Valve’s beloved Steam Deck is a delightful little device that makes PC gaming possible anywhere, but it suffers from some significant limitations. The Deck’s custom AMD Ryzen “Aerith” processor requires severe graphical sacrifices to hit playable frame rates in intense games — if you can run them at all. When you’re playing, you’ll blow through the battery in just a few hours. And while non-Steam games can be added to the Deck, it requires wonky technical workarounds that normie gamers probably won’t bother to troubleshoot. Enter Nvidia’s new GeForce Now native app for the Steam Deck, announced today and available immediately. If your internet signal is strong, and you pay for a premium GeForce Now subscription with advanced prowess and features, Nvidia’s app transforms the Steam Deck from a delightful device into an utterly magical one. How magical? Consider that Doom: The Dark Ages has been called a “nightmare” on the Steam Deck. Even with every graphics option turned to low, playing through the sparsely populated tutorial section results in frame rates in the low- to mid-20s — it not only looks ugly, it feels atrocious, like the Doom Slayer is a container ship you’re trying to steer while blackout drunk. Hard pass. Then I flipped over to it on GeForce Now’s new Steam Deck app, using an early build (and GFN Ultimate subscription) provided by Nvidia. Oh. My. God. Suddenly, everything was beautiful and smooth, with the Doom Slayer ripping and tearing through demonic hordes like the finely tuned weapon he is. Even with graphics settings set to the strenuous Nightmare level and rays being traced everywhere, performance ran locked at the 60fps maximum that GFN offers on the Deck. Doom: The Dark Ages runs like butt on Steam Deck — but it streams amazingly over GeForce Now, even with Nightmare graphics settings.Brad Chacos/Foundry GeForce Now literally made an unplayable game deliciously perky. But that’s not the only benefit: With my Steam Deck’s battery life lingering around 86 percent, the system’s performance overlay estimated I’d get around an hour and 44 minutes of play time before juice ran out. Streaming the game over GFN doesn’t tap into the Steam Deck’s resources nearly as heavily, and the performance overlay said the exact same scene with the exact same battery level would deliver over 7 hours of playtime. Wowza. Now that’s transformative — though Nvidia only officially claims battery-life improvements of “up to 50 percent” over native Steam Deck performance. GeForce Now on Steam Deck: Amazing performance and battery life And Doom: The Dark Ages isn’t the only example. I also fired up Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, a pair of CD Projekt Red’s heavy hitters that come with native Steam Deck graphics settings. In a bustling Novigrad Square teeming with NPCs, Witcher 3 achieved surprisingly playable frame rates — I was cruising around with Geralt to the tune of 50- to 60fps. Not bad! …though the graphics looked muddier than I’d prefer, and the battery only expected to last around two hours. Witcher 3 runs fine on Steam Deck natively — but look at how low-quality the visuals are in order to achieve playable performance. Brad Chacos/Foundry Then I booted into Witcher 3 via GeForce Now. What a difference. Using the game’s Ultra settings with ray tracing in full bloom, Geralt suddenly looked so much crisper and vivid — and once again, the game played locked at 60fps on GFN Ultimate’s hardware (equivalent to an RTX 4080), with a runtime estimate of over 7 hours. Transformative! The story remained the same in Cyberpunk 2077, which includes a Steam Deck graphics preset that drops visuals low enough to run at a locked 30fps. It’s muddy but playable! Streaming over GeForce Now, however, lets me run the game’s gorgeous RT Ultra mode at a locked 60fps while looking crisp, clean, and even more responsive. (The in-game benchmark said the Steam Deck mode ran at locked 30fps; RT Ultra over GFN ran at 86fps per the benchmark, but Nvidia’s servers delivered it as a locked 60fps. Nvidia says a 90fps mode is “being evaluated for future release.”) Better yet, estimated battery life increased from 1:09 in Steam Deck mode to 4:02 via GeForce Now — all while looking and feeling so much better than native performance. GeForce Now plays Steam Deck games Valve won’t sell you Another feather in the cap for GeForce Now’s new native Steam Deck app? It lets you play games Valve won’t sell you. The Steam Deck is amazing, but it’s obviously built around Valve’s storefront. Installing non-Steam games on the Deck involves heading to the gadget’s desktop mode and tweaking arcane settings, or installing third-party apps that (hopefully) automate the process a bit. It’s clunky. Not with GeForce Now. You’ve got lots of Alan Wake options on GeForce Now’s Steam Deck app — including the Epic-exclusive Alan Wake 2. Brad Chacos/Foundry