• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Microsoft has a commanding lead in the “Netflix for Games” race

yurinka

Member


With the imminent announcement of PlayStation Spartacus will it stop Game Pass dominance?

Sony has a game subscription with around 50M subscribers.

I don't view Spartacus as a gamepass competitor, I just see this as a cumulation of the services they already into one. Unless they drop 1st party games day one gamepass is still going to be the #1 service
There is no competition for gamepass at all.
Only way there would be a competition, is having day1 games. I doubt Sony or Nintendo can afford that.

Other systems, doesn't have a big library like MS.
They are competitors, and if Spartacus is real they will be even more similar: you pay a subscription to rent hundreds of console games playable, depending on each case via cloud gaming or downloadable, in multiple platforms.

When including Gold/Plus (GPU or Spartacus), they add the monthly games/PS Plus Collection, discounts and other perks. And PS Now would get -like GP- a cheaper tier without cloud gaming and available worldwide.

And well, adding the PS Plus subs means Spartacus will start with around 50M subs. Sony will continue dominating the game subscriptions market without needing to give away day one their games.
 
Last edited:

Dr Bass

Member
Where is he getting "dollar spend" for all of these services when ... they don't release numbers?

I also argue the premise is wrong. What "Netflix for games" race? The "race", i.e. the competition is revenue and profit. Which this setup is just not geared towards supporting massively expensive AAA games. It probably works fine for mobile and smaller productions for reasons we've gone over .... and over ... and over on this board. But If MS wasn't subsidizing this stuff in the AAA space, it wouldn't be happening. "Spartacus" won't be anything like Game Pass. It will just be Sony's updated sub service, that they have already had for years, and won't feature their big releases since they want to sell software. Not subs at far less money.

As he even said himself... "small small slice." Funny to see the word "commanding" used in the same tweet. It's like saying the Girl Scouts have a "commanding lead" with their couple of cookie boxes outside of the grocery store, when the grocery store is selling hundreds of boxes of cookies as soon as you step through the door. Trying to paint a narrative instead of just looking at the data makes people say, do, and believe, weird things.
 
Last edited:

kingfey

Banned
Where is he getting "dollar spend" for all of these services when ... they don't release numbers?

I also argue the premise is wrong. What "Netflix for games" race? The "race", i.e. the competition is revenue and profit. Which this setup is just not geared towards supporting massively expensive AAA games. It probably works fine for mobile and smaller productions for reasons we've gone over .... and over ... and over on this board. But If MS wasn't subsidizing this stuff in the AAA space, it wouldn't be happening. "Spartacus" won't be anything like Game Pass. It will just be Sony's updated sub service, that they have already had for years, and won't feature their big releases since they want to sell software. Not subs at far less money.

As he even said himself... "small small slice." Funny to see the word "commanding" used in the same tweet. It's like saying the Girl Scouts have a "commanding lead" with their couple of cookie boxes outside of the grocery store, when the grocery store is selling hundreds of boxes of cookies as soon as you step through the door. Trying to paint a narrative instead of just looking at the data makes people say, do, and believe, weird things.
As usual, the long paragraph, with downplay words continue.
 

kingfey

Banned
What good is that game service spending if the profit margins are much less than elsewhere?

It needs to stand on its own two feet with people showing a willingness to pay year round at a feasible price.

Without the financials this doesn't tell us much about future success.
Because these are guaranteed profits. It increases according to the number of users.
Game sales still have risks, such bad sales, not meeting expectations. Not every game will hit 10m for the long term. Games that do these numbers, would need to continue the momentum for the sequel.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
Sony has a game subscription with around 50M subscribers.



They are competitors, and if Spartacus is real they will be even more similar: you pay a subscription to rent hundreds of console games playable, depending on each case via cloud gaming or downloadable, in multiple platforms. When including Gold/Plus (GPU or Spartacus), they add the monthly games/PS Plus Collection, discounts and other perks.
ps+. have that subscribers because of the multiplayer cost. I don't think it would even be 10m user as a service if it weren't for multiplayer. Transforming those 50m of forced users into 50m of users willing to pay in exchange for a service they which they rate as good is another story. look ps now ... how many users does it have? 3m?
 
Last edited:

anothertech

Member
What sonys offering will do is force these 'analysts' to start counting ps+ subs and actual game sales revenue in their numbers game. Which will paint a much different and clearer picture.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I don't view Spartacus as a gamepass competitor, I just see this as a cumulation of the services they already into one. Unless they drop 1st party games day one gamepass is still going to be the #1 service

With a graph like this, it would be a direct competitor. I wonder if Spartacus could get up to 20% marketshare by the end of the year.
 

kingfey

Banned
Sony has a game subscription with around 50M subscribers.



