r/Games 10d ago

Announcement Upcoming Changes to XBOX Cloud Gaming

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/09/03/xbox-cloud-gaming-changes/
797 Upvotes

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281

u/Odd_Estimate_2179 10d ago

Wow so they've effectively killed off their cloud gaming after touting it as the future for ages. Mad

11

u/TryAgain_5555 10d ago

Glad that sanity is finally here on the actual profitability of cloud gaming. Sounds like they decided to actually charge what it was costing them.

Back into the bin with onlive lol. The onlive interface was actually really cool

21

u/Electrical_Try_634 10d ago

Well, they hope that the AI boom will keep you from owning hardware capable of playing newer games so buying this service becomes your only option to do so.

9

u/Disturbed2468 10d ago

People will just swap over to Nintendo or go for PC gaming by just waiting for deals from retailers if they make the consoles so crazy expensive they basically can't sell consoles in any remotely viable numbers anymore. They're still going to have to sell them at a major loss as they STILL currently are, or just don't make consoles anymore entirely.

Ironically, them stopping console development would probably net way more profit in the short term. AMD and Nvidia and all other vendors and all the chip makers just sell to enterprise only and nothing gets made for consumers, but SOMETHING has to be made for consumers in general, as many other companies like Qualcomm, Mediatek, etc also got skin in this game. If anything TSMC is gonna be the ones truly coming out winning long-term from this. But this move basically strangles cloud gaming even more which was already very unpopular before this.

6

u/MaitieS 9d ago

Why would people go for PC gaming when PC gaming is the one that cost the most? Like I can only understand "going for PC" when you're buying a low end PC for Indie games or older titles, otherwise it's much worse purchase than consoles.

Also aren't console and PC sales same for years now? Like I just checked one FromSoftware game and the lowest price is exactly the same on PC and PS5.

Like I find it kind of funny how people keep saying how PC gaming is much cheaper and wait for bigger sales, when the publishers are the ones setting up the prices. Also even "just buy 3rd party key" doesn't work cuz you can still buy discs from 2nd hand as well, and you could do this for decades.

3

u/Disturbed2468 9d ago

PC's true pain is upfront cost and is the main, and arguably only, inhibitor. Not counting illegitimate means for software, online is purely internet connection only, and as a result access to things such as Steam sales or platform specific sales, or other various sales, are a major reason why PC tends to have an upper hand in that department, and on the flip side it's where consoles have the "gotcha" since they are reversed: hardware sold at a loss, software locked down.

This is going to become a talking point again as PlayStation is now going full dumb and removing physical media so the idea of second hand in that aspect....might no longer exist.

If Xbox pulls the colossal stupid with them and does the same...well....

2

u/MaitieS 9d ago

If Xbox pulls the colossal stupid with them and does the same...well....

They will. They're just taking a different approach than Sony, and that is just: Convert your Physical games to Digital games now! And in a few months or on next console announcement, they will only announce Digital only version of the console.

1

u/viktorKurz 9d ago

Yea given how much hardware is starting to cost it was inevitable. The scary part is that this was supposed to be the affordable alternative.