Microsoft has reinvented the arcade, except this time you buy the game first and then feed the machine quarters to play it. Next up: a premium tier that lets you pause without the meter running. At this rate, Xbox’s most profitable game will be watching customers try to escape the billing screen.

They can fuck right off...

I've called this so many times over... It's not just going to be xbox... it's going to be PCs in general, With AI data centers raising up the price on all hardware, They are already making moves in the government on banning routers. The plan is going to be for personal computers and hardware to leave the world. Either price them out of consumer reach or flat out outlaw them. We get thin clients like stadia, Luna etc... Actually having a personal computer capable of running software itself will be considered a national security threat. Why wouldn't you keep your stuff in the cloud where the government can audit it, companies can make sure you aren't pirating or running unapproved illegal LLMs that could make bombs etc...

And it's this kind of shit that has ruined my love for tech. It's all soulless dystopian slop they want you paying for monthly for the rest of your life. Fuck all these techno dweebs. It's a shame all the normies will go along with this...

Ok, whats your answer for all commercial companies without their own data centers then? You think they'd all be happy to give up their computers/laptops as well, or pay so much higher prices in the future?

Running with thin clients for office workers has been default for large corporations for literally decades. Hell it's even done in engineering heavy professions too. It's the entire business model of companies like Citrix, and it's extremely popular.

As for small(er) businesses, no they're probably not going to like it, but they hold little to no sway in the matter, so their opinions don't matter compared to the multi-billion international businesses that fuel this.

And outsourcing IT infrastructure is wildly popular for businesses of all sizes, because it's less hassle and direct management when you just pay a third party to deal with it.

Rent-seeking is definitely a sign of a financially-healthy company. Yup. No red flags there.

"Your company data is safe when using our virtual computers." *Wink

Jesus. I'm like all in on indie studios and old games. I don't need this bullshit in my life. It's already too much if a headache to comprehend what's possibly worth it or not when you pay by the month or the hour to try and figure out budgets and so on. Cancel it all, play the old shit and pirate the rest.

If they aren't rich enough, then they are in the same boat as us. This ain't exactly new... AWS workspaces, Azure Cloud PCs, Google docs, office 365, one drive. The tech has been creeping it's way into businesses for the last 10 years. Obviously they are getting hammered right now by the raise in prices of new PCs. As the prices go up, they will have to make decisions.

Next up: You get a free hour if you watch this AI slop ad. And since we've now required eye tracking to be enabled, if you look away from the ad for even a moment, then pay up.

Same

Well, what do you see around you, who needs this?

I mean, OK, worked with the Web, so - might happen.

But even with the Web - we don't seem to be on Facebook now, do we?

Also p2p poolable resources are not a bad thing, so honestly I'd want more positive thoughts on this, with ideas how to make a functional p2p system of lending computing power, for games too.

Would likely need overhead in the form of some intermediate bytecode, though, due to different GPUs and architectures, and probably different kinds of it for GPUs and CPUs, and some way to pay, but in general such a thing if made could become the second really popular Kademlia application after BitTorrent.

OK, I've become very dreamy after putting together a clumsy Forth in C, that doesn't even do anything useful, but perhaps one day someone with longer hands.

What else do you expect them to do with the billions of dollars of high end data centers they built for copilot? Help humanity in any way?

Like, I don't hate the pricing if it were not IN ADDITION to already paying for Gamepass, where I feel this all goes wrong is the fact you'd now effectively be paying to pause the game for a bathroom break or whatever and that just feels wrong.

This is exactly what european digital sovereignity is all about

And you all think all those companies will just fold their cards and go with it? I don't buy that.

How about I never """buy""" a game again from you Microsoft?

Get absolutely fucked.

Also paying to wait for the game to start.

Would also be a hell of an incentive for games to fill games with useless filler bullshit that takes time, just because.

DRINK VERIFICATION CAN

I think you are overestimating just how many big companies use a thin client-like system. But I admit I might be underestimating it. Out of personal experience, I used to work for a pretty big global company and every employee got their own work laptop to use. And that was a company with 30.000+ employees worldwide. So maybe that is my bias in this, and I would think companies like that wouldn't so easily give up their digital sovereignty.

