR LORD. 15hrs/mo PERIOD???”
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u/TheRoyalBrook 8h ago
Genuinely the fact its 5 hours for the low plan, and 15 for the high is insulting lol. Like anyone who pays for it for streaming (which I imagine do exist tbh. Its what it was marketed for as a way to play xbox games without owning one) are now basically paying 20 a month to play maybe one or two saturdays.
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u/retard_seasoning 6h ago
Is it 5 hours a day or a month? 5 hours a month doesn't make any sense.
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u/TheRoyalBrook 6h ago
5 hours a month, and 15 for the high plan. Its why everyone's calling it ridiculous.
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u/27Rench27 6h ago
I suspect we’re a little bit past people using nice words like “ridiculous” lol
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u/Unfortunate_Comedian 6h ago
I did use it for the streaming mainly. I never got around to getting a current gen console but I do have a gaming PC and laptop.
So I have gamepass and will use the cloud gaming to play the console versions of games (it really mattered when I was an admin for a console DayZ server). But I haven’t used it much lately tbh.
But now? Oh they can fuck all the way off. I’ll just start moving my PC library over to GOG. Which lets me download offline installers. These companies can get fucked.
No more PC gamepass for me it looks like.
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u/Sabin10v2 7h ago
Like anyone who pays for it for streaming
That would be the 4% of users that this will affect. I'd bet they make up almost 100% of all the users that actually use game streaming.
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u/bakagir 9h ago
Base is 5 lmao
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u/Pepparkakan 4h ago
I bet they’re doing that thing where they give us these totally unreasonable numbers so they can later announce “oh shit sorry our bad, you know what, we’ve decided out of the goodness of our hearts to give you guys 15 at the lowest plan and 45 at the highest, for no extra charge, aren’t we great!”, and suddenly look like heroes instead even though its all the same “you will own nothing” bullshit…
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u/DebentureThyme 8h ago
Watch NVIDIA change that.
Cloud Gaming isn't their priority, and converting existing data centers to AI projects would allow them to add more AI capacity without needing to build as many new locations.
No one's talking about the elephant in the room about how cloud gaming was not becoming profitable, only more expensive, and maybe they should turn and point at that as "Hey, are we just doing this same shit again but with a different coat of failure?" before investing more in AI.
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u/Westcroft 10h ago
Sucks for people who assumed they’d be able to use their devices the way they were sold on
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u/Jubez187 9h ago
Yeah there’s a lot of people on the PlayStation portal subreddit that only own the portal and pay the subscription for Sonys cloud streaming…if Sony follows suits those dudes are beat.
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u/JoviAMP 9h ago
If, or when?
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u/Messgrey 9h ago
When, definitely when.
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u/KingMario05 8h ago
Given their recent track record? Almost definitely when.
Christ, SIE needs to put Layden back in charge. Hulst and the Japanese dude are driving the damn thing off a cliff. And it's where Sony makes the big bucks... if it goes under, so does Sony.
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u/grubas 8h ago
Sonys busy trying to argue that every digital game is a licence buy in court.
They are 100% looking to say you can only buy a game for a year and then you need to pay more.
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u/nox66 7h ago
I realize Sony has always been at least a little shitty, but from this, to Crunchyroll, to selling off Bravia, Sony seems determined to take functioning business units and set them on fire.
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u/Made_Human_Music 7h ago
Definitely when. All these companies that love to claim they’re innovators sure don’t seem to have a problem copying other companies when greed is involved
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u/johnsciarrino 8h ago
This doesn’t count if you’re using a console as a base though, right? Like a portal connected to a PS5 for remote play doesn’t use the cloud the same way an ally x wouldn’t either? Right? Right?!?
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u/chynkeyez 8h ago
This is me. Dad of 2 kids. Huge portal user. Only way I can play grown up games. Also is super cool to cloud stream a game while the kiddo logs onto the ps5 proper and run multiplayer. Guess I better get while the getting is good
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u/OwnAwareness7941 9h ago
yeah my friend’s xbox cloud gaming just cut out mid-match once
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 7h ago
What does that have to do with this change which has not yet gone into effect?
