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Microsoft rebrands Xbox Game Pass, also more proof XBL is becoming free

It seem Xbox Brand is making all the moves lately wile Sony will likely follow along again like they did Paid Online why is the gaming brand that is in 3rd place leading the innovating charge wile the 1st place brand follow suit it weird really should be the other way around.

What? This makes perfect sense. Sony has the number 1 brand for a reason. Why would they be 'leading the innovating charge' when the gaming audience is largely satisfied with that they're providing? You think if the Wii U sold 100 million that Nintendo would cannibalize their sales and risk a hybrid concept?

You have to take risks in order to become number 1. Sony is in the fortunate spot where they don't need to sacrifice a billion plus dollars in revenue by dropping paid online.
 
If they really drop Gold. They have to be downplaying how much GP makes them. Either that or subscriber numbers are skyrocketing. Covid is good for Game Pass it would seem.
I still don't see them dropping Gold, because I suspect Gold is making more actual profit than Gamepass. I will believe it when I see it.
 

Goalus

Member
I still don't see them dropping Gold, because I suspect Gold is making more actual profit than Gamepass. I will believe it when I see it.
They have 30 million Gold subscribers at best. The amount of Gold subscribers will always be limited by the amount of Xbox consoles sold while the amount of Game Pass subscribers is not.

They are aiming for 200+ million subscribers with Game Pass. Gold will hardly matter in that scenario.

At the same time they are rewarding their most loyal fans (buyers of Xbox consoles) by not requiring them to pay for online MP any longer.

It's a win-win situation.

The only losers here are Sony and their fans.
 
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SaucyJack

Member
They have 30 million Gold subscribers at best. The amount of Gold subscribers will always be limited by the amount of Xbox consoles sold while the amount of Game Pass subscribers is not.

They are aiming for 200+ million subscribers with Game Pass. Gold will hardly matter in that scenario.

At the same time they are rewarding their most loyal fans (buyers of Xbox consoles) by not requiring them to pay for online MP any longer.

It's a win-win situation.

The only losers here are Sony and their fans.

There is very little marginal cost in Gold as a service, that $1 billion plus in revenue doesn’t cost them much at all. Gamepass costs a lot more to provide as a service There’s the cost of providing the content, the opportunity cost of foregone game sales and now, potentially, the billion dollars of lost gold revenue.

And you’re fucking deluded if you think they’re getting anywhere near 200 million Gamepass subs.
 

Goalus

Member
There is very little marginal cost in Gold as a service, that $1 billion plus in revenue doesn’t cost them much at all. Gamepass costs a lot more to provide as a service There’s the cost of providing the content, the opportunity cost of foregone game sales and now, potentially, the billion dollars of lost gold revenue.

And you’re fucking deluded if you think they’re getting anywhere near 200 million Gamepass subs.
No, I am not.
But I realize that it would probably make sense to wait at least for an official statement regarding the Gold subscription before getting into an argument. I'll do exactly that and wait for 10 days before commenting any further.
 
Xbox Game Pass for PC sounds so stupid when the PC is not an Xbox, lol.
I have been told by people here that my PCs are now Xboxes... I assume that this clarification is for them.

PCs are not Xboxes.
MS cares about console sales, otherwise they would not make nes consoles every few years.
 

Patterson

Member
It’s possible that the Sony/Microsoft Azure deal made it possible for them to supplant (partially or mostly) whatever money they were receiving from Gold to make other moves with their online service.
 

McCheese

Member
I still don't see them dropping Gold, because I suspect Gold is making more actual profit than Gamepass. I will believe it when I see it.

Nah, they are going down the GaaS route, so they want as many people as possible to play the new Halo online so they buy all the cosmetics and shit. It's a clever move, as you have folks saying how pro-consumer gamepass is because they think you'll get all these traditional AAA games for next to nothing, and now they are saying MS is pro-consumer for ditching the play-online paywall. It'll tempt a lot of people over to their side, especially if they do a good job of easing people into the truth that you're paying around the same money, but now getting a bunch of "free" bare-bones games with either mobile-gatcha bullshit or the rest of the game behind DLC.
 

SaucyJack

Member
It’s possible that the Sony/Microsoft Azure deal made it possible for them to supplant (partially or mostly) whatever money they were receiving from Gold to make other moves with their online service.

That deal is nothing to do with Xbox division. That’s a straight hosting deal with Azure.
 
