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[kingfey]

Don't get me wrong. Renting games on the cheap is great (even considering picking up a Series X), even though I prefer a Steam like service, but I keep hearing all this buzz about Gamepass like MS sets the trends even though they sell the least consoles and have since 2017 since Gamepass started.

Have you heard psnow? Or were you living in a cave?

I hear buzz about revenue, but what about profits?

Phil Spencer: Xbox Game Pass Is 'Very, Very Sustainable,' Not 'Burning Cash' - IGN

In a new interview, Xbox boss Phil Spencer says that the future is now for the subscription service, saying that it is "very, very sustainable" and that it's not chasing a "pot of gold" in the future.

www.ign.com

The service would make profit soon. As of now, its on sustainable phase. Once more users join the service, it will see profits.

But the problem is that, these profits go directly to gamepass.

For example, If gamepass makes 200m this month, MS would now be able to afford 2 AAA day1 games. The more money the service generates, the more day 1 AAA gets dropped to the service.

Why is Nintendo selling the most hardware and low budget games for full price making way more profit than anyone if giving your games away and devaluing your IP's is such a great idea?

Nintendo is yakuza business. They know how to build an empire.
Unlike MS and Sony, Nintendo doesnt lower the price of their games. That option creates value. Once you have that value, people would be ok to pay 60$ for 5 year old game. Because there is value.

MS and Sony undercut the price of their 1st party games, which doesnt create a value. If I am a playstation/xbox customer, I would hold of their day1 games, and buy it for 20$ next year, during ps+/gold sale. With nintendo, I dont have that luxury, So I have to buy the game day1.

Then there is the IPs. Nintendo has 2 of most popular characters in the world. Mario and Pokémon. Both print insane amount of money. Their games dont need epic graphics, Which explains the under powered switch.

 

[kingfey]

Day 1 releases? Sony's first party games are high budget single player games and don't lend themselves to predatory GaaS oriented type micro transaction type subscription services and I'd like it to stay that way.

Is starfield garbage according to you?

 

[SLB1904]

I think they're just saying the majority of gamers, when you include the wider mainstream market, aren't buying one for that reason. Which is statistically true; even in their best year to date Sony 1P games accounted for only 18% of total PlayStation division software revenue.

That basically means on an average, at best just one out of five PlayStation owners seem to buy one for the 1P games/content. It's likely the same ratio with Xbox if not skewing a bit further even to favoring 3P content in terms of the ratio. Nintendo's the outlier.

Aside of that though, obviously there are people excited for Forbidden West, and for very good reasons. Same with GT7. But it's still important to keep in mind what percentage that might be when considering the entire PlayStation install base.

gow sold 20mil copies on playstation 4
how many games sold 20mil copies on playstation 4?
tlous 2 sold 4mil copies in 3 days. how many games sold 4 mil copies in 3 days on playstation
spiderman? horizon?

gtfo here with this nonsense

for reference, red dead 2 sold 39mil copies in 3 platforms

FIFA 18 - 26.4m Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One​

Call Of Duty: Black Ops – 30.72 Million​

Is starfield garbage according to you?

yeah because starfield was clearly made with gamepass in mind.

​

 

[kingfey]

yeah because starfield was clearly made with gamepass in mind.

​

GZ then. You peaked the brain of fanboy truly.

 

[MikeM]

GamePass was going to happen, whether to be from MS or someone else. Netflix models are proving successful.

I have GamePass and still much prefer buying my own physical games to renting them. GP is great value, but money isn’t an issue and being able to play whatever I want and actually having a disc I can sell later is proving to be better for my more finite gaming time.

 

[kingfey]

I like the idea of Gamepass as a consumer, but it really does devalue gaming as a whole.

Games go devalued, once mtx was introduced, and studios started milking their franchises to death for profits.

 

[SLB1904]

GZ then. You peaked the brain of fanboy truly.

is like you dont read your own delusional posts.

The service would make profit soon. As of now, its on sustainable phase. Once more users join the service, it will see profits.

But the problem is that, these profits go directly to gamepass.

For example, If gamepass makes 200m this month, MS would now be able to afford 2 AAA day1 games. The more money the service generates, the more day 1 AAA gets dropped to the service.

that fuck is this shit?

 

[kingfey]

GamePass was going to happen, whether to be from MS or someone else. Netflix models are proving successful.

I have GamePass and still much prefer buying my own physical games to renting them. GP is great value, but money isn’t an issue and being able to play whatever I want and actually having a disc I can sell later is proving to be better for my more finite gaming time.