Nvidia’s service lets you link your GeForce Now account with major PC gaming storefronts — Steam, yes, but also alternatives like Ubisoft, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, and the Epic Games Store. Once you’ve done so, any of the 2000-plus games supported by GFN will easily be playable by simply searching for them in Nvidia’s interface and launching the game. Want to play Alan Wake 2 (an Epic exclusive) on your Steam Deck with full fidelity? Yeah, the GeForce Now app can do that. Want to stream Forza Horizon through your Game Pass sub? Yeah, you can do that too. The GeForce Now library isn’t exhaustive, but it is huge, and adds games every week. It’s an instant level-up for your Steam Deck’s capabilities if you have games stashed on other PC storefronts too. Better yet, since GFN is now a native app, it’ll appear in the Recently Played section of your Steam Deck’s homescreen — making it dead simple to leap back into games you’ve streamed via Nvidia’s servers. GeForce Now for Steam Deck: Details you need to know Of course, you need to be a GeForce Now subscriber to take advantage of the new Steam Deck native app. The app supports all tiers, including the ad-supported free tier, but paying for higher tiers unlocks ad-free streaming, RTX capabilities, higher resolutions, ultrawide monitor support, and — if you pay for the Ultimate tier – DLSS Frame Gen, Nvidia’s latency-lowering Reflex tech, and HDR10 support that looks oh so good on the Steam Deck OLED that Nvidia sent me for testing. The paid tiers offer 100 hours of gameplay a month, with 15 rollover hours. Nvidia is currently running a GeForce Now summer sale that knocks 40 percent off a six month “Performance” plan, down to $30 for six months. It lacks some of the features of the Ultimate tier, but should deliver a wondrous experience on your Steam Deck, even if Valve’s handheld can’t take advantage of its 1440p option — GFN streams at 1080p/60 undocked. If you connect a monitor to your Steam Deck, GFN can output at 1440p/120Hz, or 4K/60Hz when connected to a television. As a streaming service, GeForce Now obviously requires a strong internet connection. In tests around my apartment in a small city, it held up well over my Comcast home connection, though performance sometimes suffered playing in the furthest reaches of my home. Your mileage may vary depending on your home network situation and whether you’re tethering off a mobile connection, but in general, Nvidia’s streaming service is fairly rock-solid these days. The error message when you try to use quick resume with a GeForce Now streaming title. Brad Chacos/Foundry One tidbit to be aware off: Since GeForce Now relies on active internet streaming, it’s incompatible with the Steam Deck’s quick resume function. If you power off your Deck mid-GFN stream, it’ll crash when the system wakes back up. I wouldn’t want to rely on GFN for a morning bus commute unless your phone can power a banging Wi-Fi hotspot. Just play it Bottom line, though? Nvidia’s GeForce Now app can transform your Steam Deck from a low-powered, vendor-locked console into a full-blow portable PC gaming experience, complete with no-compromises ray tracing and a sublime uplift in both visuals and feel. Playing Doom: The Dark Ages is a nightmare on the Steam Deck — but it’s heavenly streaming to your Steam Deck via GeForce Now. Expanded game support and drastic battery life enhancements almost feel like cherries on top of the experience, but they’re just as crucial to the GFN app’s Steam Deck success. In an age where graphics card prices are soaring and the PC market shivers around damning tariffs, Nvidia’s GeForce Now app can elevate the Steam Deck from a kick-ass sidekick to your primary gaming PC. That’s especially so if you dock your Deck with a mouse, keyboard, and monitor, but the wildly long battery life makes it true in handheld mode, too. You should absolutely, positively give the GeForce Now app a download on your Steam Deck. It’s damned near a must-have accessory if you want to play more strenuous modern games. Even if you only give the free ad-supported tier a whirl, it should provide enough oomph to get you through the new Doom — something the Deck itself isn’t capable of on its own. Giddy up! Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Beautiful 240Hz OLED display with HDR Connectivity includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports Excellent CPU and GPU performance Slightly less expensive than competitors Cons Drab exterior design fails to stand out Mediocre touchpad Speakers sound shrill at high volumes Lacks extras found on some competitive laptops Our Verdict The HP Omen Max 16 is a workmanlike entry into the 16-inch gaming laptop arena. It performs about as well as its peers, however, and ranks among the more affordable laptops with RTX 5080 graphics.    Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today The near-simultaneous appearance of new Intel Core Ultra 9 processors and Nvidia RTX 5080 mobile graphics has led to a burst of mid- to high-end gaming laptops with extremely capable hardware. The HP Omen Max 16 is among these, and while it performs about as well as its peers, it also struggles to set itself apart on pricing and design. HP Omen Max 16: Specs and features The core of the HP Omen Max 16 is the one-two punch of an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and Nvidia RTX 5080 mobile graphics. Both chips are new and deliver excellent all-around performance in their respective categories. Model number: 16-ah0043dx CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX Memory: 32GB DDR5-5600 Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5080 (Max 175W with Dynamic Boost) NPU: Intel AI Boost up to 13 TOPS Display: 16-inch 2560×1600 240Hz OLED with HDR Storage: 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD Webcam: 1080p 30fps camera with Windows Hello support Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 with USB-C and Power Delivery, 2x USB Type-A (10Gbps), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x RJ-45 Ethernet, 1x 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Facial recognition Battery capacity: 83 watt-hours Dimensions: 14.04 x 10.59 x 0.98 Weight: 6.1 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Home Additional features: HyperX wireless connectivity Price: $3,339.99 MSRP CPU and GPU aside, the HP Omen Max 16’s specification sheet is typical. The model I reviewed had a 16-inch display with 2560×1600 resolution, 32GB of memory, and a 2TB PCIe 4.0 solid state drive. Connectivity is the only place where HP deviates from the norm, as the Omen Max 16 has two Thunderbolt 4 ports (some competitors have just one). It also has a HyperX wireless adapter for instant pairing with HyperX gaming hardware, which is a niche feature but potentially useful, as HyperX gaming peripherals are often rather good. The HP Omen Max 16 I reviewed was priced at an MSRP of $3,339.99 at Best Buy, though it was reduced to $3,139.99 at the time I wrote this review. That’s expensive, but on the less expensive side for this caliber of hardware. The HP Omen Max 16 is a capable, though rather dull, option in the highly competitive field of mid- to high-end gaming laptops with Nvidia RTX 50-series hardware. HP Omen Max 16: Design and build quality IDG / Matthew Smith If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Alienware is no doubt blushing. HP’s Omen lineup has gradually morphed into something that looks much like older Alienware laptops. With the Omen Max 16, the inspiration comes across in the availability of black and white colorways, the simple lines with rounded corners, and, most notably, the similar choice of font used in the laptop’s “O16” badging. However, the Omen Max 16 isn’t as extravagant as a typical Alienware machine. While the Omen Max 16 offers a customizable RGB-LED lightbar across the front, as well as an RGB-LED keyboard, the badging across the laptop’s exterior is rather tame. The Shadow Black colorway is particularly stealthy, as HP’s choice of matte black materials comes across as dull. Many competitors have their own flourishes: the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 has a white LED display on its lid, for example. That leaves the Omen Max 16’s design in a tough spot. It’s not unattractive, but it’s the least alluring of the new RTX 5080-powered gaming laptops PC World has reviewed to date. On the plus side, HP hasn’t cut corners on build quality. The laptop chassis doesn’t allow much flex when picked up from one corner, and the materials don’t groan or creak. Opening and closing the laptop reveals only slight flex in the display, and the keyboard also resists flex unless specifically abused. Competitors like Alienware, Lenovo, and Asus provide solid build quality in this price bracket, too, but the Omen Max 16 is at least their peer. HP Omen Max 16: Keyboard, trackpad IDG / Matthew Smith The HP Omen Max 16’s keyboard, much like the rest of its design, doesn’t look like much, especially when the RGB-LED backlight is not in use. This is mostly due to the keycaps, which have a rather old-fashioned bevel. However, the Omen Max 16 strikes back in typing feel. The laptop offers good key travel and a firm, tactile bottoming action with a distinct scissor-switch slap. The Omen Max 16 isn’t going to match a mechanical keyboard, of course, but it feels crisp. While the keyboard didn’t strike me as attractive, the customizable RGB-LED backlight helps alleviate that problem. It’s extremely bright and vibrant, as the keycaps have transparent edges that allow significant light through. The keyboard is also easy to customize through HP’s Omen Light Studio software. The touchpad is less impressive. It