With net neutrality gone. What impact will this have on gaming?

What impact will this have on digital sales, streaming, online play, dlc, will pc games still have free online play, ect?

It will for me, cos I don't live in the US, lol.

It's not gone... yet! Congress is the next phase. Though already, we are getting lawsuits against Ajit Pai and his thugs.

I can see game streaming being the first casualty.

That's not always the case for online subscription. In this situation, an ISP could put Sony's PSN/MS's Gold services in a slow lane - you still have to pay the same amount of money to Sony or MS regardless. Of course, that could lead to Sony/MS wanting to pay said ISP to be in the fast lane, which they then would recoup by increasing the price of PS+/Gold from $60 to $99 as an example.

If I want to play my games, I don’t have to pay Sony or MS a monthly fee. If I really want to play multiplayer, I can use my gaming PC for no monthly fee. Regardless, video games are a luxury, internet isn’t.

It's not gone yet

They'll put PSN and Xbox Live on 59,99$/month package, that includes game patches and system updates as well btw, enjoy

Hey, you like multiplayer? Well too bad, you're basically completely fucked. Dedicated server costs are likely going to spike thanks to forced fast-lane payments. Much like when Netflix was held ransom by Comcast back in 2014. And p2p games? Forget about it! Thanks to torrent services being a major target, p2p service is likely one of the first to be nuked by throttling.

We'll be back to the old internet days of 24 hour turn based strategy before too long.

Streaming games will be next. Like watching a personality play your favorite games? Better pay that new streaming premium! You're sure as **** not getting to youtube or twitch without some extra green pal.

Blowing hot gas, you may say? Perhaps, but considering we're living in the darkest timeline of natural disasters, gun violence, nuclear threats, and Trump, I wouldn't be surprised.

At any rate, Net Neutrality isn't dead by any stretch. If anything, all they've done is kick the hornets back out of the nest. The FCC is already being sued by a multi-state class action, and the internet justice league of google, facebook, amazon, netflix, etc. are about to get involved, probably filing for lawsuit as well. Considering there's a real issue of identity theft and "arbitrary and capricious" voting on the table, these are the most likely avenues for the vote to be turned.

Also, before any of that, there's at least a small chance congress can issue a resolution of disapproval, which would backtrack the vote and force them away from doing it again. This is less likely, but still possible.

So don't get your hopes down just yet. Instead, if you live in America, call your congressfolk and make sure they know you aint putting up with that shit, and you'll vote for literally anything else that supports the cause. Saying you'll just vote for the other guy isn't enough, make sure they think you'll also be paying him and be a working activist for the cause. Also, call your state government. They can overturn this at a state level. So in the worst case scenario where this actually goes through and stays through, your state can still apply and enforce policies that protect net neutrality.

I don't live in the US, so it probably won't affect me. Sucks for Americans though.

#Resist.....its not over yet

Remember people like to copy Americas policies. This is a scary time we live in!

Can you imagine Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo paying ISPs to only allow their network traffic through on their network only. They could also pay ISPs off to put their traffic on the fast lane and their competitors on the slow lane. This shit right here scares the living shit out of me!

Not really. Europe is the polar opposite of the US on just about every economic, labour, social, etc. policy.

The only countries that copy the US are Canada and Australia.

Online-only games are fine. Nobody uses dial-up anymore.

Digital software sales are the best. If it wasn't for Steam, my house would be cluttered with junk. CDs waste physical space. Many people who live in small apartments lack physical space. Digital purchases eliminate that problem completely. Plus, you have access to you entire library of games all the time, anywhere you are. You can't beat that convenience.

Online subscription software is likewise amazing. I'm actually not pirating MS Office for the first time in my life because for $10/month I get 5 copies of MS Office and 5 TB of cloud storage. That's a way better deal than dropping $170 on MS Office Suite every few years (just for 1 copy of the software and no cloud storage).

If graphic design was my job, $20 a month for Photoshop is also a sweet deal compared to buying the software outright for $700+ every few years.

None. The point of this was to stop the likes of Youtube from hogging bandwidth, and then give the freed 'resources' to people who actually use internet for productive purposes.

And I'm all for this. Youtube is full of total BS and we need to stop them from spreading this smut all over the world at 1080p.

If people really want to watch crappy cat videos or fail compilations, they can do it at 420p or whatever. Such crap does not need or deserve 1080p or 4K.

Poor America :(

Guys we do not need the internet to survive. Let's just play singleplayer games and local multiplayer like the good old days. :D

Oh, it's just an American thing. Can't be bothered, then.

I do see a potential positive from this outcome. Internet speeds will mess up online multiplayer, meaning a decrease in traffic, meaning a decrease in future sales of online multiplayer games. Perhaps this will be the time for developers to go back to making quality single player games? heck they might even bring back local multiplayer to modern games? I certainly hope so. (or the opposite could happen, idiots willing to pay more so that they can play games online....and pay for MTX while they are at it...if that happens it will truly be the end of video games).

It's not gone yet, but it's getting close

YES! Would be one of the few positives to come of this.

America isn't the world.

That line of thinking is how you ended up with Trump.

And Germany ended up with Merkel, and the UK ended up with May, and Canada ended up with Trudeau and France ended up Macron...