Gamepass like service existed before gamepass.

Psnow come out in January 28, 2014. ea play on July 29, 2014.

People who are crying here, forgot that PSN is the one who made that service. You know the concept of having huge gaming catalog, which you pay for monthly service. Not to mention EA had that service, which they called EA play.

Difference is, MS owns gamepass, and because of that, It sucks. And its ruining gaming.

 

[kingfey]

is like you dont read your own delusional posts.

You said

yeah because starfield was clearly made with gamepass in mind.

Starfield wasnt made for gamepass at all.

 

[SLB1904]

You said


Starfield wasnt made for gamepass at all.

 

[karasu]

People just draw some vague correlation between it and Netflix and start playing Nostradamus.

 

[kingfey]

that fuck is this shit?

That shit is this article.

Phil Spencer: Xbox Game Pass Is 'Very, Very Sustainable,' Not 'Burning Cash' - IGN

In a new interview, Xbox boss Phil Spencer says that the future is now for the subscription service, saying that it is "very, very sustainable" and that it's not chasing a "pot of gold" in the future.

www.ign.com

Gamepass is a growth type service. As any growth service, any money you make would go back to the service, to enhance it. You dont grow services like gamepass, if you take the profits to yourself.

 

[ChiefDada]

People who are crying here, forgot that PSN is the one who made that service.

The difference, at least to me, is that PSN is additive. The Playstation 1st party blockbuster exclusives are still the heart and soul of the platform, whereas Microsoft is making Gamepass the core focus, which has a direct effect on future game budgets, leading to the concern of many gamers who worry about the quality of said future games.

that fuck is this shit?

Lmao glad I wasn't the only one confused.

 

[bender]

MS owns gamepass, and because of that, It sucks. And its ruining gaming.

-kingfey

 

[kingfey]

The difference, at least to me, is that PSN is additive. The Playstation 1st party blockbuster exclusives are still the heart and soul of the platform, whereas Microsoft is making Gamepass the core focus, which has a direct effect on future game budgets, leading to the concern of many gamers who worry about the quality of said future games.

This is the problem. 1 company gets a pass, because people like their product, while the other one gets bashed, because it doesnt do what the competitor does.

Gamepass offers total freedom for developers. Any of the concern, is just people crying about it.

Imagine you are a dev, and you want to make your own game, without any risks, such as financial burden. Gamepass would be enticing to you, because it has the users, and MS would pay you to put your game to that service.

If anything, it would promote creative developing.

 

[ChiefDada]

This is the problem. 1 company gets a pass, because people like their product, while the other one gets bashed, because it doesnt do what the competitor does.

Gamepass offers total freedom for developers. Any of the concern, is just people crying about it.

Imagine you are a dev, and you want to make your own game, without any risks, such as financial burden. Gamepass would be enticing to you, because it has the users, and MS would pay you to put your game to that service.

If anything, it would promote creative developing.

No one is bashing any company we're just having good discussions about where the industry is headed. I will tell you though that as Microsoft becomes more successful with its GP endeavor, their bargaining power becomes greater at the expense of indie developers, especially the smaller ones. So I don't really agree with your idea of indie developers having greater freedom, especially in the long-term.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Why?

If you go to the right forum (perhaps a few years ago) you would find people saying 'movies are not music and should not be treated as such'. They are all consumable entertainment. You don't, and have never 'owned' any of it.

My dad's Michael Jackson's Thriller mint vinyl album going for $2K says hi. He bought it, kept it mint and has every right to sell ownership of his record.

I'm all for Gamepass or movie subs but let us not bullshit we never or could never own the game from these services. I'm free to buy a digital version to own, I'm also free to buy a physical edition. I'd like to see all options kept viable for freedom of ownership choices/collecting/investing/archiving etc. I buy the Halo legendary editions to keep and show off in my gaming room, I buy digital for games I want always and I sub to Gamepass to trial anything I want from that service.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Seems like the future to me.
I used to buy a ton of games, on all systems, my physical x360 collection is huge.
It's one of the reasons I made PC my main platform in ~2007, because steam sales were just too juicy.
Since gamepass I haven't really bought that many games at all, 3 games on console, and a bunch on PC that I did get day one like RE8 and SRW30, 0 physical copies at least.

To put it in perspective, I also used to buy a lot of movies, I've got around 90 movies on blu-ray, I also see about ~100 movies in the theater (before covid at least).
But since netflix and then (much later) disney+, and (somewhat later) also primevideo, my movie purchases have gone down almost 99%; I only own one UHD Blu-ray(2020), and the last regular blu-ray I bought was into the spider-verse(2018), before that BvS(2016).

