this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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It won't be long for publishers to offer cloud gaming platform only exclusive titles.
"Cloud" gaming is inaccessible for a lot of consumers. They're priced out or geographically limited.
Maybe currently. How about 5 yrs later? 10? Cloud gaming is like consoles. Not everyone owns one but they still able to make a large profit.
This time it's just that "console" is hosted in the "clould."
5 and 10 years is too optimistic. Infrastructure upgrades too slowly. ISPs compete and have monopolies on certain areas.
Maybe I'm, but I'm pretty sure it's eventually tho I really hope not.
Last generation, Microsoft was trying to sell the Xbox One as "always on" and told Keighley that, if people didn't like it or didn't have internet, they could buy an Xbox 360. An entire console was going to roll out as always online. So, video game companies have already rebutted your argument themselves.
I remember this, but that's literally for the activation or licenses. Which Microsoft implemented. In the settings for the Xbox app on Windows or the console itself, there is a toggle for making it the primary device for offline access. It sets for 30 days. After 30 days you connect again and the timer resets. Excluding games that explicitly run always online for because of forced multiplayer (Need for Speed, Division 2, etc).
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hardware-network/connect-network/using-xbox-one-offline
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/games-apps/game-setup-and-play/play-games-offline-on-windows-10-using-offline-mode
This uses a miniscule amount of data and can be done on any internet type. It's literally a check in.
It was not originally for just the activation and licenses. Their plan was for it to launch as "always on". If I recall correctly, it was going to require phoning home every 24 hours; hence the outcry at the time and the infamous Keighley interview. They rolled back a ton of the stuff with that console that they said was a "requirement" for functionality. Regardless of whether it launched, if it wasn't for the outcry, they would have launched it. That's an entire console. I have a hard time believing they wouldn't roll out a "cloud only" game - you feel me?
It's also a fucking scam because you don't get to own the products.
Just like with netflix and hulu, the company can and will adjust terms to give the least while charging the most.
It's sad how gung-ho so many people in this generation are with renting shit. But I guess that's why most of ya'll are bad with money 🤷
And it won't be long after that until these are cracked too. The ol' cat and mouse game.
It would take a lot more for them to steal a game that has no public executables though, like they would need some proper hacking or corporate espionage
There's a cracked Diablo 4 available and it's "online only". There are still bugs they're working on but as far as I know it's fully playable from start to finish.
That's different, it's not a game hosted elsewhere that you connect to via streaming. You download diablo 4, you have the game available to crack.
Cloud gaming environments are controlled and monitored. It's basically a TeamViewer for you to game on a restricted host. You can't just copy the binaries to your computer. You need to actually hack it and exfil the data, which is illegal btw. This will be very hard, except some stupid *** misconfigure the server.
It's not just piracy, it's archiving. How these games going to be played in centuries from now? It's called the "digital darkage" and we're living in it.
DRM and locking to cloud servers is like trying to assigning things to being lost to the future.
Yes it will.