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u/Honest-Resist-7676 7h ago
They are reinforcing that: with cloud gaming, the user is subject to the whims and wishes of the ones holding the hardware (or the Internet connection). As was apparent to this individual when their buddy's game disconnected mid-game.
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u/fathertitojones 9h ago
I just bought an old xbox with games that I can play multiplayer and campaigns on locally. I don't play all that often but I want to be able to own my own things and play how/when I want to. Been a blast reliving firefights on Reach and ODST with friends in the house.
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u/bakagir 10h ago
Hey John what’s a normal amount of hours a month people use their Xbox for?
Uh idk like 5 I guess?
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u/borkyborkus 9h ago
Whatever the number is, it’s all but guaranteed to be pushed lower and lower every year.
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u/adpoop 9h ago edited 9h ago
Well how else are they supposed to sell the higher hour tiers? I give it till the end of 2027 before they come out with an unlimited hour plan.
Edit: just read the article. It's actually 5 fucking hours 😂 hope microslop and sony enjoy the beds they've made for themselves
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u/Skyrider11 9h ago
And they claim that this will only affect 4% of Game Pass users. That 4% of game pass users use their subscription less than 5 hours per month feels like impossible, right? Even less than 15 which is the max tier is surprisingly little
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u/adpoop 8h ago
Idek what the point of them saying 4% was, let alone that it's a real number. "We're only screwing over a few people so you shouldn't care" is a wild defense lmao. I imagine they're saying 4% of game pass users use cloud gaming and that's who it's effecting¿ The service isn't making as much money as they advertised to share holders so they take the in app purchase route to sell more hearts when you run out¿
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u/Sabin10v2 7h ago
That 4% of game pass users use their subscription less than 5 hours per month feels like impossible, right?
For game streaming specifically, that number doesn't seem too far fetched. I don't want game streaming, I want to run stuff locally for a better experience and everyone I know feels the same way.
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u/ParticularHistoryo 7h ago
This is for streaming games. Most people download them as there is input lag playing through the cloud. Only 4% of subscribers stream games through the cloud more than 5 hours per month?
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u/SportsBallScholar 9h ago
Yes but that does not tell the whole story. They will also raise the price!
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u/Skyfier42 9h ago
$10 a month for 5 hours of cloud gaming is insane. The only people willing to pay for unlimited game streaming are the hardcore gamers, who they just turned off from ever paying for this. These people don't understand their core audience.
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u/ManiacalShen 9h ago
Only 4% of subscribers currently exceed the limits they set here. It really sucks for those people, who were sold a bill of goods that's getting yanked out from under them, but cloud gaming is still niche enough that i wager almost no one will cancel because of this.
I would guess Xbox saw a need to set a limit before the service got too popular and they risked pissing off way more people later.
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u/Skyrider11 8h ago
That number feels like it can't possibly be true, and if it is, isn't it a bit of a self own? That people use your service THAT little?
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u/Randomlucko 7h ago
It's 4% of all game pass users (at least from the article). I'm guessing most users never use the streaming game function, just stick to actually downloading and running the game locally.
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u/Sabin10v2 7h ago
Only 4% of subscribers currently exceed the limits they set here.
I'd imagine that a significant portion of their users don't use game streaming at all. A better metric would be what percentage of users that use cloud streaming more than 10 minutes a month also use more than 5 hours a month because I bet that number is a lot higher than 4%.
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u/Hungry_Shake6943 9h ago
Couldn't let Sony have all the villain aura this month, could you ya schmucks?
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u/SkeyFG 9h ago
Yeah, man... At the end of the day, they are all the same picture... Microsoft, Sony, nVidia
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u/Penguinkeith 8h ago
I can’t fucking believe in the year of our lord 2026 Microsoft is bringing back phone minutes but for gaming. Like are they intentionally trying to kill their last golden goose in game pass?
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u/Roger_The_Cat_ 8h ago
Next up is roaming charges for using a wireless controller
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u/LtFluffybear 6h ago
game pass was never a golden goose, it was always an albatross.
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u/ThanatosIdle 2h ago
Gamepass was a white goose painted gold, and now the goose has lead poisoning from the paint.
