Sarah Bond: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's Least Popular Feature Is Cloud Gaming

I wouldn’t mind being able to play my owned titles via cloud through my devices, or game pass titles via cloud….. however, my home internet is maxed out at 25mb/1.5mb…. Small town, ATT DSL. So it’s not really viable for me sadly. Even remote play is janky, which I would love to utilize as I there’s a few games I don’t want to play on the big tv in front of the kiddos.

Wonder how many Xbox players are in the same boat as me with internet speed? I’d love to switch to the local fiber option, but it’s notorious for having down issues, and costs twice as much. And sadly that company won the fiber bid for the area, so gotta wait a few years before ATT can run fiber here.

I'll tell you what I find most tragic about this whole drama, and that's the simple fact one company can buy exclusive games and content and use its dominance as leverage to punish its competitors, the other who is 3rd place, can not.

But also, how there are mobs of "gamers" who would gladly see xbox die, despite that not happening, they come here and say things like "they're looking like Sega", I mean, no, I was playing the dreamcast when Sega died and by no means is xbox even close to that. But the wishing of death on a console while at the same time claiming nintendo don't count, means they're wishing for Playstation to be the only console. Imagine how much power that would give to one brand, and how they would use that to increase price, limit choice, and punish those who can't afford to game.

And lastly, how its effectively sucked the joy out of gaming and illuminated the worst corner of the seeable Internet, its become a beacon for hateful, ignorant, bias, dogmatic, cognitive dissonant bullies and trolls to scream and shout some of the most negative, though clearly infactual, rants I have ever seen. And they rush over onto xbox sites to try convert others into believing their inane hatred. Surely that's nothing short of extremist right?

If we didn't have such immediate access to this kind of communication, I guarantee most PS players wouldn't care, and in fact, more gamers would be gaming. But to make a fight out of something none of us are educated or qualified in, is just typically pointless and only serves as an excuse to argue and bicker and try to dominate each other with their superior opinions.

Gaming is meant to be fun, and brands get exclusives all the time, it happens, either buy both consoles or be happy with what you got. I wonder if whether most of the people who argue this even like gaming anymore, with so much expectancy and demands, is it any wonder they don't find the joy in games anymore.

I hope this whole thing is over quickly. If Microsoft win, they should just close the deal. If they lose, they should buy exclusive rights to Activision. Then everyone can go back to moaning about something else.

Think the big news from yesterday was Jim Ryan saying that he isnt worried about exclusivity.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/22/23769790/sonys-playstation-chief-microsofts-activision-deal-xbox-exclusives-ftc

@Zoidpilot4 agree with your points. I have been following this on all three sister sites.

I have all three consoles and love all of them.
But…. I do wonder what the reaction from pure Xbox fans would be if PlayStation ‘died’ and disappeared.

Sadness? Happiness?
Would be interesting.

At least in my case it's true, in spite of having fast internet. I think that the most hypocritical thing that all this has revealed is that Sony and some of its Ultimate fans that claim to be neutral when posting here, boast about Sony paying for third-party exclusives, the most anti-consumer thing ever and illegal in other markets, while hating Microsoft for acquiring studios.

Good grief.

Are they taking defense coaching from Jim Ryan on the side or something? At least say something more believable than pretending your entire strategy is a complete failure. Do these guys even have a strategy anymore or are they just trying to be a Steam competitor?

The whole "we have no path to success, everything we make is total failure" routine comes across as bad as Sonys "our whole company hinges on cod" act. Can any of these companies manage to simply state their actual position clearly and honestly?

I swear the freaking Facebook goggles are starting to look like the most honest and likeable platform around at this point.

@PSme @zoidpilot4 i also follow all three sister sites. There’s also a difference in how the articles on the sites are written, with playstation being more of a fansite than purexbox site, which feels a bit more like a journalism site in my opinion. And the communities following suit.

To put it frankly, without xbox Playstation would be or would go to sh*t. I’m happy we have at least three good eggs in the console space basket.

@NEStalgia
NES, most gamers don't care about all this drama. Me included, so it's just a matter of chilling out and gaming where the games you like are. Ignore the rest, it's not worth the stomach ulcers it can give you 😉

@PSme I would be devastated if PS died. I only recently purchased a PS5 and have always owned a playstation from 1 to 4, now 5. They're the Kings and first place for a reason, without them, xbox would do the same they would do, and that would be terrible.

On a side note, getting a PS5 3 years in, I have a lot of awesome games to play and the fact they're on ps plus =)

I knew it, no one is interested in console gaming on a mobile phone using touch screens. You need to spend hundreds on a proper streaming device or a backbone one for it to feel right, and even then its still 720p. It's why Sony haven't bothered with a mobile app since the ps now refresh.

