Tag: microsoft

Xbox Live Gold, The great price hike of 2021!

So I guess Microsoft, and Xbox have decided to bring the live gold prices to a whole new level.

What this means is the cost of gaming on Xbox goes up. Free games, such as Fortnite will require you to pay to play on this service, at an even higher rate. This itself is a serious issue that will drive people away.

For the past year Xbox has worked hard to foster good-will after the debacle known as the Xbox One. And this change could in fact, wash away all that good-will that they have in fact, earned. Twitter is already a buzz with hate for this new change. Rightfully so. I am in full agreement with this as an Xbox gamer this looks like an attack on people still using Xbox Live Gold, as this pricing is closer to that of Gamepass, and that makes the Xbox Gamepass Ultimate subscription even more of a deal. Thus driving the Gamepass service.

This is truly an interesting development from Xbox, on top of that, today, none of the higher-up people from Xbox, like Phil Spencer, (@XBoxP3) have spoken out on twitter to defend this change. It would seem they are avoiding the discussion while they come to terms with what they have just done, which is screw over the gamers and the new love the platform has been receiving.

In recent months there has been rumour that Xbox Live Gold would be removed in favour of gamepass, it would seem this rumour has been squashed. Xbox appears to of kicked themselves in the proverbial dick today.

Xbox needs to move beyond the pay-to-play online mentality, they want to improve the network capability, which is why we pay for the ‘online’ capability. But this is 2021, gaming on PC, is free, even when I am playing video games on my Xbox Series X, I am using discord on my PC to voice chat with people. I don’t put myself through the Xbox network. I understand financially the reason for the costs, however the pay to play / use online features is a kick in the dick in 2021. They should of found a new way to monetize their network by now. This is a clear sign that they are not thinking outside the box when it comes to furthering their network, which is sad.

Image Courtesy of Eurogamer.

As you can see, the Xbox dashboard contains advertisements for products (namely the elite series 2 controller in this picture). They profit from every digital sale, every subscription, this is an interesting mechanism for growth, as they are monetizing their console, advertising their own store, and all products sold through it. This alone should be more than enough profit for them to keep their network running, and running well.

And when I say subscriptions, I am not referring to gold, but to gamepass, ea access, and gamepass ultimate. Gold subscriptions themselves seem at this point in time, out of place. The network touts a very profitable source of income for Microsoft.

As a consumer, this appears to simply be greed and an attack on the gamers who utilize their plastic boxes. But from the Xbox/Microsoft business perspective, this probably covers the cost of inflation as it has been years upon years since they increased the rate. However, increasing the rate during a global pandemic almost seems counter intuitive as people are out of work as is. This makes it incredibly difficult for people to prioritize gaming over anything else, and with the increase, means less people will utilize this service.

Whatever the case may be for Microsoft to increase the rate, only time will tell if this has a long standing negative impact on the bottom line of Xbox’s profit margins. Only time will tell, but my bet is that this was done to drive sales of Gamepass Ultimate, and I am sticking to that. Prove me wrong Xbox, do something with this additional cost, make it public, tell us what the true driving matter behind this decision was.

The Future of Mixer Streamers

The title says it all right? As Microsoft closes its doors on Mixer another door opens for game streaming. So what do I mean, well, facebook gaming is becoming a thing with some serious clout behind it. As we move further into the future, Facebook as a bigger and bigger foothold on our data, including the types of streamers, and streams, we watch and enjoy. Mixer streamers found out today via a tweet that their careers have officially ended.

https://twitter.com/WatchMixer/status/1275134189738713088?s=20

So why not make that transition to Facebook Gaming and take advantage of all your family, and friends getting notified when you go live? Instant following, instant groups, instant clout. This is the move that Mixer has taken by partnering with Facebook and closing its doors and pushing people over to Facebook gaming.

Me charging into combat trying to save the future of Mixer Streamers

Of course that doesn’t mean you have to change to Facebook gaming, there are a lot of other options out there for streaming. Officially I have streamed on about 6 platforms, I have tried different sites, and read different rules/policies of different streaming services. Each service has its own ups and downs, so what defines you as a streamer, isn’t necessarily the platform, but what you can achieve within the terms of service on that platform. I’ll lay it out for you.