My game purchases haven't gone down as harshly, but that's mainly because gamepass simply doesn't have everything, though I'd still purchase some games like RE8, just like how I still go to theaters.

 

[BaneIsPain]

I'm glad it exists. A nice option to have. I did subscribe for a short period but was just not interested in the long term.
I'd rather wait for sale digitally or buy physically.

 

[Plantoid]

What a fucking ignorant take.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

It's most likely not the future.

GAAS is the future.

Music, TV, and movies all succeed with streaming services because those media are relatively short. You need a bunch of content to justify the business model.

A single game can entertain players for thousands of hours. The developers working on GAAS today are trying to figure out how to make ten thousand hour games.

That being said, GamePass is still fun for right now as the industry matures in the live service area.

You won't hear this take often as games media profits from short single player games much more than GAAS.

 

[Bonfires Down]

What stage is this? Bargaining?

 

[kingfey]

No one is bashing any company we're just having good discussions about where the industry is headed. I will tell you though that as Microsoft becomes more successful with its GP endeavor, their bargaining power becomes greater at the expense of indie developers, especially the smaller ones. So I don't really agree with your idea of indie developers having greater freedom, especially in the long-term.

If MS gets too much powerful, they will get cocky. We have seen that before.
I hope we see more competition against gamepass, this way, MS would be kept in check, and they don't get cocky.

Right now, indie devs need huge support. Considering the market is harsh, and it's hard to make your game stand out, against these big games, and other indie games.

 

[kingfey]

My dad's Michael Jackson's Thriller mint vinyl album going for $2K says hi. He bought it, kept it mint and has every right to sell ownership of his record.

I'm all for Gamepass or movie subs but let us not bullshit we never or could never own the game from these services. I'm free to buy a digital version to own, I'm also free to buy a physical edition. I'd like to see all options kept viable for freedom of ownership choices/collecting/investing/archiving etc. I buy the Halo legendary editions to keep and show off in my gaming room, I buy digital for games I want always and I sub to Gamepass to trial anything I want from that service.

Low product of certain item, creates scarcity. And when there is scarcity, the price of that items goes up.
That is why, that vinyl is expensive. If there are more of that product, it would be 5$ movie box bin in the Wal-Mart.

Any rare items would cost alot. I have OG xbox. If I keep it with me for 10 years, I would make alot of money, with the games included. But I can not do the same for my xbox one/ps4, because those games are easy to get, and they cost like 5$ to get them. Not to mention, the digital market makes it very cheap. And PC market, makes it even more cheap.


I wish I had some of my old stuff. I would have been making a bank now.

 

[sainraja]

No one is bashing any company we're just having good discussions about where the industry is headed. I will tell you though that as Microsoft becomes more successful with its GP endeavor, their bargaining power becomes greater at the expense of indie developers, especially the smaller ones. So I don't really agree with your idea of indie developers having greater freedom, especially in the long-term.

100% the bolded. Some insecure people can't handle any sort of discussion so they try to taint it with their own narrative and try their best to spoil the conversation. Lately though, I have seen its been a little better than in the past though.

 

[bender]

It's most likely not the future.

GAAS is the future.

Music, TV, and movies all succeed with streaming services because those media are relatively short. You need a bunch of content to justify the business model.

I often find myself thinking as you do. Movie and Music streaming work because those can be consumed in a night and are far more portable. On the flip side, if I was a parent, giving my kid an Xbox and a Game Pass subscription seems like a really great value. And if I were a kid, I can't imagine having that catalog in front of me instead of playing Deadly Towers for the summer. And even as an adult gamer, it's a pretty amazing value. They'll never get to 200+ million subscribers like Netflix because of the medium, but I wonder what the subscriber count needs to be to turn a profit. I do wonder if it is great now just because Microsoft is in costumer acquisition mode and what the service will look like five or ten years from now. It will be a fascinating watch.

No arguments on GAAS.

I do kind of wonder if we'll see a resurgence of AA game development like we did with the rise, and now oversaturation of indie development,

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Where do you need to pay extra to have complete games? Cyberpunk 2077 is not a live service game.

No Man's Sky turned the ship around and gave amazing content and systems for FREE.

Look at Warframe. F2P game with AAA quality production value and is doing well after all these years.

I don't remember paying extra for Sea of Thieves. Yes the game was a extremely well polished title but launched with not much content and look at it now.