feels responsive but only measures roughly five inches wide and three inches deep. That’s the minimum for a laptop. A couple of competitors, like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 and Razer’s Blade 16, offer a much larger touchpad surface. HP Omen Max 16: Display, audio IDG / Matthew Smith Display quality is a perk for the HP Omen Max 16, though only if you spring for the top-shelf 16-inch OLED display. It has a resolution of 2560×1600, a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz, and supports variable refresh rates between 48Hz and 240Hz. Going OLED has its strengths and weaknesses. OLED displays are typically glossy, which can make glare an issue, and not as bright as the Mini-LED displays found on competitors like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16. On the other hand, OLED provides top-tier contrast, color gamut, and motion clarity that are difficult to beat at any price. These advantages are well suited for a gaming laptop, so I prefer the HP’s OLED display over alternatives with an IPS Mini-LED or IPS LCD display. The OLED display also supports HDR when the laptop is plugged into an outlet. It’s not going to match the HDR brightness of new desktop OLED monitors, but it’s not bad and looks vibrant enough to help HDR games pop. The HP Omen Max 16’s speakers sound balanced at lower volumes but begin to sound shrill as the volume is increased. They’re fine for chill background beats or games that lean less on immersive audio, but you’ll want desktop speakers or a headset for anything more acoustically demanding. This is an area where the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 has a significant advantage, as it has a powerful, crisp sound system. HP Omen Max 16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics HP ships the Omen Max 16 with a 1080p webcam and dual microphone array. Neither stands out, but both do the job. You can expect the webcam to deliver sharp, colorful video, and the microphone array will pick up your voice with plenty of volume. The Omen Max 16 also has an IR camera for Windows Hello facial recognition. Most competitive laptops support this feature, too, but it’s always good to see. Facial recognition was fast and reliable in my testing, which, again, is also true of competitive laptops. A physical privacy shutter is included, too, to obstruct the webcam when desired. HP Omen Max 16: Connectivity IDG / Matthew Smith You’ll find a healthy selection of ports along the HP Omen Max 16’s flanks. A pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, both of which support USB-C, are found on the left flank and joined by the 3.5mm combo headphone/microphone jack. The right flank has a single USB-A port. Another USB-A port is found on the rear, alongside HDMI 2.1 and 2.5Gbps Ethernet. The laptop also has a barrel plug power adapter on the rear, which connects to the included 330-watt power brick. This is a good selection of ports for a modern gaming laptop. I also like that some ports are found on the rear of the laptop, which makes cable management easier. Helpfully, two of the three ports are those you’re most likely to use (HDMI and Ethernet) if the laptop spends a lot of time on a desk. The Thunderbolt 4 ports also support USB-C power delivery. HP’s specifications don’t state the amount of power available, but it’s irrelevant, as the laptop’s maximum power draw likely exceeds what USB-C could provide. Still, it’s nice to have USB-C as a secondary option for charging the laptop if you happen to forget the brick. Like most new laptops sold in 2025, the HP Omen Max 16 supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. But here’s a twist: the laptop also supports instant wireless pairing with HyperX devices. I didn’t have a compatible HyperX device on hand to test this feature, however. HP Omen Max 16: Performance The hardware inside the HP Omen Max 16 I reviewed is similar to competitive laptops PC World has recently reviewed, which includes the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16, and the MSI Raider 18 HX AI. It pairs an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor with an Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU. The Omen Max 16 also had 32GB of DDR5 memory and 2TB of PCIe solid state storage. IDG / Matthew Smith We kick things off with PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark. Here, the Omen Max 16 reached a solid score of 8,321. That is towards the lower end of the competitive Intel Core Ultra 9 / Nvidia RTX 5080 laptops we have recently reviewed, but the margin is so slim that it’s essentially a tie. IDG / Matthew Smith Handbrake is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that typically has a longer duration. The latest Intel Core Ultra 9 chips really chew through it, however, and the HP Omen Max 16 is no exception. It’s right on par with most of its competitors. Only the MSI Raider 18 HX A2XW, which had the benefit of a larger chassis and slightly more capable Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor, comes out ahead of the pack. IDG / Matthew Smith Cinebench R23 is another heavily multi-threaded benchmark, albeit a more modern one, and it doesn’t change the HP Omen Max 16’s story. The Omen performs extremely well here with a score of 33,224, but it’s not much different from its direct competitors. