Making Tech Headlines · Page 7
Xbox Cloud Gaming Adds a Clock to the Controller
· New York time
Microsoft has announced introductory pay-as-you-go packages for Xbox Cloud Gaming: $3.99 for 10 hours, $7.99 for 25 hours and $11.99 for 50 hours. Starting in November, Game Pass subscribers will receive 5 to 15 included cloud hours, depending on their tier, and must buy more time after that allowance. The additional charge can apply even when streaming a game the subscriber has already purchased, according to the reporting relayed by Slashdot. Owning the game and paying for cloud access are separate parts of the arrangement. The controller now comes with an invisible companion, a small accounting department. The practical change is a defined streaming allowance rather than an open-ended assumption about cloud access. A player comparing subscription tiers must consider both the included hours and the cost of additional packages. The introductory label also matters when assessing the announced prices. For a short-session player, a bundle may be sufficient. Someone spending longer in cloud sessions faces another variable in the monthly entertainment budget. The games have not necessarily become shorter merely because the billing units have become more precise. Gaming has long displayed timers, countdowns and resource bars. This change adds one that persists outside the fictional world: available paid time. Even a leisurely side quest can now have a measurable relationship with household expenses.
Read this story in the full newspaper →Satire. Not factual reporting. Read the original reporting from the linked publishers.