PC Magazine - USA (2019-06)

(Antfer) #1
In that regard, I root for cloud gaming, because
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could spill over into unforeseen areas and
improve our lives. Think of how a well-funded
NASA directly or indirectly led to many now-
commonplace items. Wouldn’t it be cool to jump
into a movie stream that a friend is viewing so
you could watch together?

SULLIED BY SUBSCRIPTIONS
Yet here I stand, like an old man yelling at a
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wanting yet another subscription in my life.
Though pricing has yet to be revealed for Apple
Arcade, Google Stadia, or Project xCloud, I’d bet
everything near and dear to me that all three
services will be subscription-based.

Subscriptions are big money-makers thanks to
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gym memberships, people sign up for services
and don’t use them as often as they had planned
(or at all!), resulting in big bucks delivered into
the pockets of any given company on a monthly
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subscription for this very reason. Besides, paying
to play online is one of the many reasons I
ditched console gaming (save for the Nintendo
Switch) and adopted PC gaming.

A bigger potential problem is that you may not
actually own the games you play. If you decide to
stop paying, you may not be able to play a thing.

THE DATA DANCE
Data caps are a potential worry in the realm of
cloud gaming. In fact, they’re something I’m more

@jeffreylwilson

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