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Gaming and Streaming Services

 Going to take a little break from reviews to talk a little bit about something I've been thinking about a lot.

It seems like streaming services are taking over the gaming industry and it kind of feels like it happened over night. I don't like it, but I always kind of knew that digital games would overtake physical media sooner rather than later. But I'm not sure I ever saw XBox GamePass or PlayStation Plus Premium coming. Hell, I remember seeing Gamefly for the first time and being blown away, but also unsure it would ever work. I was also unsure I would ever get into any of these services, largely because I prefer retro games and physical media, but now that I've experienced them firsthand, I wanted to give some thoughts as to the positives, negatives and whether these things are worth it at the end of the day.  

To me, one of the biggest positives here are the sheer selection of games. There are hundreds and hundreds of games on these from newer AAA releases to old school titles. XBox Live has a lot of Rare games (like, games by the developer Rare, not ones that are difficult to find) and this might be the easiest way to play a lot of them. More and more PS1 classics are starting to find their way on to the highest tiers of PlayStation Plus. Many of these games are the other kind of rare, the kind that makes them hundreds of dollars on the secondary market. But there are a lot of the latest and greatest releases games out there as well. Some of them are even available at launch on these services which is cool. I also think it's nice how many full series there are, especially on XBox Live. It was really cool to see the entire mainline Doom series, from the original all the way up to Doom Eternal. If only they had that Doom mobile RPG on there too.

The problem is that this is all very expensive. PlayStation Plus is $120 a year and XBox GamePass is $15 per month, even more expensive. Yeah, it's a lot of content, but it's also a lot of money. If you are using these services to play the latest and greatest games, and you can complete at least two of them each year, then it's definitely worth it. But nowadays, games are so long that may not necessarily be possible for more casual gamers, or even serious gamers that focus on one or two titles. While the lineup of games on each of these services will appeal to a variety of gamers, the value may not be there for everyone, especially those that are using them to play games that might not necessarily be full price. If you only play a few hours a week, or if you are a hardcore grinder in Fortnite or Call of Duty or whatever, streaming services may not be for you.

Think about it like this. If you are playing on XBox, you have all of the Elder Scrolls games available to you, which is awesome (well, at least the ones that were released on console, sorry, no Daggerfall or Arena). Those games are great. They are also incredibly long, especially if you are going to complete them. Most gamers know that Oblivion and Skyrim are long, according to Howlongtobeat.com the former is going to run 169 hours for a completionist run while the latter will take upwards of 212. Morrowind is less well known among console gamers and it's even longer than its successors, clocking in at up to (gasp) 331 hours for a completionist run. Even if you cut those hour counts in half, you are still looking at close to 350 hours of gameplay. If you wanted to complete these games, you are going to have to play two hours a night for an entire year...and that's without touching any other games in your collection. These are just three games out of hundreds, but they can absolutely consume your life and I'm not sure it would cost you even $50 to purchase them all. So, why pay $150? Of course, not everyone is a completionist, those are extreme scenarios, but in an era where every game feels like it takes a million hours, it almost doesn't seem worth it to pay extra to have access to hundreds of them.

At the end of the day though, more content options are always good. You may not have time to play every game on XBox Live or PS Plus Premium to completion, but they provide you with a range of options that wouldn't have been possible just a few years ago. It's also a great way to introduce older games to newer gamers. It's kind of cool to see how many people are playing Goldeneye for the first time and really enjoying it, especially with how much hate that game gets from modern gamers. I know I've been playing a ton of old school games. I'm really conflicted, because I like the options those service provide but I feel like it's not worth it for me personally because I play so many different games across so many different consoles. Either way, the fact that so many games are so readily available to so many gamers is awesome and it's an overall positive of modern gaming. Just make sure you are getting your money's worth.  

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