You wanna talk about a shitty game launch then look at EA games like Battlefront 1 and 2. Just because EA is super greedy and have horrible practices doesn't mean Sony will fall into at least I hope not.

Yes, there are shit greedy companies and I get that people are worried. But I think people need to chill first and see the fruits of labor after all the acquisitions and investments done by both MS and Sony. Just pray that EA doesn't buy anything lol.

When games release DLC or MTX before the game even releases, that’s when I feel like we are having to pay extra for the complete experience. Shadow of Tomb Raider, Granblue Versus, Mass Effect 3 and King of Fighters 15 did this for example if I remember correctly. Most service games are obviously never complete even after years and I guess that one of the things that annoys me because it delays a new game or an improved sequel from the company. I don’t mind DLC or MTX later if it is handled correctly, but day one feels wrong to me. We are still paying full price, but getting less content in certain games on day one and content is purposely held back to sell later.

The mentality now in the industry is, “ship now, complete later” and I suppose fighting games are probably the worst when it comes to paying for the complete experience. I just feel like a GAAS and microtransactions filled industry will encourage this behavior even more with all genres.

I don’t know. I really don’t think we are dealing with the same Sony as before. EA buying someone? Hopefully not lol, but I do wonder what would happens if someone buys EA?

 

[kingfey]

I often find myself thinking as you do. Movie and Music streaming work because those can be consumed in a night and are far more portable. On the flip side, if I was a parent, giving my kid an Xbox and a Game Pass subscription seems like a really great value. And if I were a kid, I can't imagine having that catalog in front of me instead of playing Deadly Towers for the summer. And even as an adult gamer, it's a pretty amazing value. They'll never get to 200+ million subscribers like Netflix because of the medium, but I wonder what the subscriber count needs to be to turn a profit. I do wonder if it is great now just because Microsoft is in costumer acquisition mode and what the service will look like five or ten years from now. It will be a fascinating watch.

No arguments on GAAS.

I do kind of wonder if we'll see a resurgence of AA game development like we did with the rise, and now oversaturation of indie development,

For the profits, it would need around 50m+. It needs to make more money, than it can invest in. That is major hurdle for these services. Those investments can get AAA 3rd party games day1 on the service.
Once those games comes to the service every 2-3 month, it would be come profitable.

But right now, the investment money is eating the profits.

 

[Ironman_Bad]

Its actually quite simple but for you to understand why gamepass is the future you first have to understand that typical hardware isn't the future and then it will be a lot easier

 

[kingfey]

When games release DLC or MTX before the game even releases, that’s when I feel like we are having to pay extra for the complete experience. Tomb Raider and King of Fighters 15 did this for example if I remember correctly. I don’t mind DLC or MTX later if it is handled correctly, but day one feels wrong to me. Basically, we still paying full price, but getting less content in certain games on day one and content is purposely held back to sell later.

The mentality now in the industry is, “ship now, complete later” and I suppose fighting games are probably the worst when it comes to paying for the complete experience. I just feel like a GAAS and microtransactions filled industry will encourage this behavior even more with all genres.

I don’t know. I really don’t think we are dealing with the same Sony as before. EA buying someone? Hopefully not lol, but I do wonder what would happens if someone buys EA?

They bought code masters. We don't know their fates now though.

Code master and EA were a match made in heaven. Heavy mtx ridden games.

 

[bender]

EA buying someone? Hopefully not lol, but I do wonder what would happens if someone buys EA?

My minor nitpick about Microsoft's acquisitions of ZeniMax and Activision is a lot of the studios and IPs are some combination of oversaturated, long in the tooth are far past their prime. And maybe that's why they were available in the first place but acquiring EA would be the pinnacle of all of those niggles.

 

[Menzies]

I raised a similar point in another thread.

It does seem that Sony execs are in a 'us too' responsive mode with their strategy. It does raise an eyebrow that a market leader would pivot away from their strengths to latch on to the same strategy.

I don't blame them though, I wouldn't want to be the next Blockbuster.

I think the decisions made today are based on 10-year outlooks into the future.

 

[rolandss]

What is this fascination bordering on obsession some users have with Microsoft and game pass's profit margins on this forum ?

I'm a subscriber to the service and wondering how they're sustaining the service is the last thing on my mind as a gamer ..

Because neogaf has people interested in the gaming business/industry and trends in the industry in addition to the games?

 

[Elder Legend]

I raised a similar point in another thread.