**** me the world is a fucked up place, I bet they would love to control the internet and sell us out.

UK too in some cases. Look no further than Brexit.

GamerGate and Breitbart got Donald Trump elected and his FCC pick took a shit on net neutrality, sadly it tastes like Just Desserts.

You were **** either way with both of those candidates. You notice with Trump he's doing all the shit the Democrats said they were going to do in the past, so what's the fucking difference?

that move was a little too over the top, anyone can see right thru that post.

Saying 'I hope it ends social networking sites' would have been more clever given that this is a Forum site.

see how that works?

Nobody knows really, it seems like. Or if someone knows I can't find the person. It mostly depends on whether competition will now be allowed and stimulated. I can't find anyone who explains coherently if that is happening or not. Also can't find anyone online who can explain exactly how the FTC will regulate ISP's. What is and what is not allowed without NN?

If we see competition soon enough everything could still work out. If the current ISP's are slow about forcing you into worse contracts, then Court could save NN in time. If not, it gets extremely unpredictable. Nobody knows exactly what plans ISP's will come up with but we can all imagine that it won't be great. I have no idea how they look at gaming... Though with everyone on edge, they may try to avoid massive scandals/the public cutting their wires and stuff like that.

So if congress doesn't overturn the decision to repeal the open internet order.....

Since ISPs don't really have a stake in video game companies, I see very little change. (I.E. if Spectrum had an MMO, then they might decide to throttle the connection to other online games).

Video games represent a very small percentage of bandwidth compared to things like streaming video. If anything they might add a small charge for 'High-priority gaming' or something like that.

i would fucking love local multiplayer again... I used to play them so much

Here's the better solution, why not abolish the FCC? We don't really need it, plus they're nothing but unelected officials that are appointed by the White House anyways. Get rid of the FCC, we get no government regulations for the right, and more competition for both big and small ISP's for the left, and everyone wins!

@ten_pints: Merkel is worth 548.32 Trumps, May only 1.78.

For starters, there will likely be packages you need to include on your internet service plan from the ISP, such as the "Gaming package" which allows access to PSN, Steam, XBL, Uplay, Origin, etc...

You may also need the "Streaming package" to be allowed to stream content from the consoles, or from other providers like Twitch, Netflix, YouTube, etc...

All that on top of your usual subscriptions, and base internet bill. Oh, and forget any other company coming out and making competition for Steam/Uplay/Origin, it just won't happen.

Chances are they won't go after gaming because the market is incredibly small compared to online streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix, but yeah, as you said, you never know.

And France, that still use the electorial college.

It's not gone yet and Net Neutrality Proponents are going to Sue the FCC since the Courts already decided that internet Service is a Utility. The courts would have to reverse a decision they already made in 2015 in order for the Net Neutrality rules to get thrown out. So yes the FCC has decided to throw away these rules but the legality of that decision will go to court and the courts already decided back in 2015 that Net Neutrality is important. Let's hope our Court system steps up for the People.

I don't think we're gonna get a choice. It's back to the fucking stone ages for us.

Better not affect us Canadians much if this bullshit goes through. Just greed, all it is.

Did everyone just forget pre 2015? wtf? no one even noticed any difference on their internet when NN took effect just like you won't notice now that it's gone.

yeah, internet before 2015 was just sooo rough.

@pimphand_gamer: Oh god, an anti-NNer. You know you're the enemy, right?

Such uninformed little sheeple. Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Hulu should pay more they use the most bandwidth. They will only gain customers with the abolishment of NN because ISP's can block 123movies, Pirate Bay, and other illegal sites. So all those people getting their shit for free will either attempt to find a work around or they will pay up and put some money into the enconomy.

The only thing we may see as consumers will be internet prices going down, and online subscriptions go up, which will be a wash. There are not gonna be different internet packages, free shit might go away till there is a better work around.

Put your tinfoil hats away we aren't gonna have China and North Korea type internet ?

Why should anyone have to pay more? That kills the whole enterprising spirit of the internet. Everyone is on the the same level path to make it without worrying about being throttled. The only thing that should be holding them back is their business model. I think of it like America, everyone is equal under the eyes of the law and are free to pursue the dream. Going against that is against the very spirit of free speech and American enterprise in the first place.

If they're claiming that they only want things to go back to pre-2015 internet, then why push for anti-NN in the first place? There's something more sinister at play here. Why should the internet be at the complete mercy of the ISPs? It may as well be a cable package. They're going to go beyond closing down mere pirate sites, they're going to go after competitors that challenge them who offer the same services.

You put way too much trust in the hands of the oligopolies to do right by the American people. They pushed for this for a reason. Alex Jones and the other conservative pundits who are against NN can kiss my ass. If it weren't for the internet, they wouldn't be where they are now.

I really don’t expect the type of doomsday scenarios people are talking about on my Home cable internet network. I could definitely see mobile internet turning into complete and utter shit over the next couple of years, though.

The same thing that happened before the government got its grubby hands on it, pre 2015. Speeds will increase and prices will be competitive which means the same prices or less. You people really are the hysterical generation. Chill. Less government involvement is a good thing in almost all cases.

Can't believe this crap got through, hope it doesn't spread.

If people are paying their ISPs for say 100mb speed and a 200GB cap, then they should be allowed to watch grass grow in 4K on Youtube if that's what they want to do.