  • Dlive – http://www.dlive.tv | Dlive is a great alternative to facebook gaming, twitch, and now defunct mixer. This site pays you out via crypto, the TRON crypto to be exact. If you do not know what that is, it is the crypto from Bittorrent. (That is a HUGE deal). And you can make money right away, unlike over on twitch, where you need to be an affiliate first. This is a good site.
  • Trove – http://www.trove.live | This is an up and coming streaming site, it works a lot like any other site, the metric behind this site is the fact that it is small, so your growth on the site can be quick. Establishing yourself now while the service is still pretty small will allow you to take advantage of a growing userbase, that will grow with you.
  • Plexstorm – http://www.plexstorm.com | PlexStorm is an up and coming streaming site as well, but unlike other streaming sites, this site has an emphasis on the ability to stream adult content. So you, as the end-point streamer, don’t have to worry about covering up, or not wearing skimpy clothes. If you wanna be a ‘titty streamer’, then by god, this is the service for you. If you wanna play those adult anime sex games, you can. No filters, no censorship. Only caveat is the 18+ models notice. You have to be 18 and over to use this site as it does contain nudity, sexuality, etc. Most of the streamers on here are amature porn stars in the making. Or at least they want to be. So this could be a mixed bag.
  • Twitch – http://www.twitch.tv | Twitch is so well known I feel as if I do not need to go into it. But this service is probably the best service to play and stream on. The growth can be slow, depending how you play your games, what demographic you are targetting with your streams, how you stream, what time you stream, your language. It all plays a very large effect on your ability to grow on this site. But this is the site that pretty much started it all (formally Justin.tv). Once you hit 50 followers here, you can be an affiliate, and make money, get subs, and start your brand. Twitch is owned by Amazon and this allows you to get ‘twitch prime’ subscribers, which is basically a tier 1 sub, at half the payout for you.
  • Periscope TV – http://www.pscp.tv | Periscope TV is Twitters response to online streaming sites. I am not confident in how its payout works, but I see more and more people using this service lately, and I plan on giving it a try to verify exactly how its partnerships work if any.
SimmyDizzle Gaming | Find it here on twitch | Yup, I’m pretty insane!

For those who watch streams on Mixer, whether it be built into the community tab on their Xbox, or the Xbox tab on their Xbox, or in windows, on their phone, this will be a trying time coming up as to where they will find their next bastion of entertainment. But they have to not look any further than Twitch, Dlive, Trove, Plexstorm, or Periscope TV. There are plenty of other streaming sites out there, but these ones here are the names on peoples tongues.

Just me peeking at all those sweet options

For the big names of Mixer, Shroud, and Ninja, they are now free agents, are are both looking at what they are going to do next.

These two streamers were the star quarterback and runningbacks of Mixer. Both were bought by Microsoft from Twitch, however now they are free to do whatever they want, stream, take a vacation, god only knows what they will choose to do next. But the fans are waiting to see exactly what they will in-fact do.

Twitch took to twitter to extend a hand to those from Mixer whom are finding themselves without a home. I have a feeling, that a majority of those whom are finding themselves transient at this time, will find their new homes at Twitch.

And streamlabs has unvieled a new migration tool within streamlabs to help those transfer their stream-setup to their own homes (so long as it is supported by Streamlabs of course).

There is a flurry of articles that have been thrown across the internet, streamers are weighing in on the ‘death’ of Mixer, and the future of gaming on Facebook Gaming. Some people have valid reasons to avoid streaming on Facebook, mostly being that facebook makes their money by selling your data to 3rd parties, such as advertisers. Those advertisers knowing the streamers, and streams you like, turn around and find ways to advertise content and what-not to you. So obviously this is something people take seriously. And this helps make the decision of where to go next, a very trying one.

I have watched my friends bounce back and forth between platforms, hell, even I have done it. (twitch.tv/simmydizzle) but that is because I am never happy and I am always looking for a the next thing. But I still made a home out of twitch, I am an Affiliate, and I am growing.

I would expect anyone who transfers from Mixer to Twitch to grow, and grow fast as their fanbase/userbase is also without that home, and they will typically follow their streamers to their new home. So wherever they end up, they will be fine.

So what does this mean for people already established on existing services other than Mixer? Well, it means we can expect an influx of new people, new streamers, new viewers, to our playforms. We can expect that if big-names from Mixer show up, we might see a dip in our own personal viewership as people who were watching us on our platform, and refused to follow those streamers to other platforms when they left, may now find themselves watching the big names over watching us little guys.