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u/HAHAHA0kay 8h ago
5 hours a month is insane. I play 5 hours in 3 hours.
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u/TrivTheRenegade 2h ago
When I was your age, I played 5 hours in 2 hours.
Damn kids don't know how easy they have it these days.
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u/chambee 9h ago
You can reduce de bandwidth of money you give them to zero.
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u/janosaudron 4h ago
something tells me that is their intention so they can dedicate all their computational real state to AI
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u/SaviorSixtySix 10h ago
really hope this ai bubble pops
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u/FNALSOLUTION1 10h ago
Nope, only going to get worse.
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u/ohyouretough 9h ago
It’ll pop. But we the people will subsidize it so the rich don’t lose out. It’ll be like 2008
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u/anormalgeek 9h ago
No way. The rate the data centers are being built makes zero sense. There are too many competitors right now all trying to do the same thing. Everyone is sizing as if they're going to be the only ones left standing.
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u/Exquisite-Load8654 9h ago
Don’t think the aftermath will be any better.
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u/He2oinMegazord 9h ago
Like you arent excited for hockey/football armor and leather daddy apocalypse fits
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u/DoesntMatterEh 9h ago
"everything is going to get simultaneously worse and more expensive and there's nothing you can do about it, fuck you pay me"
-every company in the United States
Edit: FIVE HOURS????? 😂😂😂 It really is fuck you pay me huh
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u/99999999999999999989 9h ago
Soooooo glad I cancelled my GamePass Ultimate after the last round of price increases. This is pathetic.
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u/photog_prince 9h ago
SEGA and maybe Atari. Look, if you're going to do something now might be a good time to make a decently powerful box that plays video games and takes physical media.
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u/Competitive_Study232 7h ago
With what computer chips, memory and storage? Five year Tech like the Xbox and PS5 are almost $1000. You can thank AI for this.
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u/ElementalWeapon 7h ago
Are these fools for real??? These limits are fucking laughable
Game Pass Ultimate: 15 hours
Game Pass Premium: 10 hours
Game Pass Essential: 5 hours
Then you have to BUY more time if you want to play beyond these pathetic limits?
Hopefully these idiots reverse course when people cancel en masse.
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u/astirac 10h ago
Good. This cloud gaming is the pathway to no one owning a PC or console, and all games requiring a subscription. The fewer people using them, the better.
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u/ArenjiTheLootGod 9h ago
Microsoft is clearly shifting their Game Pass business model from one that seeks to grow user adoption rates towards one that seeks to extract as much profit as possible from its captive user base.
The inevitable enshittification is why I've been avoiding getting a Game Pass sub for years, anyone still subscibed should probably consider bailing because it's only going to get worse and/or more expensive from here.
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u/arrocknroll 8h ago
I enjoyed game pass while I had it. I had a PC and a Series X for the living room that other people in the house I was living with at the time would use. It was really nice to have a catalogue of games as soon as I brought the system home from multiple generations that we could all sit and play.
That said, it was one of the easiest services I have ever quit. I knew the games I wanted to keep, bought them, and carried on. In four months of the $30 subscription after the price hike I was paying more for them anyway.
There is something to be said for ecosystems keeping customers captive but I think Microsoft and Sony seem to think its a lot harder to jump ship than it actually is.
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u/Im_Classy_AF 10h ago
Been my take for years. Love to watch them shoot themselves in the foot
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u/alurimperium 9h ago
The one benefit to it was being able to play console exclusives on PC. I used to have a Gamepass sub and would use it to play Skate 3 and MLB The Show and the NHL games.
With hours caps on that now, though, no way is any of this worth it
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u/a_talking_face 9h ago
The pathway to nobody owning a PC or console is them being prohibitively expensive.
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u/Hecate100 9h ago
It sure looks like the entirety of the console market is in the midst of a murder/suicide.
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u/Wind_Best_1440 10h ago
Wait this was actually a thing?
LOL, I thought this was a joke, whos going to buy 5 hours a month for gaming using cloud? LOL.
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u/TheSauciestBoss 9h ago
If it’s only gonna affect 4% of users then why change it all? You’re gonna squeeze that much more money out of the 4% to return a marginal profit? Go fuck yourself.
