Xbox wants you to pay 24 to 40 cents per hour to stream games you already bought
Read this article in:
As reported by Arstechnica, in September, Microsoft significantly tightened game-streaming limits for Game Pass subscribers. At the time, the company announced plans to let non-subscribers buy cloud gaming hours through the Xbox Store and stream eligible games they already own on supported devices. On October 21, Microsoft launched the new pay-as-you-go option for Xbox Insiders, introducing the following introductory prices:
- 10 hours: $4 ($0.40 per hour)
- 25 hours: $8 ($0.32 per hour)
- 50 hours: $12 ($0.24 per hour)
The pricing may frustrate players who have already paid to own the games they want to stream. Microsoft confirms that purchased hours do not expire and remain available until fully used.
The model resembles the pay-per-play system of traditional arcades, where players inserted coins for just a few minutes of entertainment. That approach has largely disappeared from home gaming, which has shifted toward purchasing games outright or paying a subscription for access to a larger library. Microsoft's new system reintroduces metered access, requiring players to pay extra for the time they spend streaming games they already own.
comments
Please login to post comments:Game engines are excellent 3d environments, pleasant to look at, and so forth. Are you renting that environment to show it to other people, did you get it for free? Even if you paid to own a copy of your favorite song, you can't stream that song for free (or for profit) to millions (or dosens) of other people. Why can you stream a game, even the one you paid for, without giving daddy a cut?
And again, my rationale mostly centers on how excellent some game engines are, how marvelous it is to look at them. So charging streamers for displaying it to an audience seems reasonable, especially if reasonably priced.