Our Pay-to-Play Cloud Gaming Future
A few weeks back, Microsoft announced upcoming changes to Xbox Cloud Gaming . Basically, they will be limiting cloud gaming via Game Pass from unlimited streaming to a fixed number of hours per month based on the tier you are subscribed to. This got me nostalgic for all the wrong reasons. It made me harken back to the good old days of cellular phone plans. The days when using your phone could cause you to accumulate a massive bill thanks to overages ( arguably, we are still there, but that’s outside the scope of this article ). See, our phone plans used to provide us with a set number of minutes. Once you used up those minutes, you went onto a pay-per-use overage rate set by the carrier. And to reduce the financial risk, you were offered an additional bucket of minutes for a set price. Sound familiar? This was a huge money-making machine for wireless carriers. Eventually, unlimited calling became a thing, although that didn't necessarily mean everyone was getting more value from t...