If you have been keeping up with the Shadow news, you’ll know that Shadow has changed. It will probably never go back to the old business model it was once promoting. The price has changed drastically and they removed the extra tiers. They decided to just call it – Shadow.
Shadow Price Change
As mentioned in previous videos, the price of the service has been increased to $29.99 as a month-to-month plan. No annual contracts here. At least not yet. This was done to give you the flexibility to cancel the service at any time.
Price of the service has been increased to $29.99
Service Changes
Since there are no more additional tiers to the service, there will be just one package. They will just call it Shadow from now on. No shock here. The new package will be using the Shadow Boost configuration.
Any pre-orders prior to the buyout will be getting this new Shadow package and new price model. This includes any annual contracts. It will be converted to a month-to-month subscription.
You can also still purchase additional 256GBs of storage for $2.99 a month. This hasn’t changed.
One thing that has changed is the temporary hold of current activations. They have currently paused new activations to figure out where they should be setting up the Shadow machines in the datacenters owned by hubiC.
I see this as a process that might take months to complete. Reconfiguring the equipment and then testing them to see how well they work on a production level will take time. So, if you are one of those who are in “activation limbo”, be aware you might be waiting awhile. This is just my personal estimation though.
Hardware Upgrades
Not everything about this situation is doom and gloom. The people who now own Shadow, also own OVH Cloud – one of the biggest cloud computing companies in the world. They have promised to upgrade all the Shadow packages with regular hardware updates and improved features.
Some of these features include dual screen support, 4:4:4 Chroma Subsampling for better colors on video, and a new authentication system. These are slated to be released this summer.
Improved features…slated to be released this summer.
In terms of more absolute power and performance upgrades for the Shadow line of machines, they will be announcing details on the actual hardware upgrades sometime later in the year. This will only lead me to speculate on the upgrades they have in mind. In my mind, 4K should be standard so adequate hardware for 4K gameplay should be the way to go. I’m thinking of something like the Ultra-mid tier they were offering before. But this time, this will be the new standard.
Overview
If you are like me, you are still waiting for all the “great things” that Shadow has promised to be revealed. It’s still early in the new venture so time will tell.
We’ll be staying on top of the Shadow announcements so make sure you subscribe so you can get the latest news and comparisons on cloud gaming at the only place where you can do battle in gaming heaven – Cloud Gaming Battle.
