and how do you know that gamepass is a money pit? Asking out of curiosity.
RDR2 €60 on steam
RDR2 €60 on PS Store
RDR2€1 or €10 thru Gamepass
add all the other games from the other publishers who also want to make money with their games on gamepass, you add all up and it´s a lot of dough microsoft has to spent out of their own pocket unless they have 10mill. or more subscribers.
Even at $10 that would be not enough. They would have to sell 6mill. new subs at $10 per sub to break even with a retail copy day 1 for $60. Since there are more games on the service, one if not most will go empty handed. Hence why there are so many FILLER from the 360 and what not, no one gives a wet fart about it, just inflate the numbers.
Same applies to PS Now, but here the games are few years older might not affect them much if you can get them for free. But RDR2 is still new, fresh so to speak. How much did Microsoft have to pay to convince Rockstar to let them have it?
Gamepass requires a lot of subscribers, preferably on every platform being PS4, Tesla, Fridge, Switchs .... the more = more ppl. pay $10 = the less money Microsoft has to invest (their own moeny) to get new games for the service ...
Why do MS games come with so many mtx? Maybe because they wanna recoup part of their initial investment thru "add. digital goods". Gears 5 sold less than Gears 4 due gamepass.
They may burn lots of dough by adding €60 like RDR2 for €1 or €10/mo .. but make up for it via tons of shitty useless skins and what not. That´s the future, GaaS and only GaaS and most likely their main intent.