It does seem that Sony execs are in a 'us too' responsive mode with their strategy. It does raise an eyebrow that a market leader would pivot away from their strengths to latch on to the same strategy.

I don't blame them though, I wouldn't want to be the next Blockbuster.

I think the decisions made today are based on 10-year outlooks into the future.

This guy gets it. Business decisions are made for the long term plan, not the short term gain (unless you are EA). Sony is looking at the bigger picture than the next year or 2.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

What is this fascination bordering on obsession some users have with Microsoft and game pass's profit margins on this forum ?

I'm a subscriber to the service and wondering how they're sustaining the service is the last thing on my mind as a gamer ..

The focus on profits is the last ditch bullet point they can hang onto to badmouth the service.

It's got awesome games, day one games, cheap, cab be played on PC, EA Play, fully downloaded games (unlike streamed crap), and there's even discounts.

Sounds like a great value to me.

You'll notice they never say the same thing at services like Spotify (who has never made profit).

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

gow sold 20mil copies on playstation 4
how many games sold 20mil copies on playstation 4?
tlous 2 sold 4mil copies in 3 days. how many games sold 4 mil copies in 3 days on playstation
spiderman? horizon?

gtfo here with this nonsense

for reference, red dead 2 sold 39mil copies in 3 platforms

FIFA 18 - 26.4m Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One​

Call Of Duty: Black Ops – 30.72 Million​

Okay, and how many of those 20 million GoW copies sold at full MSRP? How many were physical vs. digital? What were the net profits from Sony for total copies sold considering all of that? How much money did it generate for them through additional revenue streams? How many years did it take for it to sell those 20 million copies?

Like I said, in their peak year 1P games accounted for 18% of PlayStation division's revenue. That was 2020, split between TLOU Part II, Ghosts, and additional sales of earlier 1P games like Spiderman, GoW, Horizon, GT Sport, Days Gone etc. Where did the other 82% of revenue come from? Not 1P games or content, apparently.

I'm not dissing their 1P sales at all, either, plus like I said there are a lot of people looking forward to stuff like Forbidden West coming this year. But if you look at the financial results, 1P content alone simply isn't what most PlayStation owners are there for, and that's okay. Another thing about the FIFA and COD numbers are that those are annual franchises, and have a ton of additional revenue generated through MTX, DLC content etc. on top of unit sales. And at least in COD's case, the vast majority of its sales are at full MSRP during the initial launch week or so.

 

[Lupin25]

I feel like lots of us are o the verge of leaving the hobby. I sure am if the majority of the industry moves to service games, regardless of who is doing it.

Agreed.

I wouldn’t exactly claim the industry is moving in this direction yet, but rendering alternative options to play is not a problem whatsoever.

It appears prevalent now, because of the general trend toward home entertainment/improvement (pandemic wreaking havoc on the safety of public venues).

The process was further expedited, now as a result, every production company requires a subscription to circumvent the lack of ticket-sales/TV viewership, etc.

Western audiences (such as this domain) will also be more influenced by the discourse of this trend (which obviously includes Microsoft), which is why this is such a recurring topic even without evidence of a profitable XGP-like subscription model.

We also don’t know if “Project Spartacus” mirrors XGP in any way.

PS Now being compared is just irrational. Sony has hardly invested in the service (2nd or 3rd party), let alone include all of their own 1st party titles day one (hell even day 100) …

 

[Shmunter]

I want to see what Sony is cooking up because I find it obvious that gamepass if not a loss leader, is running on profit fumes to gain market share.

Long term it needs to make the cheddar with price increases as sure as a bear shitting in the woods, especially compounded by throwing more into it with the recent record setting acquisitions.

One the price reflects the commercial reality, how many will keep on rolling with it?Especially in our seeming GaaS future of never ending f2p games. *sniff*

Then we will know.

 

[Robb]

All other kinds of entertainment is moving in that direction and I don’t see why gaming would keep going in the opposite direction. It makes sense that they’d move towards a Netflix/Spotify etc. type service.

I don’t really mind it personally, GamePass is great. But I hope they keep the ability to still download the games down the line and don’t lock it to streaming.

 

[Menzies]

I want to see what Sony is cooking up because I find it obvious that gamepass if not a loss leader, is running on profit fumes to gain market share.

Long term it needs to make the cheddar with price increases as sure as a bear shitting in the woods, especially compounded by throwing more into it with the recent record setting acquisitions.

One the price reflects the commercial reality, how many will keep on rolling with it?Especially in our seeming GaaS future of never ending f2p games. *sniff*

Then we will know.