They are competitors, and if Spartacus is real they will be even more similar: you pay a subscription to rent hundreds of console games playable, depending on each case via cloud gaming or downloadable, in multiple platforms.

When including Gold/Plus (GPU or Spartacus), they add the monthly games/PS Plus Collection, discounts and other perks. And PS Now would get -like GP- a cheaper tier without cloud gaming and available worldwide.
Then you will have to add xbox live gold to gamepass numbers.

This is purely for netflx type of subscription. Aka Psnow, Luna, EA play, stadia, Uplay+.

We will see what Spartacus would be.
 
With the imminent announcement of PlayStation Spartacus will it stop Game Pass dominance?

Unless it is more than the "PS Now and PS+ merger" that it's rumored to be, I can't see it even making a dent, honestly might even increase Game Pass' lead if people start comparing what's offered for the price. It would need some Day 1 games to even be relevant in the comparison (or at least come soon after release), let alone to be anywhere close to "stopping" Game Pass.
 

yurinka

Member
Then you will have to add xbox live gold to gamepass numbers.
Gold is included in Game Pass Ultimate. Many get GPU by upgrading their Gold account for $1.
This is purely for netflx type of subscription. Aka Psnow, Luna, EA play, stadia, Uplay+.
In this case only GPU should be counted (for the countries where xCloud is covered) for MS, and specially remove from these numbers base GamePass for PC and for Xbox.

But we can't compare it because MS never shared GPU or xCloud numbers.
 
Last edited:

kingfey

Banned
They are already included in Game Pass Ultimate for those who upgraded all their months for $1
Because it's being offered on ultimate tier. Xbox live gold is still a separate service


In this case only GPU should be counted (for the countries where xCloud is covered) for MS, and specially remove from these numbers base GamePass for PC and for Xbox.

But we can't compare it because MS never shared GPU or xCloud numbers.
Because MS doesn't add xbox live gold to gamepass numbers like Spartacus.

Its 2 separate services.
 

anothertech

Member
Yeah it will increase it by 47m subscribers lol
It doesn't count cause it doesn't fit his narrative. See?

What the real competition is obviously the revenue. The ecosystem. And the number of gamers invested. PS+ vs gamepass/live/gold numbers along with day one game sales revenue is more relevant.

Sony doesn't need to compete with gamepass, because their players are still buying games in the millions on day one. Would be interesting to see the last 10 Xbox games sales numbers in comparison. But alas, we never will.
 

Hezekiah

Banned
Because these are guaranteed profits. It increases according to the number of users.
Game sales still have risks, such bad sales, not meeting expectations. Not every game will hit 10m for the long term. Games that do these numbers, would need to continue the momentum for the sequel.
And not every user will stay subscribed month-after-month. Many will only subscribe for a few months a year (even moreso on PC where online is free), but that seems to be forgotten by those wowed by the potential profits of subscription services.
 

kingfey

Banned
It doesn't count cause it doesn't fit his narrative. See?

What the real competition is obviously the revenue. The ecosystem. And the number of gamers invested. PS+ vs gamepass/live/gold numbers along with day one game sales revenue is more relevant.

Sony doesn't need to compete with gamepass, because their players are still buying games in the millions on day one. Would be interesting to see the last 10 Xbox games sales numbers in comparison. But alas, we never will.
What narrative?
Its just adding different service to another service.
Unless Spartacus is different subscription like gamepass ultimate.
 

kingfey

Banned
And not every user will stay subscribed month-after-month. Many will only subscribe for a few months a year (even moreso on PC where online is free), but that seems to be forgotten by those wowed by the potential profits of subscription services.
Same as for every subscription in the world. Good job finding out how subscription works.
 

kingfey

Banned
Do you actually think those numbers are sifting out game pass ultimate subs? I mean there obtuse, then there's...
Look here, you have to get gamepass as a separate service to be accounted as gamepass user.
Having xbox live doesn't make you a gamepass user.
Gamepass ultimate is higher tier, which includes Xbox live.
Xbox live gold itself is a different service.

Adding those together would make it, more than 50m. But we aren't doing that, because they are 2 separate service.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Unless it is more than the "PS Now and PS+ merger" that it's rumored to be, I can't see it even making a dent, honestly might even increase Game Pass' lead if people start comparing what's offered for the price. It would need some Day 1 games to even be relevant in the comparison (or at least come soon after release), let alone to be anywhere close to "stopping" Game Pass.

Nobody in their right minds thinks ANYTHING on planet Earth can "stop" GamePass. And why would anybody want to?
 
Stop gamepass lol. They dont need too. Why would Sony throw money away? They're doing just fine without. Doubly for Nintendo.

