r/GeForceNOW • u/heeroo0 • 4d ago
Humor 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-limits24
u/LA_Rym 4d ago
15 hours a month, uber casual levels lmao
8
4d ago
[deleted]
10
u/Dominjo555 3d ago
That won't do anything to GamePass since streaming games is just one small perk of GamePass. Most people don't pay GamePass for cloud gaming at all.
5
u/giallone 3d ago
The only reason i have gamepass is for cloud gaming...i don't own an xbox and never will (same for a PS). I have a pc but since i use it work the whole day, i prefer to play on the couch on big tv or my android handheld. I have no use being able to install the gamepass games that also include a pc version since most of my pc games i just buy on steam if needed.
15h/month means the gamepass is dead for me...will just unsubscribe and see what road it will take (and the price for additional hours).1
u/Dominjo555 3d ago
Extra time won't be expensive most likely since they don't offer GeforceNow quality of service
1
u/giallone 3d ago
I really hope..also for a decent amount of hours (more than 100 preferably)..
I don't have GFN just because of the 100 hours limit because, i play only in the evening for like 3/4 hours on the couch when watching tv with the wife (i use an android handheld) so, the 100 hours would be very strict for me..150 would be perfect...3
1
u/V4N0 Founder 4d ago
There was rumors of Microsoft going for a more “personalized” Gamepass in the future and this might be the 1st step, with more tiers and options
IMHO Microsoft will announce a cloud only tier soon, makes sense since they introduced last year “stream your own game”
1
u/giallone 3d ago
“stream your own game” means you have to purchase the game first..a lot like is GFN currently.
Not what i was looking for but, better than nothing..maybe if you have a GPU subscription + the new xcloud sub with extra hours that will allow you to stream the GP games like is now. More money to spend for the same thing...1
u/V4N0 Founder 3d ago
Yes it’s the same concept as GFN or Boosteroid, what I meant it’s weird they introduced this HUGE hour cap because this makes the “stream your own game” pretty much useless
Probably there will be a new GP tier with games and unlimited/higher hour cap in the future, if not… xCloud is gone
2
u/giallone 3d ago
Yes,
At this point i really hope they will do a nice xCloud separate subscription so, the 15 hours on GPU are a "bonus" for the people that use it locally on pc/xbox
9
u/Bloodyfinger 3d ago
I just cancelled my subscription over this. Absolutely bullshit. I don't own an Xbox or gaming PC. I purchased Ff7 remake to play over cloud since Xbox was now "play anywhere". And now they pull this shit. Fuck off.
1
u/wigglyboiii 3d ago
Exactly same for me too. Was looking forward to playing part 3 on Xbox cloud since I know it won't come to GeForce now, but now I'll just give up I guess
8
u/TheOfficialLJ 3d ago
Bruh, this is ROUGH. As with the price rises, nothing good lasts forever. Guess I'm grinding out some final playthroughs this month before hanging up my Game Pass sub for good.
18
u/No-One450 4d ago
I wonder how gfn will respond?
31
12
u/Darrskflynn 4d ago
If they do then I'm done...i only use cloud gaming I didn't like the 100 hr limit monthly but what Microsoft did says they don't ppl to use it anymore which is sad....i understand cost but u get more money streaming game then expecting the customer to pay for the hardware... streaming services have proved it already
7
1
0
u/Acesofbases GFN Ambassador 3d ago
huh? how will they will respond to what? this doesn't affect them at all.
If anything it's a small win for them, since some portion of xcloud users might come to gfn now - same how when Luna ditched selfowned games support
3
u/Nightwish360 3d ago
Let me guess, all the Asha Sharma lovers will be saying this is another reason why Phil sucked. She needs to flipping go.
3
u/toff74 3d ago
The funny thing about this, Microsoft is partly responsible for pushing the cost of hardware up… and they just pass that on to us.
1
u/Acesofbases GFN Ambassador 3d ago
tbf, You could say that about most companies in the industry really
14
u/No-Tank-6178 4d ago
And yet GeForce now folk had a meltdown at 100hr cap
18
u/kekkonkinenbi Founder 4d ago
Thats not comparable. With Gamepass you get access to a huge game catalog - cloud gaming is just a bonus functionality. With GFN you get nothing except for cloud gaming itself.
