Call me crazy... but I have felt, since gamepass was first announced, that that was the push they should have focused on. Gamepass, the way it has been implemented unknown to many, and apparently including Xbox, was the final nail in the Xbox coffin. I mean, I would think it's common sense, if you make all your exclusives and most games in general, not just 'NOT exclusive" anymore, but available for $15 - $20 a month, you are nurturing a cheap, wait-for deal culture. And also making the absolute best case as to why people should not buy your console. Its like the Anti-Nintendo platform, whereas the PS is in the middle of both.
And if you look at the XS sales compared to the XB1 and the 360 before it, that ill-advised gamepass strategy has been 1000% successful. What is happening now, is exactly what was going to happen, and its what I personally predicted would happen a full year before the XS consoles launched. And I am not the only one, so makes me wonder how so many neutrals could see it but Xbox couldn't. Then again, in 2019 on ERA when I said thanks to gamepass the XS consoles would struggle to even do as well as the XB1, I would have been called a troll. Though to me it was just common sense.
How can the gamepass model work? I have a decent enough PC, with a 3080. And over the last 4 years, I have paid for all of two months' worth of gamepass on average every year. Because two months each year, is all the time I need to play whatever exclusive MS has each year. And I can't be the only one doing that. But one thing for certain is this, MS has trained me to NEVER buy anything they make at full price or even buy their console when I already have a PC. Think about this, as is I seldom buy games on PS atr full price, usually opting to wait for the price to drop to $50 or even $60. But even at that, for what it cost me to buy FF16, I have played the best Xbox and gamepass had to offer for 2 years. Thank you, Microsoft.
I don't get it really, MS is spending all this money and effort fighting with sony, when who they really should be worried about is Steam who will build an empire that dethrones them from within them. The singular worst thing that can happen to MS and Windows is if Steam makes a curated Linux-based gaming and productivity-focused OS. And does it right.