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u/crownpr1nce 9h ago
If it only affects 4% of subscribers, that's because that part of the service is not working and not catching on. People are subscribing for the other perks. That's admitting it failed, and throwing in the towel early. Cause it won't get bigger with these tiny limits.
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u/gtck11 9h ago
As someone who primarily uses the cloud because I’m not buying a second Xbox and I don’t want to sit downstairs late at night and want to game in my cozy room, fuck this.
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u/jrhaberman 9h ago
This is exactly the boat I am in. I cloud game in my office upstairs almost exclusively while my Xbox is in the basement.
I don't know what I'll do. Very disappointing.
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u/gtck11 9h ago edited 6h ago
On top of this I spend up to 3 months a year at my parents sometimes in 2+ week stretches. This is such a gross move by them. I’m thinking about investing in a steam deck finally now.
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u/idkifthisisgonnawork 6h ago
I've had a steam deck since release. Prior to that I was console/gaming PC. I haven't touched the Xbox since getting the deck and only use my PC to steam games to my deck. I truly love this device.
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 7h ago
You can use remote play from the console to stream to another device without cloud…. Reading these comments makes me think a lot of people don’t know this exists.
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u/not-sure-what-to-put 9h ago
So we’re back to tokens in machines really but in our own home and on machines we paid for.
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u/blockbuster_late_fee 7h ago
“New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wasn’t a longtime, hardcore gamer in the way Phil Spencer was. Her publicly visible Xbox history only began around January 2026, shortly before she became Xbox CEO. She acknowledged that she created the gamertag recently partly to learn and understand the gaming world”
15 hour a month top limit on gameplay is a move someone who doesn’t know game culture at all would do
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u/photog_prince 9h ago
Sad because we all know eventually gaming companies won't sell hardware and will only sell cloud subscriptions. We're going to be truly fucked in a couple years. All so they can make another billion dollars.. wonderful
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u/Ak_Lonewolf 9h ago
fuck that. I still have hundreds of older games I can play that still have 1000's of hours of mods to play. I can wait 10 years before buying new games.
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u/DamNamesTaken11 9h ago edited 7h ago
Only starts at 5 hours and caps at 15 hours a month before you have to pay to have more. I could maybe understand a little if they set it as weekly, but that’s absolutely tiny for a month included.
Only about 10 minutes per day for Essential and a half hour for Ultimate. What a joke.
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u/Orgnok 9h ago
those are some hillariously low numbers, 5h of gaming a month on the standard pass? Imagine netflix limited you to two movies a month.
It may as well just be pay per hour
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u/jiggy_42 8h ago
The age of open source products, locally produced developments, a nd small business games are being accelerated due to these companies pushing their limits. They think consumers have no choice, but their greedy actions will get groupS of people to create gaming communities that dont rely on their bullshit.
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u/geebiebeegee 10h ago
I'm too old to keep changing how I game! I didn't like the digital era but I adapted. I found joy in trying all the games against my old school ways. Now with yo yo subscription prices and fundamentally changing the service i pay for on a whim whenever...? Gaaaa!
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u/DoesntMatterEh 9h ago
Get a PC and Steam and buy indie games. I've gotten hundreds of hours of fun out of a $15 purchase. Fuck AAA gaming almost none of it is worth the price.
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u/zillskillnillfrill 9h ago
Goodnight consoles, it's been.... Interesting seeing you all become enveloped by greed. I'll see myself out
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u/Cleadus_Conner 8h ago
15 hours month being the "Ultimate" level is hilarious. I sometimes do more than that on a Saturday
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u/Cheetawolf 9h ago
Microsoft jumped the gun and probably ruined everyone's plans.
They were supposed to wait until local computing power was unaffordable and everyone was forced to use cloud systems with no other options, and THEN start pulling shit like this.
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u/Nazrael75 8h ago
Microsoft: "we want to be prominent in gaming again"
Also Microsoft: does this bullshit
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u/kelamity 6h ago
Drive up PC part prices and then force them into a limited cloud. Kinda like having to pay for a Cyber Cafe in your own living room
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u/CypherAZ 9h ago
I would rather buy a game for full price on steam then pay these assholes another dollar.