Typically smart companies make proactive decisions to set themselves up for future success. If they wait until they start failing to adjust it's probably way too late. And to clarify I'm not making a comment either way on whether Game Pass is the future of gaming or not, I'm just strongly disagreeing with the faulty logic of "they're doing good so there's no need to change anything", especially in the tech/video game sector. If they see a new market, or a changing market, it would be a smart idea to try and take advantage of that
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Typically smart companies make proactive decisions to set themselves up for future success. If they wait until they start failing to adjust it's probably way too late. And to clarify I'm not making a comment either way on whether Game Pass is the future of gaming or not, I'm just strongly disagreeing with the faulty logic of "they're doing good so there's no need to change anything", especially in the tech/video game sector. If they see a new market, or a changing market, it would be a smart idea to try and take advantage of that
They won't put first party games on day and date. They won't. That's the biggest appeal of gamepass. Maybe they'll make some deals for third party day and date but that's as far as they'll go. Unless the market flips upside down.
 

kingfey

Banned
This coming from the guy who says "guaranteed profits" at every turn.

I think you need to look up the meaning of 'guaranteed' 😁
Its not like 10m decided to leave the service at once.
For everyone that leaves the service, new person joins. Its why these subscription services go up, instead of down. Guess you missed that one.

To make it simple to you.
January 2021: Gamepass 18m.
January 2022: Gamepass 25m.

I dont see them going down. All I see is increased guarenteed revenue.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
I just don’t think Sony and Nintendo are ever doing day one releases on a Gamepass style service. MS flexed with tons of studio acquisitions that can’t be matched and even got MLB to give them Sony’s baseball game on Gamepass.
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Its not like 10m decided to leave the service at once.
For everyone that leaves the service, new person joins. Its why these subscription services go up, instead of down. Guess you missed that one.

To make it simple to you.
January 2021: Gamepass 18m.
January 2022: Gamepass 25m.

I dont see them going down. All I see is increased guarenteed revenue.
Maybe you should look up the meaning
of profit then. Tell me how much profit game pass is making.
 
Last edited:

Swift_Star

Banned
There is no competition for gamepass at all.
Only way there would be a competition, is having day1 games. I doubt Sony or Nintendo can afford that.

Other systems, doesn't have a big library like MS.
It’s not about affordability, they could get credit for that if they wanted to, like Netflix does. I bet there’s a lot of investors that would give Sony a lot of money to make this a reality. But the truth is that It’s about needing this. Sony and Nintendo games sell like hotcakes, the don’t need this. MS games on the other hand… well, it is what it is.
 
Last edited:

kingfey

Banned
Maybe you should look up profit then. Tell me how much profit game pass is making.
25m users paying $10 averege. No counting MTX sales for the games that have mtx like EA games. Not counting dlc sales for games that have dlc. not counting game sales, for the games that are on discount when they leave the service.

25m*10=$250m for 1 month. 3rd party games are agreed based on bulk, instead of a single copy sales. So MS gets discount. That would be 50m-100m at maximum. So gamepass is making $150m a month, or $1.8b a year.

Gamepass is extension on xbox store. It doesnt cost that much to run it. And since MS is investing those money, we cant calculate the profits, due them paying for future games.

This is just subscription fee. Its actually more than these figure.
 

kingfey

Banned
It’s not about affordability, they could get credit for that if they wanted to, like Netflix does. I bet there’s a lot of investors that would give Sony a lot of money to make this a reality. But the truth is that It’s about needing this. Sony and Nintendo games sell like hotcakes, the don’t need this. MS games on the other hand… well, it is what it is.
You need long term money to run it. These subscriptions arent 1 time payment.
Sony can actually fund it. But they need to keep it for a long term. And keep providing contents nonstop to keep the subscription alive.

Long term is their issue. If they can fix that, they would make alot of money. Compared to MS, they have big advantage, because of japanese publishers being able to back them.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
25m users paying $10 averege. No counting MTX sales for the games that have mtx like EA games. Not counting dlc sales for games that have dlc. not counting game sales, for the games that are on discount when they leave the service.

25m*10=$250m for 1 month. 3rd party games are agreed based on bulk, instead of a single copy sales. So MS gets discount. That would be 50m-100m at maximum. So gamepass is making $150m a month, or $1.8b a year.

Gamepass is extension on xbox store. It doesnt cost that much to run it. And since MS is investing those money, we cant calculate the profits, due them paying for future games.

This is just subscription fee. Its actually more than these figure.
It doesn’t cost much to run gamepass? How much do you think they’re paying for AAA publishers to put their games on GP? Do you think this is cheap? Lmfao
 
Top Bottom