It means we will have to try harder to establish ourselves against an onslaught of ‘new’ people on our platforms. But to be fair, this is what it is like to stream. There is a certain ebb and flow to it. Now is the time to greet those new (or returning) streamers with open arms, make them feel welcome on our platforms, and focus on a future together with them.

And if you’ve made it this far and you’ve seen my link for my twitch channel twice, then beware, it’ll pop up at least one more time. Because here I sign off, and leave another link below.

Feel free to stop by my channel over on twitch, give me a follow, and see what I am doing next. I would love to see you all there.

Here I am, defeating all the new streamers coming for my sweet, sweet subscribers over on Twitch!

A little Hard Drive Death?

Its a magical moment when you are faced with the death of a hard drive, but today, I witnessed my gaming hdd die a gruesome death. Today, it failed to boot, losing 1TB of installed games on my PC.

So, why did my HDD die? That is the question, it was relatively new, less than a year old. Is it under warranty still? These questions are all about my mind. But I also have to understand, what cause of possibly caused this to happen, why would it stop working? The answer is, cables came loose inside. I know this without even opening the computer up.

I know you have to ask, why I know this, well, my girlfriend was cleaning up, and moved my computer, the printer, and a bunch of the stuff under my desk. And after she did this, my system stopped working properly. So now I have to open up the computer, figure out why the cables came lose, were they not secured enough? And why. On Wednesday, a new stick of ram shows up for me, so on Wednesday, I will open up my computer, and replace the RAM, and fix the HDD.

So why write about this? Well, this impacts my ability to stream properly, and the upgrade to my computer that is coming shortly will effect a lot about my streaming career. I actively work towards making a new life, new avenues of profit to support my family. I cannot be a soldier forever, sooner or later, it will claim my life, or injure me enough to take me out of working. I already have a plethora of military related injuries. So prep work has begun to secure a new life away from the life of a soldier. I run this blog, I am building another website as well, I develop quick scripts to handle elements of my streaming career. I stream games, run a youtube channel, and I am tech support for another streamer, helping him keep his rig and setup working properly.

So my computers ability to function is important. It helps me work on, and maintain all these avenues of future careers. If any of these takes off and earns me enough money to retire from soldier life, I will.

But back to my HDD situation, now I am faced with questions about how to proceed going forward. Even once I repair this HDD issue, I want to improve my overall computer health without having to upgrade the entire thing. So I have started looking at replacing my exisiting hard drives with Solid State drives.

Windows 10 or bust!

Since windows is installed on a non-SSD, i.e. a regular hard drive, the OS loads slow. For me to upgrade that hard-drive to a SSD I need to re-install windows onto the new HDD. Which means I have to buy a non OEM version of windows 10. Since my current version will not transfer to another drive easily. I have already bought software that claims they can move the installation over, but they simply didn’t work. So now I have to look at these options. But they are all worth it to make my computer last another few years before a full upgrade is due.

The next HDD I plan to get, a SSD, 1 TB, for my OS.

The cost of upgrading my drives to SSD’s will be about 500 to replace the 3 HDD’s in my computer, and maintaining the same size. But SSD means faster load times, and that’ll make all my software work faster, which will help stream faster, etc. Ultimately this update will save me from having to upgrade my CPU.

But what About my GPU? I currently run a NVidia 1060 3gb graphics card. This card is getting old, so, my motherboard can handle up to a 2060… So here we go.

The future card of choice! EVGA GEFORE RTX 2060, 6GB card.

This is a very important change in my system, but this will be the most expensive upgrade, but will extend the life of my system by about 5 years for streaming purposes. This is however, a 600$ CDN graphics card. But when this upgrade happens, my system will receive the biggest boost it will get before a whole new computer will need to be purchased. However to my total money spent for upgrades will be just over 1000$ CDN, it will overall cost me 2000$ less than a full new PC would cost to give me everything I am focusing on going forward.

Ultimately, wish me luck over the next few months as I work towards upgrading my PC. That is what this is all about.

Project xcloud public preview

Oh boy oh boy! Project XCloud is a thing! Now in Public Preview! Gotta try this out!

Well, its official, the ProjectxCloud public preview has launched, I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but I will as soon as possible, I am pretty excited for what this means to the gaming community and to the Xbox Live community!

A world of games lay within my online purchases, and being able to take them anywhere with me is something that excites me. Making Xbox more than just a console.

More to follow once I get a chance to test it out!