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u/thehenryshow 7h ago
HAHAHAHAHAHA fuck right off. Sony and Xbox are dead to me. Steam wins this war.
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u/CruelAngelsThesis_01 9h ago
Invest in physical media.
DVD’s, consoles, game discs, cartridges. The writings on the wall, folks. Soon the only way you’re gonna be able to freely enjoy your purchases is the old fashion way of non-internet based physical media.
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u/I_fight_demons 8h ago
Hour limited online gaming? Are we really going back to 1991 playing The Shadow of Yserbius on Sierra Online?
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u/Agreeable-Agent-7384 6h ago
If a company with a huge cloud bussiness and infrastructure can’t provide unlimited cloud usage for gaming, it’s a dead idea.
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u/bigbonk-attack 4h ago
i‘ve been a Playstation Player since the very first PS1 & after Sony announced they are killing physical games & Microsoft announced they will keep them & give you a digital license in addition to every physical game you purchase I‘ve finally decided to move to XBOX once their new console releases, but with this article just like that I‘ve decided to definitely NEITHER PURCHASE the PlayStation nor the XBOX.
I‘m out.
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u/ikilledtupac 7h ago edited 5h ago
this is why they are getting rid of physical games and fighting ownership of digital
100% it’s been discussed to make all game on a pay per use basis in the cloud.
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u/Keith_Games 9h ago
How the fuck did Sony and Microsoft make me think Nintendo is nicer to its consumers…
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u/EnderScout_77 8h ago
why do people use cloud gaming again? isn't there like, latency?
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u/Longjumping_Tutor480 7h ago
Microsoft and all these other companies are really trying hard to ensure they cease to exist in the next 30 years
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u/JudasPenguin 7h ago
I have an xbox one so most of my gaming lately is cloud gaming (new games unsupported by my console). Guess I'm selling this shit and getting a laptop finally
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u/KiLLLLeR150 7h ago
5-15 hours? Is that an actual joke?
Fuck cloud gaming anyway, but they sure as hell aren't enticing anyone to use it.
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u/GRIP8219 6h ago
This is madness. "Pay to play" literally. I dont play a whole lot but the 15hrs max is trash. Will be ending my subscription this month.
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u/Mekoha22 6h ago
After 40 years, I think its finally time to hang up my hat and give up this hobby. The last 5years or so have only held on because of the indie devs.
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u/Canadish27 3h ago
"Why did you sting me?" Asked the frog "Now we will both drown"
"Because I am a scorpion"
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u/KonataYumi 9h ago
Way to take away the only positive thing about cloud gaming, back to waiting for sales on Steam it’s much more affordable
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u/soggybiscuit93 9h ago
Will this put the nail in the conspiracy that the hardware shortages were intended to push people to cloud gaming?
Turns out when gaming hardware prices skyrocket, even the game streaming companies dont wanna wanna buy the parts either because the whole business model relies on cheap hardware.
So now theyre rate limiting users instead.
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u/crownpr1nce 9h ago
I was curious what kind of limits they'd put. They destroyed my lowest expectations by quite a bit. The highest package is 15h. I'm a casual gamer with a full time job, a part time job, other hobbies like sports, and even I would exceed that most months. Who the hell is the 5h package for? An hour a week isn't worth paying a subscription for...
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u/factoid_ 9h ago
Hooray for enshitification. Can’t wait for minutes-based cell plans to come back. And per GB data
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u/paulxombie1331 9h ago
I specifically bought my series S snd upped my internet plan to stream games through cloud. I travel 2 to 3 months a year. Microsoft and Playstation in the last few months have effectively made a decision for me.. My friend just gave me her gaming rig. Time to set sail and plunder the sea of torrents.
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u/Okaringer 8h ago
Microsoft once again jumping the gun on frontloading its predatory desires and getting cooked for it.
Its always on xbone pedo kinect all over again.
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u/NewYak4281 8h ago
This is exactly why my Xbox X is the last console I will ever buy. All these gaming companies, hardware and software, are so disgustingly greedy at this point that I’m done.
PC and small devs from now on.
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u/HG21Reaper 10h ago
And that is the end of cloud gaming.