Is this the future - Subscription Games and Computers ??

TheSwede

TheSwede

TheSwede

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I saw this video on youtube and thought I have a look at it *Steam Exposed The Gaming Industry’s Secret Plan* since it made me curious.

What I heard wasn't something I particular liked. Although I don't have nVidia's GeForce Now service, but did not like the sound of where it seems to be headed. A bit similar as to what UBISoft tried a while ago (if I remember right)


There is also a video from Gamer's Nexus, which I not braved myself to watch yet. Not sure if I can stand the chaps voice for 40 minutes ! :p

MOD edit, far to much swearing in that video.

Also, GeForce Now is also going to introduce a 100 hours gaming time limit per month, anything exceeding that will be charged in 15 hours blocks. A user on reddit made a charge how much it might cost a GeForce user, depending on which monthly plan one subscribing to.

Reddit - The heart of the internet

www.reddit.com www.reddit.com

Here is articles from pcmag and pcguide as well.


www.pcguide.com

GeForce NOW members left extremely disappointed after Nvidia announces a big change

Nvidia has announced a major change coming to GeForce NOW next year, and many members are not happy about it.
www.pcguide.com www.pcguide.com

Is this going to be the *end* for personal computers as we see it today ?? :confused:
 
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I've removed the GN video, sadly far too much swearing and it has been removed a few times over on the GPU subforum side.

Not matter how correct the video itself actually is. Everything will become a subscription service now, GeforceNOW and all their silly tier names, GaaS.
 
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There are enough games in existence that current hardware can run that if they try something stupid people will just stop upgrading and buying new games.
 
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As with all things like this the answer is. Only if we the customer let it, we have all the power. But as things like other subscriptions have proven we're too soft and we'll probably let it happen.
 
robj20 said:
As with all things like this the answer is. Only if we the customer let it, we have all the power. But as things like other subscriptions have proven we're too soft and we'll probably let it happen.
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Yeah but in this instance it's not the same as the on-prem vs cloud shift in IT services - Us as gamers who own hardware aren't competing against cloud gaming alone, we're also competing for resources against any of the big AI players, who in turn are buying up as much as they can possibly fund, and not even for them to put into use, but a lot of it simply to deprive their competition of it and maintain the first mover advantage.

Overall it's been clear for a while that they'd rather have us pay monthly than up front, it smooths things out to just have a constant predictable revenue stream rather than having to actually innovate to compel us to spend (i.e. launch a card that's enough of an improvement to warrant the upgrade) -
We had XBLive/PSN as a requirement to play online for years (over a decade?). PC was slightly more insulated from that angle but also had sub services in games like WoW.

Then Gamepass (followed by EA play, R*+, Ubi Connect etc.) - They did the same as Netflix did when it started: Competitive pricing and a large library, now it's 3x as much with much less good content and they go after you for account sharing. Also needing 3-4 different services to have access to everything you want to watch, plus add on costs to not have it ad-supported.

GeForce now has been around for a while and similarly (as long as your internet was good enough) provided a pretty well priced alternative vs the increasing costs of hardware (but mainly becuase they convinced everyone you need a 3090/4090 to have an enjoyable gaming experience), now prices are going up while at the same time imposing usage caps with additional costs on top.

I'm also struggling to understand why this guy chose, for a gaming commentary channel/video, to green screen a picture of a weight rack as his background. Seems an odd choice :D
 
Game consoles will the biggest beneficiaries of this hardware pricing as they can get better deals than consumers and this will push more gamers to buy consoles instead of pc's
 
TNA said:
This. My steam library is huge. By the time I replay the games in it and go around, the games will feel fresh again. Lol.
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There's enough games I need to play, enough I would replay again and enough freebies in my epic library to keep me going until I go to my final barbeque.

Think I'll try not to get to wound up by this.
 
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I won't be anytime soon since no need for it but when I used the geforce now sub back with the 4080 for a while (got it for a very good price), it was utterly fantastic, the IQ was incredible, latency was a non issue (which is all confirmed in the testing that has been done so if people find latency on consoles fine then you won't have any issues with geforce now since it has considerably lower latency than them). I imagine with the 5080 and all the improvements since I last used it, it will be even better now. The extra benefits that I didn't think of at the time were also nice to haves, little to no electricity use and no noise/excess heat from the PC. The only downsides for me was the lack of modding and not having access to every game.

100 hour limit a month won't be a factor for most people (well people who work, have families etc.)

Ultimately as shown with netflix, amazon, disney and a lot of other things, gaming going this direction is.... inevitable, especially with the way prices are now for hardware. Pc gaming scene/community is going to become like the home media system crowd (££££[££] worth of hardware with a huge collection of film discs), very niche.
 
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Nexus18 said:
100 hour limit a month won't be a factor for most people (well people who work, have families etc.)
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Unless they decide to change that.

You can already pay for expensive extra hours, what's to say the default won't be lowered and you're paying that extra on top.

Not comfortable with a company deciding how I spend my free time.
 
adidan said:
Unless they decide to change that.

You can already pay for expensive extra hours, what's to say the default won't be lowered and you're paying that extra on top.

Not comfortable with a company deciding how I spend my free time.
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Yup that could and will possibly happen... And also pay extra for new games like how amazon do with new/popular films despite already owning prime. Same way netflix have things like different IQ depending on what package you use.

People say things like won't/don't/shouldn't but then unfortunately the vast majority of these people also pay for things like netflix, amazon, disney, fitbit, spotify and various other subs, that is why I say it is inevitable for the gaming scene too, I am actually amazed it hasn't happened sooner tbh.
 
I agree that renting a PC in the cloud could become a normality like a netflix subscription, but you would still need a PC to use it, therefore I can't really see the point. If for some reason it becomes a popular thing to save upgrading, the long term cost needs to be considered and moaning about current memory prices will seem like a drop in the park compared to the ongoing costs of limited monthly subscriptions.
 
Hunterlit said:
I agree that renting a PC in the cloud could become a normality like a netflix subscription, but you would still need a PC to use it, therefore I can't really see the point. If for some reason it becomes a popular thing to save upgrading, the long term cost needs to be considered and moaning about current memory prices will seem like a drop in the park compared to the ongoing costs of limited monthly subscriptions.
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Nah just need a device that can connect to the internet very low hardware required for the end user bit like the amazon stick that plugs in the back of a tv just have sit in a 2 hr que to play your games when you get 5 mins to yourself
 
All I know is it would really put me off gaming. Never say never, but i am just not interested in going down that route.

Between hardware i have and steam deck and board games I am more than happy.

Can't see it happening any time soon. Only way this accelerates is pc hardware keeps getting more and more expensive if ai bubble never pops.

Got my fingers crossed that ai plateaus the bubble pops in the next year or two. As much as I like ai, it is moving too fast and seemingly irresponsibly. We need it to be more safe and a slowdown would help with that and hardware prices :D
 
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It'll all work itself out in the end, the market will just take time to re-adjust.

There's always paradigm shifts and quite frankly with Moore's Law basically coming to an end now, we're facing a massive one anyway. We're also facing rasterization reaching severe diminishing returns and Ray Tracing not being do-able unless we use a lot of hacks to get the frame rate up (like DLSS, Frame gen, etc). It will be a turbulent time but there's no reason to think it's the end of personal compute.

Typically what happens is there's a period of adjustment, the free market rushes in because there's a massive demand for innovation and supply, eventually the market corrects, usually over corrects, and we enter some new paradigm. Things change. Usually we look back at the old way of doing things and laugh.
 
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