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Xbox wants you to pay 24 to 40 cents per hour to stream games you already bought: Time-based a la carte charges come on top of the purchase price for the games themselves. (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[+] -19 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Microsoft wants to charge for providing a service? That seems completely fair. Streaming a game isn't free for them.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 child)

    IDK, maybe they could put games on some kind of physical media so that users could have the game and not need live service? Like some kind of optical disc? They could charge for add-on DLC, like they used to. Software could be downloaded and stored locally…once. y’know, without being streamed?

    And gamers could rent servers. Like they used to. And that could be an income stream for a company.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 weeks ago

    I'm not arguing that Microsoft is some saint or that they've done nothing wrong. This just seems like a dumb reason to get mad at them. If you buy a digital game from Microsoft and have an internet connection solid enough to stream the game, you likely have the bandwidth to download the game.

    You can still buy Xbox games on disc (I sometimes buy discount games used that I missed the first time around). And I read recently that signs are pointing to the next Xbox also having a disc drive for games.

    I'm with you on private/rented servers for sure. I still remember all the hoopla about support for dedicated/private servers vanishing the first time around.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    They want to charge you for something that's free on other platforms.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    I honestly wasn't aware of other platforms that stream games for free. A quick web search tells me that Sony offers cloud streaming as part of Playstation Plus Premium, Steam lets you stream from your PC to other devices. I couldn't findany other cloud game streaming services that don't require a charge or subscription; would you point me in the right direction please?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago

    On pc you use third party software to stream, i use Apollo which is a fork of sunshine and Moonlight. As for PlayStation on the PS4 you just used the companion app, I can't remember if you needed plus or not but I wouldn't be surprised if you did. PS5 sells a whole peripheral for it but I think you can still use the app. Not sure, PS4 was hostile enough for me to abandon console gaming and return to pc where it's better and cheaper.

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