@BRT15 I'm surprised this isn't an article tbh

@Zoidpilot4 many gaming sites simply havent covered it. Be it Eurogamer, VGC...it seems they're more interested in stuff like Indiana Jones going exclusive 🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️

@Zoidpilot4 @BRT15 It's weird that the gaming sites are not posting the biggest news since the drama started, Jim lying about what he pretended to be his biggest concern, Call of Duty.

@Banjo- I thought the same, it's a huge admission. Of Phil said something like that it would be blow up.

@BRT15 strange =/ I think it might be the most important part of the trial so far.

They are really laying it on thick

@Artois2 they kind of have to. Have you read what Jim Ryan's email said.

“It is not an exclusivity play at all,” said Ryan. “They’re thinking bigger than that and they have the cash to make moves like this. I’ve spent a fair amount of time with [Phil] Spencer Bobby [Kotick] and I’m pretty sure we will continue to see Call of Duty on PlayStation for years to come.”

That's who they're dealing with.

Win or lose, I think this is getting really dirty on all sides and the fall out is going to last for years after.

@Zoidpilot4 The Dreamcast was home to a burst of supernova creativity the likes of which haven’t been seen since from anyone.

@Zoidpilot4 agree about toxicity on push. I too love PS5, but say something ‘deemed’ negative and oh boy! Do you hear about it.

I chose my words verrry carefully over there. 😂

@Zoidpilot4 @Banjo- 100%. The fact that he has been lobbying with competition agencies around the world claiming that Xbox is going to make it exclusive and destroy the PlayStation is the epitome of anticompetitive behaviour which strangely the FTC and CMA are defending.

Think when this is over, the US and UK governments need to evaluate the leadership and realign the focus of these agencies.

It wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft was terrified of working with Sony in the future.

@PSme Indeed. As someone said earlier, it's the general tone of the site, not just the comments sections. PX has Fraser who is much more professional.

@RadioHedgeFund that's poet, and I applaud you =)

@BRT15 I agree. And if the worst case is that rhe deal is blocked, no way does Activision carry on with Sony as usual. I think xbox would have no choice but to try and disable Sony

@Banjo- cannot say if MS will be terrified as such, but it will definitely be ‘ undesirable’ to work with them for sure. Like I said previously, the fallout is going to long and painful.

@PSme I agree, it's not going to be the same between Phil and Jim specifically and, as @Zoidpilot4 said, I can't imagine ABK being friendly with Sony even if the acquisition failed.

@PSme i;d be disappointed to lose out on PS consoles if they went away, but they would still make games on Xbox and PC, and maybe Nintendo, they have cash in those Ip’s. Same with MS, same with Sega, if they “die” off they just release their software on the new hardware leaders. So no one in the big 3 is dying off anytime soon if ever.

After the dust settles I can't help feel the two companies will try to disable each other at every corner. There is no way Sony and Microsoft leave their feelings in the court room. I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like the two giants are gonna be out for blood.

@Zoidpilot4 oohhh yeeess! Gonna happen for sure!
Ringside tickets bought by Nintendo and PC gamers😂

@Green-Bandit True and Sony started to port all their games to PC, anyway. That's funny because some Sony fans mocked Xbox because of Xbox Play Anywhere.

@PSme hahaha "let them fight" hahaha

@Banjo- genuine question. Why do they need to ‘port’ to pc? Are they developed(coded) on pc in the first place?

@Banjo- Sony fans are some of the worse gamers in the business. The latch onto anything that is good for Sony cause somehow Sony is seen as an underdog and overachiever. When before MS, Sony was beating up on a broke Sega and a Nintendo that didn’t want to or know how to compete in power and AAA games from a 3rd party standpoint.

@PSme @Zoidpilot4 It's almost guaranteed that the deal will go through but if it doesn't, ABK will be more annoyed at Sony than Microsoft!

@PSme Xbox consoles have Windows 11 as operating system, PS consoles obviously don't. I don't know who ports PS "exclusives" to Windows but some run poorly until they're properly patched.

@Green-Bandit Remember that Sony betrayed Nintendo back in the day when they were hired to create a CD add-on for SNES and they decided to launch it as their own console, the successful Playstation. Perhaps that's why they feel superior, a word that they use in their patent applications to refer to themselves. Well, it's worse, they refer to the competition as "inferior".

