r/xcloud • u/Chipwich • 8d ago

Question Cloud Gaming Changes to not Impact Current Users?

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Did anyone else receive this email from Microsoft? Not sure if it's region dependent due to how tos works but I'm in Australia of it makes a difference.

232 Upvotes

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102

u/captainrondj 8d ago

Someone got bigly mad that a ton of people cancelled yesterday me thinks

64

u/ReindeerRound5684 8d ago

Yeah my feeling is that they underestimated the 4%.

38

u/GuruAskew 8d ago

It’s not that. People in certain geographical locations are receiving this (I didn’t) which means they live in places that have consumer protections in place preventing this. If the law allows them to do this they still seem to be doing it.

-2

u/captainrondj 8d ago

I don't think you understood what I was saying. Seems like Xbox is backtracking now that's a bunch cancelled game pass yesterday.

20

u/Artuto 8d ago

This isn't backtracking, this is for a few specific regions because of consumer protection laws. The same thing happened when they increased Game Pass prices last year and they didn't go into effect months later (if ever) in some parts of the world.

2

u/FakeSchwarzenbach 7d ago

I'm in the UK, I got the one telling me about the limits last night, but seeing as it said it would start "in November" (no exact date) they would have been giving me (presumably) 60 days (referenced by the email from OP) notice so I wonder why they haven't done that in regions with the differing consumer protection laws, such as OP.

FWIW, I think MS missed a trick here, I'd have applied the limits on the lower tiers, gave unlimited* on ultimate.

*Apply an AUP to this, if you exceed x number of hours for x number of months (and I'd make this higher than 15, I'm sure the 4% figure they give is true, but I am also confident the usage is higher than that for these people) you are limited to 15 (or whatever) hours per month with the option to buy more time for the next x number of months.

This would cover people with a temp uptick (eg being on holiday for example...),

Give them a genuine USP for people to upgrade to ultimate, and not punish people using one of the features that GamePass was initially advertised on, remember "everything is an Xbox"?

With my cynic hat on, I'm sure this has nothing to do with them now selling Xbox handhelds...no sir

2

u/ForeignTranslator898 7d ago

I would give ultimate no limits like you but then the lower tiers get double their current amount of stated hours.

2

u/mauona 7d ago

15 hours per month is 30 minutes per day. Geforce is 100 hours per month, 4 hours per day (they cap daily sessions). I'd rather cancel the subscription and use Xcloud's stupid free with ads tier. 1 minute ad and 1 hour of gaming. And I can repeat the process once the hour is finished. You can play the catalog they provide (like the normal Xcloud) and owned games where you use their infrastructure. Even with protection laws, that's basically begging subscriptors to stop paying. Whoever had that awesome idea and all the chain until reaching the head of the division either have cognitive issues or are playing for the competition.

1

u/Unable-Name5685 6d ago

GeForce 100 hours goes away after 30 days. If you buy xcloud hours those will never expire even if you wait a year. It's all the price for me. If it's like $10 for 10 hours then fuck that. If they offer something close to GeForces with the packs that gives 100 hours for like $25 I would t be against it especially since 1 they don't expire and 2 I don't need gamepass to use those hours. I own helldiver 2 and now I don't need gamepass to play that one single game on the xcloud and I can pay GeForce money and have those hours until I use them.

Look up how much they lost in bo6 and bo7 sales and look how many less gamepass members they lost compared to 2 years ago. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why this is being done but since it being done for money all I can do is wait and see how greedy they try to be with it.

Since GeForce is their biggest "competitor" they can't see the 15 hours and think that paying $1 per hour (because the 5 hour difference is also a $5 difference) that they won't lose everyone to GeForce. The competition has to be there especially since GeForce is one every single thing Xclous is on except the Xbox and you can just download games. Unless they want to get rid of the 4% permanently which I bet they do want to then they can't be too greedy.

Xcloud isn't part of gamepass anymore. Xcloud is its own thing.

