u/yOu_DoNt_HaVe_PhOnEs

I’m genuinely confused about Xbox’s new cloud gaming policy from November.

Ultimate will reportedly include only 15 hours of cloud gaming per month. But how will this work for MMOs like ESO, FFXIV, Black Desert, and Fallout 76, where an active Game Pass subscription is required for multiplayer?

If those 15 hours run out, will we still need to maintain Game Pass for multiplayer and purchase additional cloud gaming hours to continue playing?

Xbox has yet to clearly explain the pricing, additional hours, or how MMO multiplayer will be handled.

Why introduce such a major change without clearly explaining the actual cost and long-term model for paying customers?

Edit: I use cloud gaming regularly and genuinely love being able to play my games on the go.

Honestly, I think it was about time Bethesda started facing some serious consequences for the direction its games have taken.

Skyrim was an incredible achievement and, in many ways, Bethesda was at the top of its game during that era. But if we’re being honest, the quality and ambition of their releases since then have been increasingly questionable. Even Fallout 4, while commercially successful and enjoyable in many ways, felt like a step backward in terms of role-playing depth, player choice, and overall writing compared to what people had come to expect from Bethesda.

And then we got Fallout 76, followed by years of updates and releases that often felt like Bethesda was relying heavily on its name and established fanbase rather than consistently delivering the kind of ambitious RPG experiences that made the company famous in the first place.

A big part of the problem, in my opinion, is also the way these games are marketed.

Todd Howard has become the public face of Bethesda, and while I don't think he is solely responsible for every problem within the company, he absolutely deserves criticism for continuing to promote Bethesda's games with enormous expectations attached to them, only for players to receive products that are frequently buggy, technically rough, or lacking the polish expected from a major AAA studio.

Bugs have almost become part of the "Bethesda experience" at this point. There's a difference between a game having some bugs and launching a game where players are essentially expected to tolerate fundamental technical problems because "that's just how Bethesda games are."

That shouldn't be an acceptable standard for a AAA developer.

What I find particularly ironic now is seeing former Bethesda employees speaking out and demanding "justice" or criticizing Microsoft's/Xbox's decisions regarding Bethesda.

Where was that same urgency when players were giving feedback for years?

Where was the willingness to listen when the community repeatedly explained what it wanted from these games? Where was the urgency to improve development practices, performance, writing, RPG mechanics, and overall quality?

Obviously, not every employee has control over these decisions, and I don't think it's fair to blame individual developers for problems that are ultimately caused by management or corporate decisions. But at the leadership level, Bethesda has had years of opportunities to respond to criticism and improve.

At some point, the company has to be held accountable for the results.

And ultimately, there's another important point that people seem to be overlooking:

Xbox owns Bethesda and the IPs.

Microsoft/Xbox invested heavily in acquiring Bethesda and its studios. They now have the authority to decide how those studios are structured, how resources are allocated, which projects continue, and what direction their IPs take.

People are completely entitled to dislike those decisions. They can criticize Microsoft, disagree with layoffs, or be disappointed about the future of their favorite franchises. That's fair.

But acting as though Xbox has no right to make those decisions despite owning the company doesn't really make sense.

If Bethesda had consistently delivered outstanding games, listened to its community, innovated, and maintained the level of quality that made the studio legendary in the first place, then perhaps there would be a stronger argument for leaving everything untouched.

But that's not the reality.

At some point, a company has to be judged by what it actually delivers, not by what it used to be capable of delivering.

Bethesda built an incredible legacy. Nobody can take that away from them.

But having a legendary past shouldn't give a studio permanent immunity from criticism, accountability, or restructuring.