• circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    5 days ago

    The endgame of all these subscription services is always the same. They make you reliant, and then they jack prices and reduce service.

    At this point, there are enough exemplars that anyone still buying in is just not paying attention.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    My buddy was toying with investing in this service. I cautioned him that he’d be a the mercy of a company that isn’t at all consumer friendly. Case and point

    • hedgehog@ttrpg.network
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      5 days ago

      How so? The games aren’t purchased on GeForce Now and he could just cancel his subscription if they changed the service in a way he didn’t like.

      • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        He doesn’t have the hardware to support non-streaming so he’d effectively have no way of playing them if the service continued to get worse. I suggested he pay upfront for hardware that can play the games he wants without being dependent on nvidia

        • hedgehog@ttrpg.network
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          5 days ago

          That’s fair, but he would be able to play the games in the meantime. And since hardware generally gets cheaper as time passes, if he could set aside more than the subscription fee each month to save for his own hardware, he’d be able to game in the meantime. And if he ever had to cancel it, he’d be closer to being able to buy his own hardware than he is today - meaning more time total spent gaming.

            • vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works
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              5 days ago

              Worth considering he could also use GeForce now while saving for a Steam Deck. Used ones go on sale for under $300 pretty frequently.

                • vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works
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                  3 days ago

                  It’s a fantastic option at this point. I’ve been a GeForce Now user since 15 or 16 (whenever they launched the ShieldTV beta) and it’s… ok? You can still run it on deck as well of there’s any concern.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Genuinely when there was actually some competition in this space, GeForce NOW was actually the consumer friendly one

    Guess we have another case study in why competition results in worse outcomes for the customer in its eventual conclusion

    • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      i mean its not like Microsofts XCloud is an unusable service. they just have a completely different monetization approach.

      • 9point6@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        The big win for GeForce NOW was you could fire up games from your steam library—you didn’t need to directly invest in a service which might die for your ownership of a game

        • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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          5 days ago

          more or less yes, that was its main advantage, but most of the cloud doesnt really compete there.

          Shadow cloud gaming is an example that competes with nvidia on that front if game ownership is part of your concern, but its not the main concern for all cloud services.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    5 days ago

    This could be reasonable depending on the limit. I think 1 hour limit for free tier is generous, 6 hour limit for medium tier is reasonable if most users play less than 6 hours per session. But 8 hours for the top tier sucks balls and is a major scam.

  • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    There’s probably a small portion of people that just leave it on so they never have to wait in queue to get back on.