Xbox Cloud Streaming Won't Replace Consoles, Microsoft Says

Game publishers, and the industry is moving towards subscriptions and 'live service' games whether we want it or not. And nothing facilitates 'live service', then already being part of a subscription service ecosystem. Deny it all you want... that is what is coming.

I hate, not Netflix like services, the prospect that more and more Developer money will keep getting split and moved toward live service games that are whale hunting or worse teaching kids and grown idiots, how to become whales.

There will still be consoles, 8th gen sold 180+ million consoles (not counting switch), and Sony/XBX have probably sold 40ish million already... in less then 1 1/2 yrs. Of course there will still be consoles, but I am worried that the gaming industry will keep moving consoles more towards the cloud, more towards subscriptions, and more towards live service gaming. Which means that genres I have come to love, will get less money, less new talent, and .... just a lot less.

How much storage space would you need on a tablet or phone? I know my nieces play on their phones but like Microsoft those games need internet like Roblox for example.

@Barighm

PS+ games only work if you have a connection and you have to be a paid member, even if you downloaded the game. XBL Gold and Game Pass are the same way. Any X1 you have to be a paid member to play with a connection. Now any 360/OG Xbox game you downloaded is your's to keep and play on or offline. Delete and re-download it as much as you like, even if you're no longer a paying member.

The cloud option on the Series X through Game Pass has been little more than a demo function to see if the game is appealing enough to me to be worth a download. I just can't see a future without physical hardware. Random input lag because of ping is a serious problem in some games, and the video output is frequently blurry and full of artifacts. For me at least, it's a pretty shit experience and serves nothing more than being able to demo games, which granted is a big plus for everybody. I don't have to download a demo... I can just play it. It's the full game. Saves appear to carry over should you decide to download the game. And best of all, devs aren't wasting time specifically building a demo slice of the game.

Then they better continue offering physical options. During the great Rogers Cable blackout, I discovered I couldn't play ANY of my MS Store games that I legit bought and paid for without internet. Not GamePass games. Actual offline games I purchased.

In contrast, when a tornado knocked out my internet for a week, I had complete access to all of my Playstation games, including PS+ titles and any demos I had installed.