• Tempus Fugit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 days

    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…

    • Soulphite@reddthat.comEnglish
      16 days

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

      • Ava@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        16 days

        $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.

        • Axolotl.cpp@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          16 days

          Let’s say you play a game that costs 40c to stream, and it’s every day for a year; it will be ~400$

          • RaphaelSchmitz@feddit.orgEnglish
            15 days

            For 2-3 hours per day is what you mean I guess?

            Because 400 is pretty close to the amount of days in a year, meaning you would have a bit more than a buck per day.

          • Ava@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            16 days

            If you refer to the article, it’s price tiering. You would be consistently paying $0.24.

      • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        16 days

        “Indefinitely”, huh? They can just rent it forever? Sounds like a missed opportunity for shareholders, I bet we can get that line even higher

        • Zarobi@aussie.zoneEnglish
          16 days

          Indefinitely just means unspecified. Could be 3000 years, could be 15 minutes; it implies “until further notice” depending on the whims of the noticer. See “suspended indefinitely” in crime drama shows, where they’re back on payroll by the end of the episode

    • iegod@lemmy.zipEnglish
      15 days

      Tech is still great but you have to know where to look and invest. Sony/MS have lost the plot that’s for sure, but the pc gaming ecosystem is vibrant, and there are amazing foss solutions to just about everything, including streaming.

    • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      16 days

      Go along? They’ll be zealots demanding everyone get on board, just like heavily exploited console players are today.

  • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.todayEnglish
    16 days

    Important point of clarification- this is about streaming from the cloud, using an Xbox or GPU in the cloud to play the game. This makes sense as buying the game or not, you are still using cloud resources.

    Xbox Remote Play, which runs the game on your home Xbox and streams from your house to wherever you are, is free.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
      16 days

      this makes sense

      No it doesn’t

      Well, what you say does, but running games in the cloud doesn’t make sense in any logical way except for that that the owner of said cloud will be walking to the bank laughing his ass off

      • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.todayEnglish
        16 days

        Oh I agree paying to rent a cloud xbox when you have one sitting at home is fucking stupid. A lot of cloud everything is fucking stupid, and I say that as an IT person who’s been fighting cloud-itis since the term ‘cloud computing’ became a thing.

        • Landless2029@lemmy.worldEnglish
          15 days

          I see this as a feature most people wouldn’t actually use.

          Only use case I’d have for it is wanting a game to render at higher specs while travelling at like a hotel.

          I bought a steam deck for a vacation when it came out. Used it on the flight and that’s it. Never played games except at the airport so I was fine rendering at the steam deck.

      • Eximius@lemmy.worldEnglish
        16 days

        Idk, I think you’re immediately jumping to the conclusions of “they’re trying to make us all rent everything”, which, while most likely isn’t wrong, is also obscuring some potential for “Hey look, I can play less-response-time-intensive xbox games on my fricking phone with good wifi, because of amazing compression technology”

    • SilverFlame@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16 days

      This is an important note, the headline grabbed my attention but isn’t entirely accurate.

    • COASTER1921@lemmy.mlEnglish
      16 days

      Ya at current memory and server gpu prices it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they aren’t even making any money at 40c/hr.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        16 days

        there was something the other day about microsoft having warehouses of GPUs for datacenters that arent even built yet.

        They could probably take 1% of those to cover it without any additional costs for them.

        • twilightwolf90@lemmy.worldEnglish
          16 days

          They aren’t the same GPUs that are in Xboxs. those are nvidia GPUs eg the nv72 or gb300. There’s no way to make them compatible with Xbox. Source: my unc works at Microsoft data centers.

            • twilightwolf90@lemmy.worldEnglish
              15 days

              Xbox and PC versions aren’t exactly 1:1. Plus, those are extremely expensive GPUs to not be selling for top dollar to the AI bros instead.

              Edit- I’m leaving out things like architecture, shaders, tensor cores, NVIDIA vs AMD, SXM vs PCI-E, etc.

              • Squirrelanna@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
                15 days

                Not 1:1 sure, but I’m struggling to think of a meaningful difference that would make the PC version an inferior one besides incompetent porting.

                • twilightwolf90@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  15 days

                  Xbox cloud servers are literally 5 motherboards: 1 management board and 4 Xbox ones. Developers can optimize for a single configuration rather than bake in support for multiple ones. Once it works on an Xbox dev kit, it works on all Xboxs including cloud, console, and handheld. SDKs are making that a thing in the past, but it’s not perfect.

              • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
                15 days

                those GPUs were sold for top dollar to AI bros.

                its why microsoft has so many of them, sitting in a warehouse, waiting to be used, for stupid AI bullshit.

                • twilightwolf90@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  15 days

                  They are sitting in the warehouse because there aren’t enough other parts (e.g. DIMMs), power, or data centers for them. And as stupid as AI bullshit is, they are paying more than gamers by orders of magnitude.

  • TheFogan@programming.devEnglish
    16 days

    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…

    • FridaVermercury@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      16 days

      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?

      • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        16 days

        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.

        • FridaVermercury@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          16 days

          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.

          • LostCarcosan@lemmy.todayEnglish
            15 days

            They don’t have to give up digital sovereignty. They’lll just subscribe to the Executive plan which grants them more control for cheaper than 30,000 laptops

        • whoisearth@lemmy.caEnglish
          16 days

          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.

          • thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.worldEnglish
            16 days

            IDK, in broadcast infrastructure it’s thin clients and virtual machines all the way down, and yes it causes tons of problems.

          • khornechips@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            16 days

            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.

            • whoisearth@lemmy.caEnglish
              16 days

              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.

      • TheFogan@programming.devEnglish
        16 days

        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.

        • 𝙻𝚘𝚗𝚐𝙼𝚊𝚌𝚃𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚍𝚄𝚙@aussie.zoneEnglish
          16 days

          My job trialled azure cloud PCs a couple of years ago.

          It was pretty good from my point of view as a user.

          However the cost was higher than $8000 laptops we have, so we didn’t adopt it.

          Wonder if it’s still the same. Guessing the cloud is still suffering the same hardware price hike anyway.

          • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            15 days

            Yeah I get the feeling a lot of people don’t understand how crazy expensive virtualized desktops are.

            You really don’t go to it to save money. It’s for standardization and security and it costs you. Then you’re at the mercy of the company anyway. Just witness VMware now.

          • TheFogan@programming.devEnglish
            16 days

            Running a comparison, assuming it’s in use 8 hours a day 5 days a week, looks like a CPC runs around 640-760 a year (just googling quickly checking the numbers). course that’s just basic hourly office computer, meant to be comparable to what normally would be normal office computer. Didn’t bother to look and see what say an 8,000 high end graphics card laptop or something would compare… of course if your company was doing 8,000 laptops “a couple years ago”, those are probably at least 15,000 laptops today.

          • TheFogan@programming.devEnglish
            16 days

            I don’t think it’s going to be an overnight thing, It will start voluntarily, as the price equation shifts. the complications wasn’t worth the savings when office PCs were 1500 a pop, but what about when they are 3000 a pop and projected to hit 5000 next year. After more of them make the switch… then say an announcement can happen that microsoft is lessening it’s support for on prem servers and workstations, patches will be less frequent. and now it’s a risk assessment as well.

            • Womble@piefed.worldEnglish
              15 days

              I dont understand the reasoning behind people seem to think prices for components will climb for ever and ever without generating more supply. if RAM becomes obscenely profitable for long enough others will get in on the act and produce their own to get some of those profits. The only reason people arent yet is that everyone thinks there is a bubble pop coming down the pipe (me included).

              so the two options are:

              • Bubble pops-demand from hyperscalers vanishes, prices collapse

              • Bubble doesn’t pop, more supply comes online due to pent up demand, prices stabilize then come down over time

              Neither involve cyberpunk dystopias of cackling supervillians monopolizing PCs

  • Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    15 days

    Once again, I pray for the time when China floods the market with GPUs, RAM, and storage to the point where all these technocapitalists get fucked.

    Fuck renting shit.

  • neclimdul@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 days

    Xbox Developers: Hell yeah! Playstation is shooting themselves in the foot. All we have to do is sit back and we’ll kill it.

    Xbox Business : or… hold my beer.

  • ilinamorato@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 days

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

    • gian @lemmy.grys.itEnglish
      16 days

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

    • iamthetot@piefed.caEnglish
      16 days

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

    • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
      16 days

      that is correct.

      they don’t want to sell.

      they want to rent.

      this is just another step down that path.

  • eicker@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 days

    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.

    • vividspecter@aussie.zoneEnglish
      16 days

      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.

    • nullify3112@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16 days

      They played too much Roller Coaster Tycoon where they charged an admission fee for the park and then for every single ride too.

  • Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 days

    That is just the intro price. Soon with will be $5 an hour and go up from there if you want a “premium” experience.

    • danielfm123@lemmy.zipEnglish
      16 days

      We all know, this numbers don’t look sustainable, it will shittyfi once they have your library hostage.

      MS just patented ADS on gameplay…

  • kestrel7_7@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 days

    Wow, I almost reflexively downvoted this post just because I hate it so much

    Computers could have been so cool, instead they’re all just becoming shitty slot machines.

    • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15 days

      Yeah, back in my day the games came on a cassette tape. Sometimes the tapes got tangled up or broke, but when you bought it, you owned it.

      Oh, and you’d get those magazines with pages of code for a game - you’d spend a day typing it in and never be able to figure out the tiny error you’d made.

      Actually, games are so much better these days. It’s just unfortunate that capitalism.

    • iopq@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16 days

      Streaming to steam deck is not a bad idea, actually. It gets more battery life and you can do AAA games at 60 FPS

      I would just do it from the desktop, though

    • COASTER1921@lemmy.mlEnglish
      16 days

      I’m not upgrading anytime soon with current RAM/storage prices, which means I’m stuck on 16GB of RAM for now. But eventually that won’t be enough. For somebody who doesn’t already have a halfway decent computer and doesn’t have a ton of time to game, I can see this being a much better deal than owning your own computer (provided your internet latency and bufferbloat are good enough). For the amount of time I actually use my computer for gaming I know it would be.

      • SpikedIguana@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        16 days

        I was one of the people who was actually happy with stadia (although my ping was 5ms with symmetrical gigabit actually hitting the numbers at the time) the controller support was fantastic and it cost $15 a month including some games.

  • douglasg14b@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16 days

    Welcome to the future, my friends, where soon enough you will not be able to own your own at-home compute because it’s too expensive, and instead you’ll just have to pay hourly to use someone else’s compute.