The trigger for this debate is a GadgetGuy interview with Pentanet founder and managing director Stephen Cornish, published on 25 September 2026. The piece frames the rise of cloud gaming against an AI-driven global memory shortage. That shortage has pushed PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox consoles above their launch prices and made PC parts, in GadgetGuy's words, "eye-wateringly high." Cornish runs one of these services, so his view is an operator's pitch as well as an observation. The platform limits and home-network advice behind it can be checked, though, and that is the part Windows users can act on.
GeForce NOW and Xbox Cloud Gaming offer a way around the memory squeeze
The idea is simple. A data centre runs the game on server GPUs and streams the video to whatever device you already own, so you don't buy the graphics card. GadgetGuy notes that Xbox was one of the first big gaming brands to go this route, launching cloud play in Australia in 2021. Nvidia followed later that year, partnering with Perth-based telco Pentanet to run GeForce NOW across Australia and New Zealand.
Microsoft says the same thing about hardware prices. In its 3 September announcement of the new cloud limits, it said cloud gaming can also give XBOX One owners access to eligible games built for XBOX Series X|S without requiring an immediate hardware upgrade, which can be particularly useful in markets where consoles are less available or affordable. Cornish makes the same case for GeForce NOW. With memory shortages driving up hardware prices, he told GadgetGuy, cloud gaming gives the user "somewhere to land."
The two services work in different ways. GeForce NOW doesn't sell you a game library. Nvidia's FAQ says you must own or buy each game on a supported store, such as Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, the EA app, GOG or Xbox. You then stream it from Nvidia's servers. Xbox Cloud Gaming is mainly a Game Pass benefit. Microsoft also lets you stream selected games you own, including most Xbox Play Anywhere titles.
In Australia, GadgetGuy lists GeForce NOW at A$24.99 a month for the 1440p Performance tier and A$32.99 for the 4K Ultimate tier, with discounted six-month terms available. That is cheaper up front than a new console or GPU. It is still a recurring bill, and you pay for the games separately. Whether it works out cheaper over time depends on how long you'd keep the hardware and how much you play.
Pentanet's figures show GeForce NOW Australia has a real user base
Pentanet's figures, provided to GadgetGuy and not independently audited, describe a sizeable service:
| Metric (Pentanet-supplied) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total minutes played since the 2021 launch | About 1 billion |
| Paid subscribers, Australia and New Zealand | 50,000 to 80,000 at any given time |
| Registered members over five years | More than 800,000 |
| Average monthly play per user | 30 to 50 hours |
| Players on Windows devices | 49% |
| Players on Mac | 33% |
| Users who say GeForce NOW is their main gaming outlet | 41% (internal survey) |
The paid subscriber count rises and falls by about 30,000 depending on major game launches. Cornish describes demand as seasonal. Many people seem to subscribe for a big release and then leave.
The platform split matters most to this site's readers. Nearly half of Pentanet's players use Windows machines. Pentanet's data suggests most cloud gamers are on older devices and use the service to play new releases without upgrading. Put simply, a large share of these customers are Windows users whose PCs can no longer run new games well. They are renting GPU time instead of buying a graphics card at current prices. The 33% Mac share points the same way: Mac has fewer native games, so the cloud fills the gap. The rest of the user base is spread across phones, tablets and devices running systems such as SteamOS.
The 41% figure needs care. It comes from an internal survey with no published sample size or method, and "main gaming outlet" isn't defined. It shows that many of Pentanet's own customers depend on the service. It doesn't show that cloud gaming is displacing local hardware in the wider market.
Microsoft's November caps turn Xbox Cloud Gaming into a metered service
The biggest change here is Microsoft's, and GadgetGuy describes it as though it is already in force. It isn't yet. Xbox Wire announced on 3 September that starting in November, Microsoft is replacing unlimited Xbox Cloud Gaming with tiered monthly limits: 15 hours for Ultimate, 10 for Premium, and 5 for Essential. Until then, eligible subscribers can still stream without monthly hour limits.
After November, once they reach these limits, players will be prompted to purchase additional gaming hours from the Xbox Store to keep playing. Microsoft hasn't priced those extra hours. CNBC confirmed that the company did not specify fees for extra hours. Xbox Wire says pricing, eligible games, market availability and a way to check remaining time will come before the change takes effect.
Microsoft's reason is cost. "We're introducing this model because the cost of providing cloud gaming grows as more people use it and play for longer. Moving to monthly limits allows us to keep offering the service while continuing to invest in its reliability and performance. We understand that for some players the practical result is a higher cost." CNBC places the change within a wider pattern at the company. It reports that across product organizations, Microsoft executives have been devising ways to charge customers based on usage to better reflect rising costs. Gadget Hacks reports that Microsoft cited a 45% year-over-year rise in cloud gaming usage and 500 million hours streamed in fiscal 2025.
Microsoft says the caps will affect about 4% of Game Pass subscribers. The limit applies only to streaming. According to Tom's Hardware, subscribers can still download and install as many Xbox Game Pass titles as they want on their consoles or gaming systems, with no monthly limits on playtime. That limits the damage for anyone with capable local hardware. The heaviest cloud users are exactly the people who can't run games locally, and they take the full hit.
Windows users should check two more details on Microsoft's current Xbox Cloud Gaming page. First, cloud gaming is not included with PC Game Pass at all. It comes with the Essential, Premium and Ultimate plans. Second, cloud playtime hours included with Game Pass do not stack if you hold more than one eligible subscription. If you get Game Pass through a partner offer and also pay for Ultimate, only the plan with the higher allowance counts.