Source:

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/patent-expert-calls-sony-childish-unprofessional-for-calling-rivals-inferior-in-patent-applications/

@Banjo- I had no idea about the CD add on for Nes. Holy crap that's bad

@Zoidpilot4 Yes, they didn't reach an agreement (money?), the SNES add-on was cancelled and Sony used it for developing the first Playstation.

@Banjo- @Zoidpilot4 They also wanted Nintendo be treated as a third party on the CD add-on too. Paying a licensing fee to release games on their own console and taking third-party profit cuts. I get why Nintendo went looking for another partner.

@abe_hikura No wonder Nintendo said no.

@Banjo- there was always an arrogance with Sony. They always thought their tech to be superior, hence the higher price tags. Thats why Samsung ate their TV sales away, that’s why the ipod beat the Sony music player, the list goes on and on, the Viao laptops. They lost all those markets cause they pushed their way and the customers didn’t buy into it. PS1-PS5 is the only true commercial successful products they have, outside of some headphones. Most of what they do today is 3rd-4th and even last place in sales. I am not saying i don’t like Sony TV’s, i do, even tho i have two LG Oled’s in my home. But Sony is not the nice, we play by the book company people would have you believe on most gaming sites.

I mean, us core gamers will love hearing that because, you know, we don't want or resist that being where we play in the future.
But it's a lie. Outright horses**t, really. Just for the regulators stuff.
Internet infrastructure and speeds will never slow, they will only ever grow bigger/faster. One day it will be so fast, that there will be no perceivable difference between playing a game - even something fast like a shooter - on native to playing instead over the cloud. Then it will take off. Youngsters of the future won't be hung up on discs as we are. They already consume books/movies/ music digitally. Microsoft, right now, see this coming landscape more than any other company out there.

I don’t use it and don’t know anyone else that does but I see it as a good added feature that’s there for people if they want it. I don’t know if it’ll ever truly take off, I don’t see it the same as having a dedicated handheld that people like to use and for me touch controls suck, they’re vastly inferior to a controller.

I’m always surprised by how few Gamepass users use cloud gaming. It has always be a perfect experience for me — so smooth that I sometimes I forget the game isn’t installed. A great way to get around hard drive space.

@Dm9982 come move by me matey in the uk 1gb up /down for £29.99, but be warned once you go on that speed you wont ever want to go back to anything lower

@abe_hikura thanks for letting me know that, is really interesting but also horrible to see that they have been doing this type of stuff for years.

@EvenStephen7
Same here. I played Halo this way and zero issues. A bit of stutter in Forza Horizon 4/5, but still manageable.

@Zoidpilot4 yeh I don't care what is /isn't exclusive , if I like the look of it I will play it ,simple as ,but saying that I do prefer exclusives on Xbox not cause of the rivalry with Sony but cause it will b on gamepass ,I won't b wasting £70 on a game that might be rubbish. Ahem saints row lol

@Martsmall I'm 100% same. Gaming has been a vital part of my life, it helped me get through some of the hardest days of my life. Being autistic as well it helps me escape the loud confusing and rule riddled world haha.

I'll game anywhere on anything, but that said, it's expensive and costly and that can alienate people, so that's why gamepass, I believe, is so important. Will always play gamepass games first

@UltimateOtaku91 xbox just needs more strategy or turn-based rpg’s and puzzle games. Those games suit best on xcloud. I really enjoyed playing persona on my phone via cloud because latency absolutely doesn’t matter.

I recon all older snes rpg’s and final fantasy games will perform very well on the service. Shame square enix is such a weird company lately.

@Friendly Does persona still feel good to play using touchscreen though? I think that's the most major setback with cloud gaming on mobile, they wanted to attract the casuals with with games like Battlefield, Starfield and Call of duty playable on your phone but its just not working due to the resolution and controls. If anything it would be in Microsofts best interest to actally make a dedicated handheld device for xcloud like the logitech g cloud for example.

@UltimateOtaku91 a dedicated handheld would be ideal indeed. I think they hoped a 3d party would step into that glaring omission, like Steam or Logitech.

But not needing to carry anything extra around made me forget I was using touch screen while playing Persona. For that game it’s worth the trade-off in my opinion. Call of Duty would be a completely different ballgame.

@Zoidpilot4 wow! Didn’t know you were autistic! So glad video games help you so much👍🏻
I have a work colleague who’s son is autistic and since he got him a switch, he says the transformation is incredible.

I have suffered from chronic depression since I was 15 (really bad childhood) but between my wife and games, I have managed to deal with it without resorting to medication.

I remember when video games had a negative press associated with them. Now, they help sooo many people cope in so many different ways, it really is fantastic to see/hear.

