I have no idea what interest rate they're going to charge. And of course, $5K was hyperbole but acquiring debt along with a gaming console just sounds like a terrible idea for the average consumer. Killer deal for MS.

You don't get hit with any interest and after the 2 years the xbox is yours. The only thing that ropes you in is it's 35 dollars for 2 years and you can't get out of it. Overall though it's pretty break even if you are going to buy the console and have the game pass either way.

If you want the cheaper xbox it's cheaper per month, Microsoft is willing to take a loss to get consoles in homes.

They're offering it for zero interest? I guess that's not surprising.

And by the way, consoles are almost always loss leaders. Them taking a loss isn't a surprise at all. Manufacturers have always lost money or at best broke even on hardware sales.

I'm fully aware, they just seem willing to take even bigger losses than the others.

Yeah, if I didn't have a PC already, I would be all over that $35/mo deal.

I would still be all over that if I had a really good gaming TV in my basement but I don't, and I'm not gonna invest $2,000 to properly enjoy a new console when I can just spend $700 on an RTX 3080 instead.

I don't have a PC and I'm zero-percent invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. I'm going to get a PS5 eventually solely because I'm a guy that likes to sit on my couch in front a 75" screen.

I do think MS an interesting approach. They seem to be straddingly the line between console and streaming and doing it well.

If they play their cards right, they can be an apex gaming company, competing simultaneously with Sony / Nintendo and Stadia / Luna / etc.

They've built a really good relationship with Nintendo and the PC arena they're literally trying to take on Sony in a much different way.

Sony has a similar strategy but the infrastructure is different. It will be interesting to see if Sony moves towards the cloud more in the future. I play PS games on my Apple devices today but they're all local to my network, I'm streaming them from MY PS4, not from a cloud service.

Sony's streaming service isn't that great to be honest but then again, right now, I'm not interested in streaming games. I'm not even interested in digital downloads. I still live in the ancient days of DVD games.

I'm also leery of paying Microsoft for a gaming service to which the EULA could change at any time. With their past DRM issues and the issues I experience with Xbox Live back in the 360 days, I'm hesitant to say I'd ever go back to Microsoft as my primary game provider.

Gamepass is not streaming. It's like a subscription model to games. As long as you pay the monthly fee, you get to download and play any game you want in that huge library for as long as you want (I think the streaming is included in this as well, but that's not the core service).

I don't think that service is necessarily for folks like you, who like to own a title and replay it many times through the years but it's definitely a great value for many people.

To me, streaming is still icky at this point. Between the latency issues and weak resolutions and framerates, it's just not ready yet.

That's why I do not see Stadia and Luna succeeding at this point.

Part of the Gamepass strategy includes xCloud. It's not the whole strategy, like Luna or Stadia, but it's part of it.

This looks pretty cool....

<iframe width="800" height="600" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oVDvTi4JKks" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

AMD gave me this for getting their processor. Just gotta wait for the release date now.

AC is my favorite video game series by far. I can't wait.

So my last new gaming systems were the PS2 and the Wii. I haven't played video games since then. I'm planning on a PS5, and I figure I can save a lot of money by picking up used PS4 versions of games. Trying to compile a list of interesting games. I cut my teeth on FPS and exploration-type games, starting with old-school Doom and Wolfenstein, Marathon on the Mac system (Bungie's first awesome game), then later with the Resident Evil and Tomb Raider stuff. Also enjoyed GTA3 and Vice City. I have no interested in MMOs because I hate people. I've heard some game names like:

- Red Dead Redemption
- The Last of Us
- Skyrim
- Left 4 Dead

Any other good horror or sci-fi FPS or exploration type games I should consider?

Holy shit, Marathon. I loved that game and had completely forgotten about it. Thank you for that memory! Watching a Youtube playback now. Crazy.