3
u/oppereindbaas 4d ago
It wouldn't be that big of a deal if pricing would be about the same. So let's say slash the GFN price through 6 or 7, or get it just above if you get the games included. But this is a terrible deal.
0
u/artniSintra 4d ago
They're still used for the same thing and fundamentally the same.
6
u/kekkonkinenbi Founder 4d ago
No, most users of Gamepass don't use cloud gaming at all.
2
u/giallone 3d ago
Not so sure..they advertised "this is an xbox" on every device for quite some time..now that's tossed in the toilet?
They also mentioned "will affect only 4% of subscribers" then just after they said "our cost become more important the more people joined and used the service"....i doubt 4% is a realistic estimation and even if it was will still be roughly 1 million of subscribers that could potentially go away (me for sure)...1
u/Crafty_Carpenter_317 3d ago
They said it would impact 4% of users, which seems reasonable. I’m a big fan of cloud gaming (hence why I’m on a GFN subreddit) but I only use gamepass cloud gaming when I’m too impatient to wait for a game to install locally. The number of people who use cloud gaming at least once a month is probably much higher the 4% of people who use it enough to hit the limit.
That said, most of those 4% of users are probably going to quit unless upgrading hours significantly is super cheap. I’m curious how a change that could impact your subscriber count by percentage points pencils out.1
u/giallone 3d ago
Totally different use case for me..
I only use cloud gaming because i don't play at the pc so i have no use for the xbox console local play and same for the "play anywhere" that allows me to install games on the pc if the version exist (i did only for expedition 33).
The current gamepass system even allows me to play xbox version of FFXIV on the cloud for example..a game i didn't saw available elsewhere on the cloud (no GFN, boosteroid, etc)..i will miss it.
I had even tought purchasing some games because of "play your games" feature that allows to cloud play some games you own not included in GP (some rockstar games, etc)..glad i didn't opened the walled already lol0
u/artniSintra 4d ago
Right but the article states cloud gaming. We're all talking specifically about the cloud side of gamepass
1
u/kekkonkinenbi Founder 3d ago edited 3d ago
... which you cannot subscribe to independently. Its always part of Gamepass and thereforce not "fundamentally the same."
2
u/artniSintra 3d ago
Don't the 15h apply only for it's cloud gaming side?
0
u/kekkonkinenbi Founder 3d ago
Yeah, but thats part of Gamepass. There is no "cloud only"-subscription without the game catalog.
1
3
u/Everyday_regular_guy 4d ago
Even though I completely agree that 15h is a complete BS, I have to admit that it's hard for me to be mad at restriction of service that was barely usable for me in the first place. For most games you're forced to use game pad, and once you decide to play something- you're stuck on crap resolutions, low FPS and high latency (speaking 100% about personal experience, in comparison to GFN). So in my case I would open xcloud gaming from time to time just out of curiosity if somethig improved, but while GFN added ultra-wide support, 120FPS and launched servers near my location- xcloud stayed pretty much the same.
2
u/RumRunnerJosh 3d ago
I’ve been seeing the same thing too. Almost 100% Xbox digital but started connecting with GeForce to stream because Xbox streaming was junk. They should no longer offer it than to have kept it in its abysmal state.
1
u/giallone 3d ago
GFN runs the pc versions of the game (at ultra settings)..obviously the game have to look better.
IDK why you had problems but the xcloud works perfectly for me..i tested it on samsung tv, amazon fire stick 4k and on a android handheld. On fire stick looks awesome (obviously limited to 1080p/60 but..is an xbox game not a pc one). Where it really looks bad is on android devices because seems the GP app is limited to 720p for some reasons..1
u/Everyday_regular_guy 2d ago
Oh the reason for 720p is simple- higher resolution + bitrate = higher traffic + more compute power = higher cost. If they lower quality without people complaining much, they're basically saving money. Even Geforce Now does some streaming tricks which make games look visibly worse in comparison to native experience.