Sir, I salute you!

@NEStalgia I feel this generation perfectly sums up why Nintendo were right out of the 3 regarding hardware. All you hear regarding PS and Xbox is about acquisitions meanwhile Nintendo's just happily continuing supporting a much weaker specs 6 year old console with a strong lineup.

The state of Xbox/PS honestly makes me think that Nintendo would be best off using the Game Boy approach for the Switch (i.e. releasing Switch 2 around 2029). Avoid releasing a next gen system for as long as possible.

@PSme thanks =)

And sorry to hear about the depression. I also experience this, and like you, my wife helps too.

Games should be prescribed by doctors =)

@themightyant I don't agree. Sorry

@Kaloudz yeah mate. I've been following this patent lawyer on twitter (Florian Müller) who has been following the case closely and is in LA at the hearing and he made 2 good points about Jim Ryan:

1. If he was there physically, the Microsoft and Activision lawyers would have absolutely tore him to shreds
2. He is lying to someone for sure, question is, is it his higher ups in Sony or all these different regulators.

@BRT15 I'm following that too, it's really insightful

@Zoidpilot4 love your profile picture 👍🏻 In the uk we had Spider-Man weekly comic with Zoids as a back up strip.

It got sooo popular that people bought it for that alone!!

Ah the 80’s! 😁

@PSme the comics were great, the TV show zoids chaotic century is, was, amazing. =)

Just in case this gets removed for off topic (it happened to my previous comments) I'll say something on topic haha, it would be cool if they made a zoids game for cloud

@Zoidpilot4 @Kaloudz 😂😂 I'm usually really careful with whose online opinion I listen to considering the amount of rubbish on the internet but after listening to Florian speak on a couple of occasions, I think he is very factual and just makes a lot of fair points.

@Martsmall Lordy! I pay $70/mo for the service I’ve got….. next upgrade would be switching companies to 150m/150m fiber @ $120/mo

@Dm9982 yeh I went Canada saw Thier prices first hand ....I couldn't wait to get home to my fast and cheap net ,if Ur ever over here I'll share my net with you I'm kind like that lol

Honestly the only cloud streaming service for games worthy of mention is GeForce Now Ultimate. It is amazing with 4K 144 hz streaming with way lower latency then consolses. If they weren't so thin on major titles it would be the best game streaming by far.

@Martsmall Thank ya kindly I appreciate it! I’ve got a friend in the Netherlands that my family and I might be visiting in a year or two, and he’s got fiber. Might have to buy a 1TB (or 2TB if they’re available then) micro sd card and download all my switch games while I’m there, 😂. Sucks so bad upgrading that card due to how long it takes for me to reinstall everything. Last go (400gb card) took me 4-5 days total to put back on all my thumbnails and install all the games back. My Switch “cloud” of games exceeds 1TB though, and dread the upgrade….

For me, what i want to be able to do is locally stream my XSX to another device in my house. It just doesn't seem to be possible...or maybe it is possible and i'm a muppet and can't figure it out.

@Kaloudz hahaha Pierce Brosnan?? He's a German patent lawyer though as interesting as that might sound.😂

@themightyant he might have his biases but I think with the merger, he's bang on. Makes a lot of logical sense and I personally, not because I'm writing on an Xbox site, think the deal should go through. Sony this generation and under the leadership of Jim Ryan has become extremely greedy and complacent which really made me pick up an Xbox last year. And I for one think the added competition might make Sony, hopefully, get rid of Ryan and focus on what made them great in the PS4 era.

@themightyant yeah agreed..in an ideal world, that's how it should be..that each publisher or platform owner bring able to organically make their own IPs work.

On paper PC would be the most universal gaming platform but I'm getting too old to have a gaming rig or laptop and prefer just gaming on my couch so yeah...

Cloud gaming is fine to try a game or claim weekly gamepass rewards but that's all, way too buggy.

Xbox cloud gaming is a perk not a separate "market." Its not actually competing with Nvidia, etc.

I've said this for at least 2 years now. Cloud gaming is years away from even being relevant. Until data caps are eliminated, internet speeds are capable, and the infrastructure on consumer side is there, it will never work, nor will people care. But....place like Korea that has much better internet than the US, it's possible.

What Sarah Bond is trying to point out is simple...

The CMA: XBOX are poised to overly control cloud gaming globally for years to come.
XBOX: Everyone who goes into cloud computing/gaming, including us, loses money hand over fist. It would be a massive white elephant for us if we tried to foreclose the market.

This is the cornerstone of Microsoft winning in both territories. That they will lose bigger than they win trying to foreclose on the cloud market.