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SaucyJack

Member
No, I am not.
But I realize that it would probably make sense to wait at least for an official statement regarding the Gold subscription before getting into an argument. I'll do exactly that and wait for 10 days before commenting any further.

Lol, ok.

And in 10 days 200 million is still not even the number in Phil Spencer's wet dreams.
 

SaucyJack

Member
Gold going free is a great gesture, though i question anyone who has an xbox and not gamepass. Like, what are you doing?

Because large corporations do not give up a billion dollars of revenue out of altruism. If it happens it’s not a gesture, it’s part of a strategy to increase revenue.

Don’t be naive, it’s good to be sceptical of the motivations of corporations that need to create value for shareholders.
 
Lol, ok.

And in 10 days 200 million is still not even the number in Phil Spencer's wet dreams.

50-75 million is certainly realistic and I'd imagine the net profit from that is higher than 30 million XBL Gold subs. 🤔 But only time will tell.

On a more micro level, I am wondering like many others what happens to existing XBL subscribers who haven't converted to Gamepass yet. Or, more specifically, what happens to those of us who purchased and rat holed (haven't redeemed yet) XBL Gold 12 month codes? I'd imagine there's even a lot of people who converted to Game Pass but have a XBL Gold code or three lying around and may want to redeem those but will be disappointed to find out the service has been discontinued after paying $30-40/year...🤔
 
I see what xbox neogaf is doing. Force this "rumor" to force Microsoft to force free multiplayer. They are just trying to make Game Pass the only subscription service. They are fusing xbox live into game pass.
 

SaucyJack

Member
50-75 million is certainly realistic and I'd imagine the net profit from that is higher than 30 million XBL Gold subs. 🤔 But only time will tell.

On a more micro level, I am wondering like many others what happens to existing XBL subscribers who haven't converted to Gamepass yet. Or, more specifically, what happens to those of us who purchased and rat holed (haven't redeemed yet) XBL Gold 12 month codes? I'd imagine there's even a lot of people who converted to Game Pass but have a XBL Gold code or three lying around and may want to redeem those but will be disappointed to find out the service has been discontinued after paying $30-40/year...🤔

I think they’ll do well to get to 30-40 million, which is the ballpark of the Gold paid subs at the moment.

$15/month versus up to $60/year is very different proposition, especially if those who only play COD and FIFA no longer need a paid sub.

I think you’ll also see subbing for a month or 3 months being more common than a continuous sub.
 

Saaleh

Banned
Good, keep up the effort.

You either go back competing with Sony or you Stop using all these confusing marketing terms.
 

SaucyJack

Member
And you do?

Yes. They are one of many multinational companies I’ve had as a client in my professional life.

Bottom line, and we’ve done this many times before, is that Microsoft Corp war chest is not all available to Xbox. Profits of Azure are not available to Xbox regardless of who the client is - and Cloud hosting provided to Sony will have to be competitive or they’d just switch to AWS or GCP.

Xbox needs to be self sufficient and not subsidised by other parts of the corporation. Xbox investments need to meet internal hurdles for return on investment. Gamepass needs to be profitable, if they give up $1 billion plus of Gold subs then that needs to come from somewhere else.
 

Patterson

Member
Yes. They are one of many multinational companies I’ve had as a client in my professional life.

Bottom line, and we’ve done this many times before, is that Microsoft Corp war chest is not all available to Xbox. Profits of Azure are not available to Xbox regardless of who the client is - and Cloud hosting provided to Sony will have to be competitive or they’d just switch to AWS or GCP.

Xbox needs to be self sufficient and not subsidised by other parts of the corporation. Xbox investments need to meet internal hurdles for return on investment. Gamepass needs to be profitable, if they give up $1 billion plus of Gold subs then that needs to come from somewhere else.
Noted. Sounds legit.

If you don’t mind me asking, what business field are/were you involved in?
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
If they really drop Gold. They have to be downplaying how much GP makes them. Either that or subscriber numbers are skyrocketing. Covid is good for Game Pass it would seem.
They are downplaying GP numbers by a pretty substantial margin. Just like they downplay the games number in GP. They advertise over 100 when its actually closer to 250. GP is more than 10 million.
 

Warriors don't play games, so yeah good point :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Because large corporations do not give up a billion dollars of revenue out of altruism. If it happens it’s not a gesture, it’s part of a strategy to increase revenue.

