Graffë Forums - General Gaming Discussion https://www.graffes.com/forums/ This is for all Single Player and non-persistent games. Skyrim, Counter Strike, etc. en Mon, 21 Sep 2026 19:33:22 GMT vBulletin 60 https://www.graffes.com/forums/images/misc/rss.png Graffë Forums - General Gaming Discussion https://www.graffes.com/forums/ Game Pass streaming limits are coming: 15 hours a month, but you can pay for more https://www.graffes.com/forums/showthread.php?82253-Game-Pass-streaming-limits-are-coming-15-hours-a-month-but-you-can-pay-for-more&goto=newpost Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:08:28 GMT Game Pass streaming limits are coming: 15 hours a month, but you can pay for more (https://www.pcworld.com/article/3226805/game-pass-streaming-limits-are-coming-15-hours-a-month-but-you-can-pay-for-more.html) ---Quote--- For all its struggles in the last few years, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass... Game Pass streaming limits are coming: 15 hours a month, but you can pay for more

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For all its struggles in the last few years, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass represents a pretty phenomenal value as a subscription service. And you can take advantage of it even if you don’t have an Xbox or a gaming PC, giving it great accessibility. Well, Microsoft already undercut the value of the subscription. Now it’s delivering a crippling blow to the value of streaming.

According to a short and sweet update preceding the reveal of its new disc to digital service, Xbox has announced that Game Pass subscribers will no longer have access to unlimited streaming games. Starting in November, the Ultimate tier ($23 a month USD) will get 15 hours a month, Premium ($15) will get 10 hours, and Essential ($10) will get just five hours a month. With a new game or a dedicated player, you could blast through that Essential streaming pool in a single evening.

Oh, but don’t worry. If you use up your streaming minutes like you’re talking on a flip phone in 2003, you’ll be able to pay for more, on an hourly basis. Prices for this haven’t been announced yet.

And Microsoft has helpfully extended this offer to those who don’t subscribe to Game Pass. So I guess that would only make sense if you’ve purchased an Xbox game, that’s available on Game Pass, without subscribing to Game Pass….but you don’t have anything to play it on. Wow, that is a very small target to hit.

Microsoft says that this change comes because the service is getting more expensive to run as more people are streaming longer game sessions. (At current levels it says that the limits will impact just 4 percent of users.) But that seems like a pretty hard left turn from the goals of Game Pass streaming for years now. Isn’t all-streaming, all the time pretty much the goal of being able to access your Game Pass subscription everywhere?

If everything is an Xbox, is it only an Xbox for 15 hours a month? Unless you pay more, of course. At that point, it looks a lot like an old arcade machine, where you just keep putting in money if you want to keep playing. Suddenly the best value in gaming is looking like much less bang for the buck.

Microsoft may not have a choice in this action. It’s laid off thousands of employees, it’s sold or cut off many of the development studios it spent the better part of a decade acquiring. It seems like it’s time to pay the piper, and the costs are being passed along to Xbox players.
]]> General Gaming Discussion Ackar https://www.graffes.com/forums/showthread.php?82253-Game-Pass-streaming-limits-are-coming-15-hours-a-month-but-you-can-pay-for-more <![CDATA[September '26 Release Thread]]> https://www.graffes.com/forums/showthread.php?82252-September-26-Release-Thread&goto=newpost Tue, 01 Sep 2026 06:28:23 GMT There are quite a few games coming out this month, here is a short summary of the ones I think are most notable:


The biggest game this month is technically Marvel's Wolverine. This a PS5 exclusive from the same company that makes the Spiderman games, although apparently it is not an open world game like those are. Without a swinging mechanic, this makes sense, but it is still causing a lot of backlash online. Combined with some anti-consumer moves by Sony (ending all physical media, canceling all future PC ports) and almost all I see about this game right now is negative. Still, it's a big enough property that it's hard to imagine it not doing at least somewhat well.

Wolverine's closest competitor this month is probably Control Resonant. This is a sequel to Control, a supernatural third person shooter about a secret government organization that monitored and controlled supernatural and otherworldly artifacts and entities. Well some of those threats escaped containment, and this new game has a new character combatting them. The game shifts from shooter to melee action and will feature an open world, so provides an alternative for people disappointed with Wolverine. A big theme of the first game was warps in reality and this game seems to amplify it.

Both of these games might end up getting dwarfed by a free update. CD Projekt Red announced a new DLC for The Witcher 3, and as part of this announcement they are also releasing an overhaul of the base game. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered will be a free update, comes with the previous expansions, overhauls the graphics engine, the combat, the movement system, etc etc. The actual DLC they announced won't be out until next year though and is probably meant to bridge the gap to the Witcher 4.


We have a few other major games as well. Onimusha: Way of the Sword is an upcoming action game from Capcom that blends historical fiction with supernatural entities, not unusual for games of this genre from Japan. This one is notable because it is a reboot of a cult classic franchise using modern systems and controls. Capcom has been on a roll with their RE engine and early previews have been glowing. I don't really expect this to break out into the mainstream, but it already seems like combat fanatics are going to love it.

Another niche game that might be interesting is The Blood of the Dawnwalker. This is a vampire rpg from developers that worked on the Witcher 3. This game features heavy narrative choices as well as a time management system. In this game time passes based on actions you take rather than the entire world just being held in stasis while you run all the side quests you want like most rpgs let you do. The prominent story based countdown that I see advertised is a 30 day time limit to save your family, but the story can continue even if you fail or ignore this (supposedly). In addition to choosing how to spend your limited time, you choose how much you want to give in to vampiric corruption, either playing as a weak human or unlocking a host of vampire abilities at the cost of losing control and killing other characters whether you intend to or not. Notably reviews are already out for this one, with the main criticisms I've seen being weak combat and general jankiness.

For a game that may appeal to younger players we have Minecraft Dungeons II. This is essentially a Diablo style game using the Minecraft IP. It sort of seems to me like Roblox is what currently fascinates most kids these days, but Minecraft games still seem to do well so it's worth mentioning.


Finally, Nintendo has a few exclusives of their own this month. The big one is Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. This is the latest in a long running strategy rpg series, with each one changing the formula slightly. You typically recruit characters in a fantasy army and then dictate how they grow into various classes, bows are good vs fliers, cavalry moves fast, heavy armor is defensive, etc. This one has four primary character campaigns you can switch between at any time, all culminating in a final challenge that occurs after a time skip. This game also seems to have dungeons you can explore that don't use the typical tactics grid gameplay, which is something I've only ever seen in one other game in this series.

The other Nintendo exclusive this month is Orbitals. It's a sci-fi co-op adventure for two players about two teenagers (I think?) trying to survive in outer space. The biggest draw to me seems to be the 90s anime aesthetic, but honestly if it wasn't an exclusive in an age where exclusives are rare it wouldn't stand out that much (in my opinion). We will see if I'm wrong.





Spoiler for September releases:

ultiplatform

  • Control Resonant (September) - action rpg
  • Minecraft Dungeons II (September) - action rpg
  • The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt - Remastered (September) - action rpg
  • Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault (September) - action rpg/roguelike
  • The Blood of the Dawnwalker (September) - action rpg
  • Onimusha: Way of the Sword (September) - action adventure
  • NBA 2K27 (September) - sports
  • Halloween: The Game (September) - horror
  • Silent Hill: Townfall (September) - survival horror
  • Toem 2 (September) - photography adventure


PS5
  • Marvel's Wolverine (September) - action adventure


Xbox Series X/S



Switch 2

  • Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave (September) - strategy/tactics rpg
  • Orbitals (September) - adventure


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