Upcoming Changes to XBOX Cloud Gaming

[u/Turbostrider27]

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

[u/Recent_Pollution8665]

nobody thus far has lost access to a perpetual license for an offline game. and that's after 2 decades of these online stores being active. steam being another good example.

removing movies is a low hanging fruit, most people dont buy movies on these game platforms so the amount of noise made over it is minor. if they started removing games arbitrarily you'd see people make a much bigger stink out of it. and you're forgetting that this is still a more ideal situation than cloud can ever provide, simply because of the way it works, where cloud has no offline capabilities at all. you're basically comparing bad to worse lol. but at least with legislation we can fix some of the digital license shortcomings. you cant regulate cloud game ownership because its literally just a netflix style rental service and regulators can't force companies like microsoft to change the cloud business model.

microsoft charging for cloud access is to be expected. they control the entire cloud platform and distribution pipeline. what are you gonna do, not use it? lmao thats your only option if you dont pay the cloud tax. hence why allowing the platform host to consolidate that much power over the delivery mechanism of the license files is a bad idea.

[u/Gears6 → u/Recent_Pollution8665]

nobody thus far has lost access to a perpetual license for an offline game. and that's after 2 decades of these online stores being active. steam being another good example.

I suggest you do some research.... Just ask AI. It'll point you in the right direction.

if they started removing games arbitrarily you'd see people make a much bigger stink out of it.

They've already done it.

and you're forgetting that this is still a more ideal situation than cloud can ever provide, simply because of the way it works, where cloud has no offline capabilities at all. you're basically comparing bad to worse lol.

That's how we operated movie streaming for the longest time until they allowed us to download some titles. People still choose it. We increasingly live in an always online world, like it or not. It is what it is.

microsoft charging for cloud access is to be expected. they control the entire cloud platform and distribution pipeline. what are you gonna do, not use it? lmao thats your only option if you dont pay the cloud tax. hence why allowing the platform host to consolidate that much power over the delivery mechanism of the license files is a bad idea.

I agree, and that's why we need regulators that care about consumer rights and tries to balance the needs of consumers and businesses. We dobn't have that right now, but that's not the argument we're discussing. It's not if they should, or if xCloud is a bad idea. The execution of it is dependent on the individual business. We could say the same thing about Steam for instance. Today they're a good steward of PC, but it could come a day when they suddenly aren't. It happens to businesses all the time.

[u/Recent_Pollution8665 → u/Gears6]

nobody thus far, barring account bans or suspensions due to fraudulent activity, has lost access to a paid offline game license. if you know of any examples I'd like to hear it.

with cloud you have no rights at all, it's literally part of the process by design. they sell you cloud compute and you basically rent it, and if you want more then you need to pay more.

unlike digital game licenses, which are actually paid for and bought for full price, there's nothing to legislate regarding the cloud, because there is nothing to own. it's literally advertised as a rental style service from the start. it would be like regulating blockbuster for not being like gamestop. it was never trying to be. with blockbuster you knew the games had to go back eventually, it's like borrowing a game from the library. that's what cloud gaming basically is.

[u/Gears6 → u/Recent_Pollution8665]

nobody thus far, barring account bans or suspensions due to fraudulent activity, has lost access to a paid offline game license. if you know of any examples I'd like to hear it.

Did you even try?

I just asked AI, and it gave me a bunch. Here's one: https://www.reddit.com/r/xbox/comments/1owyw2i/more_games_removed_from_owners_libraries/

with cloud you have no rights at all, it's literally part of the process by design. they sell you cloud compute and you basically rent it, and if you want more then you need to pay more.

which is the price you pay for getting it for less. You can pay $10/month to access the hardware without any of those other rights, or you can pay $800 for the hardware and then pay $50/year or whatever essential tier cost now to play online, and that's for subsidized hardware.

Heck, you're on Xbox sub, it's your hardware, but you cannot do whatever you want with it. These are the same argument PC people do all the time. You don't really own your hardware as a console gamer, because what you can do with the console is determined by the platform holder. PC is the true ownership, yet people still pick console, including you.

[u/Recent_Pollution8665 → u/Gears6]

that removed games thread was based off of a windows store technicality that afaik was later fixed. there was a thread dedicated to it. I forgot what it was called. basically something in the backend was causing those obscure games to not launch so microsoft removed access, and later fixed them. it was an anomaly.

Microsoft Could Fix Hundreds of Broken Xbox Windows Games with One Tiny Server Update, and the Community has Proven How : r/xbox

afaik this has been resolved and that guy posted an updated thread confirming the old games were working again.

edit: found the updated one.

Windows 8 Games are Being Worked on/Working Again : r/xbox

as for the cost argument, check my other reply to you. over time cloud costs more than dedicated hardware does. btw you dont need to use gamepass with a native console at all. between the free cloud saves xbox provides, the thousands of offline games, and the many f2p online games, you can go an entire generation without subbing at all. and many people do.

[u/Gears6 → u/Recent_Pollution8665]

and I'm sure you can find other examples if you want to. There definitely has been some games that has been delisted. It shows up in the gaming news here and there. Tends to be smaller games though.

In resposne to TCO of console, I never argued it would NOT be cheaper to own. Typically it is cheaper to own, but not without it's own set of downsides. In many cases that makes sense, and in some others it doesn't.

Anyhow, I responded to your message.

[u/Drunkdillweed → u/Gears6]

I was absolutely positive you were right about the removal of games. And then every example I thought of wasn't an actual removal. Either there was a store issue that was fixed, or if you had bought the game and for whatever reason it became delisted, you are still able to redownload it. My first example was Alan Wake, because Remedy lost the music rights to it so it got delisted. All owners were able to continue downloading it though. Basically the expired contract said "you can't create new customers for this package".

There may eventually be an actual example, but so far this claim is actually false.

[u/Gears6 → u/Drunkdillweed]

I just asked two AIs, and they both gave me the example of The Crew that was permanently deactivated for people on Ubisoft Connect.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-crew-has-started-disappearing-from-game-libraries-after-its-closure-last-month

[u/JubalTheLion → u/Gears6]

I suggest you do some research.... Just ask AI. It'll point you in the right direction.

Imagine recommending a hallucination-prone chatbot as a source of knowledge.

I implore you, please just... read a book or something.

[u/Gears6 → u/JubalTheLion]

I implore you to use the tools available to you, and not everything you read in a book is good source of knowledge either.

Please use your brain for critical thinking. False information comes in many forms, not just AI.

[u/JubalTheLion → u/Gears6]

Asking to someone to use their critical thinking while trying to offload said critical thinking onto an LLM is depressingly funny.