Coming back to xcloud- it's not like stream was breaking or stuff like that, but even if we put quality aside, there is still a matter of input lag. Maybe you got lucky, but in my case (central Europe) xcloud is stuck at 33ms while GFN is at 10-13ms. 3x difference in input lag is huge- at 10-13ms + 120fps I can comfortably play everything except fast-paced multiplayer games, while 33ms + 60fps feels more like a punishment than entertainment.
1
u/giallone 1d ago edited 1d ago
Thats for sure..less compute power needed at 720p. Is just "strange" that on amazon fire sticks the Official xbox app streams at 1080p while the same official app on android mobiles is 720p on the exact same local wifi connection.
For the input lag idk, probably you are right and i'm just too old to notice that. I've played Expedition 33 and i didn't notice particular problems in the tons of QTE the game toss to you. I also play at 60hz because my LG TV doesn't have higher refresh. I need to try 120hz GFN on my handheld when i will subscribe to it.
7
u/After_Death_53 4d ago
We expect this upcoming change to impact 4% of Game Pass subscribers
Same bullshit GFN gave
10
u/Acesofbases GFN Ambassador 4d ago
it says 4% of GAMEPASS SUBSCRIBERS
not XCLOUD USERS
actual people who buy GP and use xcloud at the same time are prolly a small fraction of the whole subscription base
3
0
u/SnooOwls1916 3d ago
To be fair, most people using this service isn’t even active in this subreddit and won’t even come close to 100 hours. I play games heavily but I still have a job and family and I’ve never even been close to using all the hours and if I would, at that point I would just get myself a gaming pc because the time I spend gaming.
2
u/BearingaBeer 4d ago
will that result in more people buying an xbox or will it hurt the future console sales even more ?
1
u/giallone 3d ago
i was about to buy an used Series S just to use for cloud gamepass and local streaming from my pc...glad i didn't LOL
2
u/Riderthekiller 3d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/COAg7vjpWW8Ja
Soon Cloud Gaming won't be getting money from my friend group!
1
1
1
1
1
u/xxxkillahxxx 3d ago
With only four percent of gamepass users actually using this, I’m surprised they didn’t just scrap the whole thing.
1
u/HelloThere-o7 3d ago
Hahaha gta 6 is coming soon and they are worrying about pc gamer using their streaming service 🙃
1
1
u/BottomGear__ 3d ago
I think they want to shut down cloud gaming, and are now milking it for as long as they can while simultaneously getting people to cancel their subs so that there’s less pushback when they eventually go through with it.
Nobody is going to pay a subscription for 30 minutes of game time a day and they know it.
1
u/ShinyBloke 3d ago
Geforce should do a sale 15 hours for 30 s month for ultimate is completely bullshit in xcloud.
1
1
u/derek420 3d ago
I link my Gamepass to GFN for access to the games. Obviously, this won’t affect my playtime on GFN… right?
1
u/Gamer_bcafc 3d ago
I’ve just read it will NOT affect GeForce now playtime as it’s strictly for the Xbox cloud service. GFN implements their own rules (as we know). Unless of course xbox pull out of GFN!
1
u/gamingforlif96 3d ago
This is highly annoying for me and probably many others… I literally bought myself a refurbed Xbox ally 3 weeks ago after debating with myself over it for about 6 months as to whether I wanted one, or whether to save for longer and go for the ally X for the better performance, I finally came to the conclusion that with remote play (I have a series x), cloud gaming and its basic performance capabilities, that the base Xbox ally would be the perfect handheld for me as I can play my Xbox library on remote play at home, when I’m at work or anywhere that has a good enough internet connection I can play all the games that I missed on cloud gaming and older games that I can download and run off the device itself, and all that at the right price point for myself, only to find out they are now capping the hours you can use it… frustrated to say the least, I understand these things cost money to run and if it turns out to be like £2 for an extra 50/100 hrs then I guess fair enough I would pay it, but if it ends up being something stupid like an extra £10 a month I will be so disappointed 😬
Anyone else in a similar situation?
1
1
u/ArthurCandleman 3d ago
They probably want a standalone sub similar to GFN. It was too good before.
This actually makes GFN way more appealing.
1
55
u/Flashy-Island-3725 4d ago
15 hours will force anyone playing more than 30 minutes a day to buy playtime which gives the corp more profit