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 is once again a tad quicker than the HP and the larger, more expensive MSI Raider 18 HX A2XW takes a victory lap. IDG / Matthew Smith Moving on to graphics performance, the Omen Max 16 with RTX 5080 delivers 3DMark Time Spy and Port Royal results that are right in line with competitive laptops. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 is an overall leader here, but the HP Omen Max 16 does well. IDG / Matthew Smith Shadow of the Tomb Raider, however, was a weak point for the Omen Max 16. The laptop averaged 165 frames per second at 1080p resolution with detail set to highest and DLSS off. That’s notably behind the competition, and the Omen Max 16’s first real defeat. IDG / Matthew Smith But Tomb Raider may not be indicative of general game performance, as the Omen Max 16 leapt back into the pack with the Metro Exodus benchmark. Here it averaged 89 frames per second at 1080p and Extreme detail. Some competitors, like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16, have an edge here. But others, like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16, end up tied with the Omen Max 16. IDG / Matthew Smith Last, but certainly not least, is Cyberpunk 2077. Here the Omen Max 16 averaged 143 frames per second at 1080p resolution and the Ultra preset with DLSS/FSR/XeSS turned off. Turning the detail up to max with the Overdrive ray-traced preset greatly reduced performance to an average of just 40 frames per second. Both results are competitive. The Omen Max 16 beats the Asus ROG Strix Scar, but falls behind the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16. Remember, this is with DLSS set to off. Higher detail presets, such as Cyberpunk 2077’s Overdrive preset, benefit greatly from DLSS image upscaling and frame generation. Engaging these features increased performance from 40 to as high as 178 frames per second. The HP Omen Max 16’s overall performance is precisely what I expected. It’s very similar to other laptops tested with an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and Nvidia RTX 5080 graphics. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 is generally a bit quicker, and the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 is a tad slower, but the margins are often slim. This ultimately works out slightly in HP’s favor, however, because it’s a bit less expensive than its competitors. HP Omen Max 16: Battery life & portability The HP Omen Max 16 has an 83-watt-hour battery, which is towards the smaller side for a high-end gaming laptop. However, the laptop also provides Nvidia Optimus graphics, which can increase battery life by disengaging the discrete GPU when its performance isn’t required. IDG / Matthew Smith This does provide some benefit. The HP Omen Max 16 endured our battery test, which loops a 1080p file of the short film Tears of Steel, for roughly five and a half hours. That’s longer than the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 and MSI Raider 18 AI HX, but not as long as the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16. In any case, five to six hours of battery life isn’t a lot. The Omen Max 16 is also a bit difficult to pack at 6.1 pounds and nearly an inch thick at its thickest point. Add in the 330-watt power brick and you’ll be hauling roughly eight pounds. HP Omen Max 16: Conclusion The HP Omen Max 16 is a capable, though rather dull, option in the highly competitive field of mid to high-end gaming laptops with Nvidia RTX 50-series hardware. It provides performance that’s broadly like the alternatives yet lacks features that might help it separate it from the pack. It doesn’t have the flair of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 or the performance of the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16. Yet there’s one thing about the HP Omen Max 16 that’s very attractive: the price. Listed at an MSRP of $3,339.99 and currently sold (and in stock!) on Best Buy for $3,139.99, the Omen Max 16 is towards the low end of pricing for a 16-inch gaming laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 9 and RTX 5080. And, as mentioned, it performs about as well as its more expensive peers. If it were my money, I’d opt for the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16, which is more attractive and has a few extras I prefer, such as a comfortable touchpad and high-quality speaker system. If you just want good bang-for-your-buck and don’t sweat the details, however, the HP Omen Max 16 is a solid pick. Read...