I often see the argument that the price will go up.

The thing is this thing scales like a mo-fo with user growth. If the price does go up, it most likely will just be in line with CPI and negligible. It's not like it's going from $15 to $50.

Pretty sure that Spotify, Netflix and GamePass are more interested in growing subscribers versus raising costs on everyone.

 

[LeftThumbstick]

Well 25 million+ subscribers in 4 years isn’t bad at all and If you calculate at even the lowest cost of the sub (£7.99 here in the UK), that’s roughly £199,000,000 per month of income just for that service, at the highest tier they make around £275,000,000 per month.

Now, I’d say around 30% at least used the £1 deal for the sub so I’d estimate roughly 100 to 200 million per month in revenue this thing makes. This EASILY covers the cost of giving developers a one off fee for new games to come to the service for x amount of months.

As more higher quality first party games launch and word of mouth spreads, more subs will be added and it will just continue to grow. Take into account juggernaut games like CoD will eventually launch day 1 on the service, it will boom to at least 40+ million per month.

Maybe not the whole future, but other companies will be looking at that recurring monthly revenue and rubbing their hands at that. Microsoft are just wealthy enough to be in a position that they can take a loss until it becomes profitable.

That said though, I’ve only seen nothing but praise for it and recently, a wave of people saying they’re thinking of getting or switching to Xbox because the value just can’t be matched elsewhere.

 

[Shmunter]

I often see the argument that the price will go up.

The thing is this thing scales like a mo-fo with user growth. If the price does go up, it most likely will just be in line with CPI and negligible. It's not like it's going from $15 to $50.

Pretty sure that Spotify, Netflix and GamePass are more interested in growing subscribers versus raising costs on everyone.

You think ms doesn’t disclose gaming revenue as part of their company earnings for shits and giggles? There is a reason for it, they are in a market share growth phase, not a profit phase.

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

yeah because starfield was clearly made with gamepass in mind.

Says who? You? A game that started development before gamepass was even a thing? Before Zenimax was purchased by MS?

Most of the games you are seeing being released on Gamepass right now were not made with Gamepass in mind. They are deals or games that started development before Gamepass was released to entice people to join. Games made for Gamepass started at most in 2018, one year after Gamepass release. They can claim they have big AAA games on the subscription service and slowly change to a more focused Gamepass type of game development (if that ever happens at all).

 

[Menzies]

You think ms doesn’t disclose gaming revenue as part of their company earnings for shits and giggles? There is a reason for it, they are in a market share growth phase, not a profit phase.

I never once said that. I second the opinion that numbers are being obfuscated due to growth mode.

But we are talking MS here, not some startup collecting venture capitalist's funds to pay down loans in "profit phase". They can keep this thing dragging out at close to cost price for a long time, as long as the user growth is there.

 

[Shmunter]

I never once said that. I second the opinion that numbers are being obfuscated due to growth mode.

But we are talking MS here, not some startup collecting venture capitalist's funds to pay down loans in "profit phase". They can keep this thing dragging out at close to cost price for a long time, as long as the user growth is there.

I agree with all this. But the end goal is to capitalise on the acquired market share at some point, basic business and return on investment. How long, or whether it will even pan out is the unknown. One day they may turn around a pull the pin on it like Amazon or Google.

 

[Godot25]

For me, Game pass is best way to consume games. I would never played many games that i now adore if they were not on Gamepass, because I would never buy them in a first place. This year I played Nobody Saves the World , which is awesome. But would I buy it? Nope. Because I was not sure if I would like it.
Another huge benefit is that I don't have any remorse if i don't complete any game. Don't like it? Put it down. But if i bought those games i would feel psychological pressure to complete them just so I have my money "worth"

And I understand that Game Pass is not for everybody, but it is literally perfect for me. And I hope, Sony will make Spartacus awesome, so I can subscribe there too.

 

[Menzies]

I agree with all this. But the end goal is to capitalise on the acquired market share at some point. How long, or whether it will even pan out is the unknown.

Would 100 million subscribers or 18 billion revenue a year suffice?

 

[Von Hugh]

Holy concern trolling, Batman.

 

[THE DUCK]

Leave Nintendo out of this train wreck please

I'm so thankful Nintendo is thriving in their own bubble

Not going to last forever, either streaming will become more viable if performance improves, or Sony or ms will eventually launch a portable. There will be no more bubble.

 

[Shmunter]

Would 100 million subscribers or 18 billion revenue a year suffice?

No idea where the break even point is - no one outside of the big wigs at ms likely do.