@Grumblevolcano My problem with Nintendo is they sell $35 games for $60, now $70, and never ever, ever discount that over time. I want to love them but find them almost as hard to love as the other two these days. Though they still pique my interest (I know Mario RPG is going to be $60+ and I know it should be $30+ and I'm going to buy it anyway because that game is magic and I'm sufficiently self loathing to let them abuse me. And I hate them for it. )

My problem with PSXB is they decided modern gaming should be so grandiose that it takes 10 years to make, doesn't run satisfactorily on hardware that exists, needs to cost $120 a copy to break even, but they'll do you the honor of letting you pay $70 to satisfy a budget nobody wanted. Devs in the industry just jumped the shark. Execs spend like crazy to try to be The NExt Big Thing(TM) And get Candy Crush money, and devs just collectively learned that any budget is justifiable to spend anyone elses money however they want because "vision." It's a mess.

Kind of agree on Switch. Sony's strategy is just 'premium products" and monopoly leveraging so there's no choice and high prices. Nintendo's strategy is that hardware doesn't matter and they're bigger than Disney so they can charge whatever they want forever, even if it's mediocre everyone loves it. Xbox's strategy is to guarantee at least four major new strategies every month.

@Moonglow Oh I don't miss the point, but what they're doing is like a bad actor in a Hamlet death scene that takes 15 minutes to die, then still has more lines. Their transparently over the top denunciation of cloud as even being a viable business it's just a hundred billion dollar expense people use to play games while installing games on their console as a perk, not even worth talking about is just gross and makes their entire position shady. Of course it's not huge business now, of course it may never be, and of course it's not realistic to block based on that in the current market. But instead of making a case for that they're trying to make a case for Xbox Done, while also saying cloud basically is doomed from the start and has no traction. If it were more transparent you could use it as a screen protector.

Whan does Sarah Bond get her own exclusive game ? That lady is a stone cold killa !

Here’s to the inevitable demise of the worst thing in gaming!

Am I the only one not surprised? Of course it's not profitable yet. Stadia was sort of the first foray ino cloud and MS has been trying to pick up where stadia left off. If they stick with it, they could easily grab a huge share of the future market. The Xbox streaming app isn't even readily available everywhere yet.

MS is playing down cloud to show they are not a threat now, but they are definitely in a good position. Especially, since butt-hurt Sony got busted admitting it was never really about CoD. Lol

I think it works pretty nicely, I haven't had the need to use it much, but occasionally when travelling or having visits at home and I think it's pretty handy. Hope it keeps on developing as a "side feature" in the ecosystem.

@NEStalgia the good thing about switch retail games is they hold value to part exchange.

I picked up a switch this year.

Xenoblade Chronicles. £23
Tactics Ogre. £20
Mario Kart. £26
Mario Maker 2. £23
Zelda Links Awakening. £23
Disgaea 5. £12
Switch Sports. £23

(Prices for voucher at cex)

If 2 big games release I can trade in and still have change for a costa coffee.

Compare that to xbox or PlayStation and you need to trade in at least double the games bar some anomalies.

@themcnoisy I'm not really a resale person, so the trade values don't really help much.. Plus in the US we have GameStop that'll give you $10 and a light saber keychain

@G1lbo You can stream to any windows, Android, iOS device and I believe Mac with the Xbox app, or cloud with the game pass app. unless you mean built into the TV in which case only some Samsung tvs do cloud but I don't think remote play from the console. (Edit: not Mac, gp through browser but not local console, sorry, not a Mac user!)

@UltimateOtaku91 I think ms is more into partnering with existing hardware. They officially market logic g cloud, Asus ROG ally, even steam deck, plus phone controllers and the like. That's really they're style. Tbh other than better price it would be hard to beat the g cloud,

@NEStalgia Cheers yeah. I guess what i mean is it's quite restrictive - I can't load up game pass app on my nvidia shield TV and start streaming - it seems to be mobile / portable devices only (not a mac user either)

It worked well for a bit and then I suspect my isp started throttling my connection

FTC are getting battered in court with thier toilet paper thin arguments.

@G1lbo hmm, isn't shield tv an Android device? Maybe too old a version though? Might be able to side load the app.

Only thing with Nvidia though it's they're xclouds main competitor so they make not make it available at least easily in purpose.

Eventually Ms will have their streaming stick... Probably after the abj thing where they keep pretending nobody wants to play cloud 😂

Good news. I will abandon this console; this ecosystem in a second if it went full cloud gaming. Even partially really. At the end of the day, No one would really miss it.