Last week, ESPN put a price tag on the standalone streaming service it’s launching in the fall, and it’s not cheap. ESPN’s streaming service will cost $30 per month, with an option to bundle Hulu and Disney+ for $6 more. (A limited time offer at launch will throw in both services free for the first year.) By contrast, ESPN’s carriage fees—the amount it charges cable TV providers to carry its channels—are reportedly around $10 per month, amounting to a 200% markup for a la carte viewing. If you’re having trouble figuring out who would pay for such a thing, the answer might be “hardly anyone.” ESPN’s standalone service is supposed to unappealing enough that people don’t cancel cable to get it, and the high price is a signal that you should probably get the channel some other way, be it through a pay TV package or newer kinds of streaming bundles. You wanted a la carte TV, you got it Let’s say you want you watch all the NFL games that are normally part of a cable TV package. That would require ESPN ($30 per month), Peacock ($8 per month), Paramount+ (also $8 per month), and Fox (whose forthcoming Fox One service will reportedly cost around $20 per month). All that would add up to $66 per month. Opting for the ad-free versions of Paramount+ ($13 per month) and Peacock ($14 per month), which are required for local CBS and NBC feeds outside of NFL coverage, would push the price to $77 per month instead. That’s not much less than a full-size pay TV package. YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV each cost $83 per month. DirecTV’s new MySports bundle is a bit cheaper at $70 per month, but lacks CBS currently. A standalone ESPN subscription might still make sense in conjunction with an antenna, supplementing what’s available for free over the air. And perhaps there’s a certain kind of ESPN superfan for whom it’s the only thing keeping them glued to a pricier pay TV package. But for sports fans who want full coverage of what’s normally on cable, the a la carte route won’t add up. Unlike with general entertainment content, you can’t merely cycle through streaming services one at a time to save money. Outside of password sharing or piracy, bundling will be the only way to defray the costs. Back to the bundle That brings us to the real goal with ESPN’s streaming service, which is to serve as a starting point for new kinds of TV bundles. Just look to Disney’s own bundling strategy as an example. Hulu and Disney+ each cost $10 per month on their own, but $11 per month when bundled together. When you add them to ESPN’s flagship service, the cost for the pair goes down to $6 per month (and, at the outset, free for the first year). Disney’s been branching into bundles with other companies as well. It already offers a $17-per-month package with Disney+, Hulu, and Max (soon to be HBO Max again), saving $4 per month over each company’s separate ad-supported offerings. Disney hasn’t announced a tie-in with ESPN, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t happen given the bundle’s apparent popularity. Disney had also planned to collaborate with both Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox on a joint service called Venu Sports, which combined all three companies’ sports and broadcast channels for $43 per month. That plan died in court, but they could still work together on bundling their individual services at a discount. Wireless carriers have gotten into the streaming bundle business as well. Verizon in particular offers Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ (that’s the current ESPN service that excludes most cable content) for $10 per month with its newest unlimited plans. An option to include ESPN’s flagship service seems like the next logical step. Streaming companies like these kinds of bundles because they discourage subscription hopping, where you bounce between services every month to watch the best content on each. If they set a high enough price for their standalone offerings, like Disney is doing with ESPN now, those bundles start to look even more attractive. But none of this can happen if ESPN doesn’t actually have a standalone streaming service to offer. The new service is less about selling you a $30 per month plan for a single sports channel and more about setting the table for new kinds of streaming bundles. What sets the new ESPN streaming service apart from the ESPN+ Whether this is better than the old pay TV system is hard to say, but it’ll probably beat the alternative of paying for every individual service a la carte. That idea was never going to happen as cord-cutters imagined it. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter weekly newsletter to get more streaming advice every Friday Read...