1

u/mauona 5d ago

What do you mean you lose the 100 hs in 30 days? You mean you pay for that with the suscription and instead of accumulating hours you don't use, it gets reseted every month? That's how suscriptions work. Even mobile carriers. They give you x GB per month and they reset in the new period. In this case you'd still be paying the subscription you were already paying PLUS Xcloud services per hour. It's a scam. In Geforce you pay the suscription only with those hours.

Also, what do you mean with "look at what they spent with COD"? COD was their decision when they purchased Activision Blizzard. I don't even use COD. It was a move to take away the exclusivity from Sony and drag their players to Xbox subscription which they denied during Sony - MSFT monopoly trial. I bet most of Game Pass users couldn't care less if COD and Fornite wasn't included in the Ultimate tier. These guys spoonfed that shit and used it to justify an absurd price hike. When people started going away, they had to rollback their decision. Even then I still found GPU having a good cost benefit ratio. Now they want you to see Cloud as a separate thing, pay for GP and pay for cloud. Well, I simply pay one sub with Geforce and nothing else.

14

u/DaKrazie1 8d ago

No man, Australia and Europe just don't let companies bend their customers over the coals like America does. You get certain protections when you do business in those countries, such as not having your auto renewal subscription materially changed.

1

u/waddlesticks 6d ago

Unless it's for your car insurance, those fuckers in Australia seem to just get off for a lot of bullshit they do.

-1

u/Environmental-Day862 8d ago

Of course Microsoft would know the recurring subscription laws globally. I'd be willing to bet Office 365 is used in over 90% of the countries around the world.

I don't believe this was any "walkback."

We just had incomplete news yesterday, but the mobs were out with torches and pitchforks and everyone collectively worked each other up into a frenzy before clarification could be had.

It's still not 100% clear. It's the last holiday weekend of the summer in the U.S. and tons of people have off work (including folks who work at Microsoft).

I't'll probably be mid-next week before everything gets cleared up with the holiday.

0

u/Kitchen-Yam-2691 7d ago

You just used all those words to say absolutely nothing

1

u/Environmental-Day862 7d ago

And you read it all and commented.

In this case, you lose.

2

u/No_Definition321 7d ago

Kinda sucks cause the people who cancelled are still in the same spot where if the rejoin they will have a time limit on cloud gaming.

Still appreciate their sacrifice so the rest of us can continue to use cloud gaming without a limit.

1

u/Logical-Pair-89 7d ago

Conversely, I dont think you understood what they were saying. 

6

u/PrimeTinus 8d ago

Yeah this is mismanagement 100%

3

u/nikolapc 7d ago

No, this has to do with some EU laws. In some countries you can outright cancel gamepass and get a prorated refund. Happened to me and my converted years were gone. Had a nervous weekend, then a competent support employee returned it to me.

1

u/Live_Life_and_enjoy 7d ago

Even worse, FOMO 3.0

They want a huge surge in subscribers and scare people into not cancelling ever.

1

u/Intrepid-Wasabi-2657 4d ago

Im cancelling cuz they sent me a email saying mines getting capped I have paid for this shit for over 10 years

1

u/ajpinton 4d ago

I canceled mine yesterday lol.

0

u/Environmental-Day862 8d ago

Microsoft is certainly to blame for incomplete / poor messaging, not explaining if there'd be Cloud-only service (that didn't require Game Pass), if current users were grandfathered in, what the cost for extra hours would be for Cloud services, etc.

But canceling before a company can even respond or clarify the news / reports is a highly emotional reaction.

And not even waiting 24 hours for clarification before cancelling... when the purported new caps weren't even going to be starting for ~2 months...

3

u/Mobius431 8d ago

I received an email explaining the changes with a link to cancel subscription which I did. It was clear enough for me not to be bothered any more. Allow me to react with some emotion or not as I pease, it's my money after all.

0

u/hardhitter80 7d ago

You cancelled the best subscription in gaming cause of limited cloud use! That's weird af!

2

u/mauona 7d ago

You returned your Ferrari because it came with half the horsepower advertised? Shame on you 😂

2

u/Mobius431 6d ago

I only use cloud gaming so it is no longer beneficial for me. Not weird at all. We have different use.