Xbox Cloud Streaming to Limit Hours Per Month (depending on regional laws)

Gaming
41

There is no way that cloud gaming as an add-on is seen as $8 worth of value in their mind.

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42

I know. It just feels like being squeezed in every direction.

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43

I wonder how much those time packages will be then? It has to be super cheap if you want people who, let’s say, buy Elden Ring, and are expected to play it entirely in the cloud.

44

Like I said before. I really feel that Xbox Game Pass needs to follow the EA Play model With trials for all Day One In-House games and sell it at ÂŁ15

45

If most people are truthful they’ll not on XBox cloud for long periods of time , it’s something you use when you can’t have access to a console or PC .

If its true about XBOX making its own Handheld its becomes even more niche IMO. Though I have to say how wonderful & easy it was, using my Amazon stick with my pad to play XBOX in the hotel room when on a stag due

I have a Rog Alley X but what with flying with Ryan Air, space was a issue LOL

46

Cloud gaming was always a bonus for Game Pass subscribers. Now that it’s out of beta, it becomes a separate product. Not entirely unexpected.

MS could either piss off 100% of users with another price increase for Game Pass, or 4% by limiting “free” cloud gaming.

Considering that Game Pass (console) users don’t seem to be using cloud gaming much, it’s a smarter move to offer cloud gaming separately without forcing people to pay for Game Pass.

That said, 15 hours is nothing. But I guess it’s basically a “try it for free” perk for Game Pass users. Hopefully the hourly rates will be competitive.

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47

Imo, it would literally kill Game Pass because no one would stick around for trials only version, they would pay the minimum for online play. EA also has a full game version that they offer.

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48

EA does not do that on their main tier (Pro). They do it on the $5 a month tier.

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49

Might even kill their PC store as that is the main thing there.

50

I think if they’re moving to unite PC and Console but gate keeping all the Xbox users to their store, the store should be fine, but they would lose a large chunk of the revenue Game Pass brings in. As either everyone will go down to the lowest tier for online (I don’t think online paywall is going anywhere at this point, because of Asha’s focus on monetizing the user base more), or they would just stop using Game Pass.

51

It’s mind blowing to me that Xbox still hasn’t made a cloud only tier

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52

I guess they can’t until they can guarantee you won’t get stuck in a queue - I tried it last year in the UK for example and there was a 30 to 45 minute wait.

If I was paying for a cloud only tier or for an hours top up on my Game Pass I’d be expecting priority access with no waiting - otherwise I’d want a refund (and in most countries would be entitled to one) if I couldn’t actually play due to wait times every day.

Guess that’s partly what this is about - bringing down the wait times / usage as well as the costs, although I hope for the sake of players using it they don’t count queue time towards your 15 hours (I’m imagining they don’t)

53

I really think you’re overreacting. If you get a huge line-up of games, all XBOX on it after a year of being on sale, for a good price it could work and not hurt day one full price XBox sales.

SONY PS+ does the business and its service is crap, where you don’t even get Day 1 trails or all In-House games added to the service after a year on sale

54

I think most can work out the reason why…

55

Not even a little game pass would literally not be worth having for anything except multiplayer.

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56

I was talking about the old model when it was exclusive to Xbox One. I remember even telling friends, EA Play was a good reason to own an XBox One LOL

57

I’ve gotten my message about cloud gaming hour restrictions. The whole thing is written so corporate (“We know this is bad for you, but it’s good for us and that’s good for you too we promise.”), but what I hadn’t noticed is them just straight up refusing to share information about the actual costs being introduced until the month of. That’s crazy to me from a consumer perspective. The Xbox Wire post (the same one that the chat links to) says they’ll share information on pricing for purchasing additional cloud gaming hours before the changes take place… but then when you read further they specify that they’ll share information about pricing in NOVEMBER as in the same month the change is supposed to happen. There’s not a date for either too.

They cannot be this vague about something that impacts an ongoing subscription payment. Some of us are already locked into a subscription for multiple months and can’t cancel and get a refund. Others will want to know more information before deciding if it makes sense to keep their GP subscription going or just purchase individual cloud gaming hours. Maybe it’d be cheaper to downgrade and do that. This is baffling communication for such a fundamental change in game pass benefits. Especially for Ultimate subscribers. Cloud Gaming has been part of the subscription for nearly the entire lifetime of Ultimate existing.

You just fundamentally can’t be vague when you have a subscription service on the line. Customers are meant to lock in & subscribe ideally for like a year at a time or monthly & forget they’re even paying monthly. Hitting them with a “Changes are happening, here’s some information about the changes, and we’ll share the rest at the last possible minute so stay on your toes.” is counterintuitive to the very nature of a subscription model.

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58

Yep for me it’s the biggest issue with Xbox since the regime change - their communication around changes has been dire, particularly when you’d think legally it needed to be spot on.

The price cut was poorly communicated, not sent out by many Xbox regions for days and with zero consideration for anyone who had paid in advance, and the lack of notice of these charges feels like it may get them in serious shit in Europe.

They’ve already offered a refund of remaining months for this cloud change, no doubt due to EU and UK law around changing subscription terms, and if they refuse to give the pricing for much longer I would be staggered if they don’t have to cancel the first few months of charges for anyone who complains.

Those saying “they’re communicating so much more!” because they get into it on X posts, they’re not communicating enough on the actually important stuff that affects people’s finances - and for anyone not sipping the Kool-Aid the latter is what most consumers care about.

Seriously hope they get better at it

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59

I haven’t been offered a refund, so yeah that’s probably due to regional regulations. It feels like they’re trying to get away with as much as they legally can which is disgusting.

Yeah they’ve been far too vague on mstters that concern me directly as a customer and my active payments/spending on their platform. I don’t see any reasonable defense for it, and I very much understand where people’s frustrations with Xbox (people who aren’t bad actors that have never been on the platform) are coming for. When you’ve invested time and money in a platform and have ongoing active subscriptions, it’s unacceptable for them to be this dodgy about giving a clear answer to what’s happening with that platform. Especially when we’ve around go through so many 180 turn changes.

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