I've never paid a cent to stream anything. There's all kinds of streaming everything that wants me to pay money to stream their shit. Guess what? No.

You can do it now. You'll be able to do it in the future too. Movies, games, makes no difference. There are several lifetimes worth of games you can play without capitulating to the stupid late-stage capitalist bullshit that's going on in this moment.

And it's not always easy. I recently purchased a copy of Max Payne 3, a 14 year old game, because it was on sale for $7. After downloading, I discovered that it required me to register an account with Rockstar to play the single player campaign. I uninstalled it and got it refunded. I intend to pirate it now, out of spite.

Fuck these corporations. Don't contribute to them. There's plenty of other shit to do and there always will be.

So they are trying to do an internet cafe?

More than that is a sign that this idea that the next quarter must be always better than the past one cannot work indefinitely.

they definitely want to put XBOX to the grave in favor of continuing the AI grift.

Piracy Stonks

When the joke greentext becomes the torment nexus...

The GamePass thing, where you lose the games you had to buy again, once they sunk it?

Oh sweet summer child no it is not. I've spent 25+ years in corporate now. Aside from set situations like BCP we are not using thin clients. They're cumbersome, an absolute bitch to manage, and quite frankly they're shit (underpowered) and not flexible.

Sure you may get some pockets of orgs that use thin clients across the board but I highly doubt it's common.

What a deal! Especially since the next gen Helix thingy is probably going to cost around US$1800, XBox is definitely the future of gaming. All hail Asha Sharma, the savior of XBox! (/s for those at the back who can't hear me clearly.)

They can want it as much as they like, they can fuck off.

They'll average $1700/year to play the fucking games they already spent $100 to borrow indefinitely? Fuck, gaming sounds so stupid now.

I work in IT for a large healthcare system that runs its EMR (electronic medical record) entirely through Citrix. So yes, yes we are using thin clients. And so is our largest competitor.

Aren’t anecdotes fun, my sweet summer child? You shouldn’t speak with such authority when you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Gamers gotta buy compute tokens, too. Welcome to devops billing, gamers. The tech companies decided they're done just taxing each other, time to tax you, too.

This is the fun thing about The Internet is that neither of us have any idea what we are talking about.

What I can tell you is in finance the use of thin clients is niche and is not a replacement for a laptop/desktop. It's been tried time and time again.

Yes we virtualize applications using Citrix but again those are niche.

Now, healthcare may or may not be a different beast altogether.

Question, how are users accessing EMR. Are they using a thin client workstation for that along with their word, excel, outlook, etc. or are they logging into a portal from their company issued laptop/desktop?

I'm at a hospital right now and everything here is powered off of laptops hooked up to portable physical workstations.

Regardless, I digress. I don't give enough of a shit to care further lol.

Prepare for more 20 minute unskippable cutscenes.

I read it as Xbox wants to pay you 20 to 40 cents an hour to stream their games... And I thought that seems low.

Whatever happened to cloud streaming using your own goddamn console?!

$1700/yr is 12 hours of gaming each day at $0.40/hr, which is more than the $0.24 you'd actually be paying. Nobody gaming that much would otherwise be spending $100/yr on games in any case.

This is a very stupid thing for the industry, but your numbers are hyperbolic and anti-useful.

ah but what about the hardware
rental fees

Nah, you buy the game for $70 plus tax and THEN pay 20-40 cents per hour after that :)

They had to feed the AI something to give the CEO ideas and all the reputable sites cost money so, really, it's our own fault.

What games will be billed at an hourly rate that are worth playing that won’t be on Steam or the high seas? Console exclusives that will be available to emulate at some point?

How about no?

This is why I am amassing a library of games and media that can all be consumed locally. The day that becomes the default is the day I stop paying for any of that. I don’t need “the new thing” or “you must watch this”. I have plenty of stuff to keep me entertained till the end of time.

The bitch is going to be components but I’m making sure I can work with things across multiple generations and have spares just in case.

Rent-seeking is just late stage capitalism. You'll own nothing and you'll be happy.

On top of the purchase price? Yikes, no thank you.

Microsoft wants to never sell another product to me again? Fine