November also brings one new option. Players without Game Pass will be able to buy cloud playtime from the Xbox Store and stream eligible games they own. Microsoft pitches this at people who want occasional access without a recurring subscription. That is a smaller version of the gap Cornish identifies in his own model.
GeForce NOW's 100-hour cap is far more generous, with some fine print
GeForce NOW introduced its own cap earlier. Nvidia's FAQ says Performance and Ultimate members get 100 hours of play a month, and up to 15 unused hours roll over to the next month. Members who bought unlimited-playtime subscriptions before 15 January 2026 kept that status until their first billing date after that day. Founders members who kept their membership active still have unlimited play. If they upgrade to Ultimate, they lose it.
Running out of hours works differently from Xbox's model. A GeForce NOW member who hits 100 hours can buy more premium time. Otherwise they drop to basic free-tier servers until the monthly reset. Since 30 April 2026, members who run out still keep access to Install-to-Play games. That feature lets premium members install Steam games whose publishers have opted in to Steam Cloud Gaming. GadgetGuy reports that the Australian service adopted the global 100-hour cap. The Nvidia FAQ is a global document, and Alliance partners such as Pentanet can differ on details like prices and top-up options.
The comparison with Xbox's numbers is stark. A 15-hour Game Pass Ultimate allowance is about half an hour a day. Pentanet's average user plays 30 to 50 hours a month, which would run through that allowance about halfway through the month. Cornish admitted to GadgetGuy that heavy users pushed back at first. He added that players logging hundreds of hours "upset the apple cart." He described the caps as "just the most logical way to keep cloud gaming continuity," and said capacity needs would otherwise "get out of hand really quickly."
Cornish also claims scale gives Pentanet some protection from memory prices. Because the company buys and maintains hardware in bulk, he says, rising memory costs hit it less than they hit consumers. That is his assessment. Neither Pentanet nor Nvidia has published cost figures to back it up. Microsoft's 3 September explanation is the clearest sign that running cloud GPUs is getting expensive, even for a company of its size.
The bottleneck has moved into the home: routers, Wi-Fi and Ethernet
Latency was Pentanet's first engineering problem. Any delay between server and player shows up as stuttering video or input lag, a gap between pressing a button and seeing the result on screen. Pentanet built its GeForce NOW infrastructure in Sydney, filled with enterprise Nvidia GPUs, so Australian players connect to a local server instead of one overseas.
A nearby server only fixes part of the path. GadgetGuy reports that last year's NBN speed upgrade and wider fibre availability improved many Australians' connections. NBN Co and Opensignal have since identified outdated home routers as a new drag. "The bottleneck for internet used to be out in the street, and now it's come into the home," Cornish said. He listed the usual problems: a router in the garage or the pantry, or on the wrong Wi-Fi channel.
The vendors' own requirements show how much bandwidth this takes. Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming FAQ gives a minimum of 10Mbps download. It says the best results come at 10Mbps on mobile devices and 20Mbps on consoles, PCs and tablets, and it recommends 5GHz Wi-Fi. Nvidia recommends 25Mbps for 1080p at 60fps on GeForce NOW and 45Mbps for 4K at 120fps. It recommends 100Mbps for its Cinematic Quality Streaming mode, and wired Ethernet or a 5GHz router. Microsoft also warns that streamed games can have limited resolution, limited audio output, cloud-only save storage and restricted accessory support compared with a local install.
GadgetGuy's advice matches the vendors'. Use Ethernet where you can. Failing that, use the 5GHz band from a router placed well. It also points out that in-home streaming such as the PlayStation Portal suffers on a poor network too, so this isn't specific to cloud services. A PC that reaches a Sydney data centre with low latency can still stutter if its Wi-Fi signal passes through three walls to reach a router in a cupboard.
What this means for you
Whether to switch comes down to your monthly hours and your home network. Cloud gaming makes most sense if you play in bursts, own an older Windows PC or a Mac, and have a reliably wired connection. It suits heavy daily players least well, especially on Xbox after November.
If you're on Game Pass and stream a lot, you have about a month to measure your usage before the caps arrive. If you play mostly on local hardware, Microsoft's change barely affects you. GeForce NOW's 100-hour allowance covers the average use Pentanet reports. Anyone near that ceiling should look at the rollover and top-up rules before committing to a longer plan.
- Xbox Cloud Gaming caps of 15 hours (Ultimate), 10 hours (Premium) and 5 hours (Essential) start in November 2026, and Microsoft hasn't yet priced the extra hours.
- Downloaded Game Pass games on a console or Windows PC stay unlimited, so a capable local machine avoids the caps entirely.
- PC Game Pass doesn't include cloud gaming, and allowances from multiple Game Pass subscriptions don't combine.
- GeForce NOW Performance and Ultimate members get 100 hours a month with up to 15 hours of rollover, plus the option to buy more or drop to basic servers.
- GeForce NOW in Australia costs A$24.99 or A$32.99 a month according to GadgetGuy, and you still have to buy every game you stream.
- Move your gaming PC onto Ethernet, or at least 5GHz Wi-Fi near the router, before blaming the service for lag.
Cloud gaming has become a real option for people who can't justify today's hardware prices, and Pentanet's Windows-heavy user base shows who is taking it up. It is also becoming a metered utility. Microsoft is capping Xbox streaming in November and Nvidia already caps GeForce NOW, and Cornish says Pentanet is looking at payment models beyond the flat monthly subscription. Once Microsoft publishes prices for extra hours before the November switch-over, players will be able to compare a cloud subscription plus top-ups against the price of a new graphics card or console.