You’re talking about two different things though: game subscription and cloud gaming. Game subscription is what allows you to access tons of games by paying fees monthly/yearly. Cloud gaming on the other hand, is playing games without them installed so you don’t need to download them. Xbox Game Pass just happened to include both of these in their plans.
Theoretically, you could find a subscription plan that does not include cloud gaming, so you would have access to the library, but you need to download the games to play.
I’m writing this because while you obviously need to pay for a subscription, you could actually set up your own cloud for free (check out Moonlight and Steam Link). You download the game on the PC, start the streaming software and you can play those games on your other devices, like a laptop or even a phone!
I think for the average person these things are synonymous. If you want to cloud stream you pay for a subscription, or at least the way I described it.
Does a subscription service like that exist though?
Anyway yes you could set it up that way, you are correct. But the vast majority of people will not do that, and for me downloading it on a separate piece of hardware kinda ruins the convince aspect I enjoy.
It’s kinda like wanting better beef and deciding to raise a cow instead. Like yes that will give you the best quality, but the time investment is much greater. Obviously this analogy is over scaled, so adjust it down a bit. Point is the average consumer isn’t going to raise the cow
You’re talking about two different things though: game subscription and cloud gaming. Game subscription is what allows you to access tons of games by paying fees monthly/yearly. Cloud gaming on the other hand, is playing games without them installed so you don’t need to download them. Xbox Game Pass just happened to include both of these in their plans.
Theoretically, you could find a subscription plan that does not include cloud gaming, so you would have access to the library, but you need to download the games to play.
I’m writing this because while you obviously need to pay for a subscription, you could actually set up your own cloud for free (check out Moonlight and Steam Link). You download the game on the PC, start the streaming software and you can play those games on your other devices, like a laptop or even a phone!
I think for the average person these things are synonymous. If you want to cloud stream you pay for a subscription, or at least the way I described it.
Does a subscription service like that exist though?
Anyway yes you could set it up that way, you are correct. But the vast majority of people will not do that, and for me downloading it on a separate piece of hardware kinda ruins the convince aspect I enjoy.
It’s kinda like wanting better beef and deciding to raise a cow instead. Like yes that will give you the best quality, but the time investment is much greater. Obviously this analogy is over scaled, so adjust it down a bit. Point is the average consumer isn’t going to raise the cow