Don’t be naive, it’s good to be sceptical of the motivations of corporations that need to create value for shareholders.

Not to sound snippy, but yeah i know. I was just trying to keep it positive.

Microsofts strategy is fairly obvious i would like to think:

Bin off Gold because their biggest multiplayer games are FTP, making gold defunct.
Their money maker is Gamepass, so they can consolidate the tiers
Gold is now silver and GP is now Gold
At the same time, MS can start ramping up the price of the monthly sub, slowly but surely. They want millions on board so that they can start charging £10 to everyone, VS the £1 offers
 

Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
I think they’ll do well to get to 30-40 million, which is the ballpark of the Gold paid subs at the moment.

$15/month versus up to $60/year is very different proposition, especially if those who only play COD and FIFA no longer need a paid sub.

I think you’ll also see subbing for a month or 3 months being more common than a continuous sub.

30-40 million seems way too high of paying customers as they have made Gold apply to families/friends easier than ever.

That number is far more likely to be 20 million at most.
 

Infamy v1

Member
Why ditch the Xbox name tho.

That's wierd.

Already explained by many people on various forums. Xbox is synonymous with Game Pass, and the Xbox logo is still the logo for Game Pass. Having it there is really a waste of space, and it also solidifies a "pass for games" as a Microsoft/Xbox thing.

Just look old official title for PC: Xbox Game Pass for PC. Sounded like an add-on.

With xCloud, you'll be streaming Game Pass games on your tablet, iPhones, Android etc. Even your Macbook Pro. And xCloud is included with your Game Pass subscription at no additional cost.
 
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Xbox Game Pass for PC sounds so stupid when the PC is not an Xbox, lol.
I have been told by people here that my PCs are now Xboxes... I assume that this clarification is for them.

PCs are not Xboxes.
MS cares about console sales, otherwise they would not make new consoles every few years.
 

sainraja

Member
Xbox icon and everything is still the same on the logo. This makes so much sense. Xbox Game Pass for PC sounds so stupid when the PC is not an Xbox, lol.

Separating 'Xbox' from Game Pass is good but not for the reasons you are giving. Remember, Microsoft wants Xbox to be a platform for playing games (the device comes secondary). Unless they are changing their overall strategy, the future xbox is basically this - play games on Xbox via PC, dedicated box (e.g. Series X), xCloud, etc.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
There’s no way Microsoft are “phasing out” over a billion dollars of easy revenue.

More likely that they combine Gold and Gamepass in some way. And in all likelihood a way that is a bit more expensive ...... but, of course, providing so much more “value”.
Microsoft can wipe its ass and find a billion dollars, even though that estimate isn’t correct.

Also, there’s obviously plans to recover that revenue in other areas — services, microtransactions, whatever. It’s a powerful move to expand their playerbase and mindshare, it could pay off.
 

SaucyJack

Member
Microsoft can wipe its ass and find a billion dollars, even though that estimate isn’t correct.

Also, there’s obviously plans to recover that revenue in other areas — services, microtransactions, whatever. It’s a powerful move to expand their playerbase and mindshare, it could pay off.

Microsoft Corp can, Xbox can’t.

And your second paragraph is exactly my point.
 

nikolino840

Member
If happen..in wich way a journalist can flip this news into a negative thing that is better to stay with an online paywall?
 
Why ditch the Xbox name tho.

That's wierd.
Same reason Sony did it.

playstation-studios.png
 

Zannegan

Member
If the online goes free, I will be much more interested in multiple consoles. It's never sat right with me that I have to pay MS and Sony to play online on servers hosted, run, and 100% paid for by 3rd parties. It's just first parties getting greedy once they've trapped you in their walled garden.

IF this happens, I hope it causes a chain reaction in Sony and Nintendo (just like Live did when it went paid) making their subs about the additional games you get (like PS+ used to be). I wouldn't be surprised if it was more aimed at undercutting Stadia/Stadia-likes though.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
IMO they should keep the previous naming, to start rebranding "Xbox" more as a gaming brand, rather than a console, if they wan't to change their business model to service-based one.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
They wouldn't throw away something that makes them billions. Gold will be rolled into Gamepass and the cost of the sub will increase.

Interesting that Xbox branding is being removed from Gamepass. Maybe Microsoft really are planning on going software and service only?
 
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