IFireflyl
Gold Member
Right now GamePass is a $14.99/month subscription. If Microsoft and Sony were to work together they could increase this to $19.99/month and have both companies' games be playable from the same GamePass subscription service. Playstation games on GamePass would still only be playable on Playstation consoles, and Xbox games would still only be playable on Xbox consoles. The reason I specify this is that by keeping them brand-specific it is still encouraging both companies to remain competitive in hardware, which should also keep the software (games) competitive as they still want people to use their console for their exclusive games.
The way I am thinking about it Sony would benefit from Microsoft's existing GamePass infrastructure (which I truly believe beats the pants off of PS Now). Microsoft would take an up-front hit as profits would be split between the two companies, but they would also be able to expand GamePass to reach the Playstation user-base which means their overall GamePass subscribers would increase which would (in theory) make up for any losses caused by splitting the revenue with Sony, and it could lead to greater overall profits. Especially if Sony ditched PS Now and split the infrastructure cost for GamePass as well.
PC users would benefit the most from this as both Playstation and Xbox are allowing their games to come to PC now. But Playstation users would also benefit since they would have (what I believe to be) a better subscription-based service for getting their games versus what they have now. Granted, not everyone wants to use a subscription service for games, and that's fine. I'm one of those people. But I was thinking about this today and I thought that this would be a pretty awesome team-up. If the price for the subscription just went up $5/month that wouldn't be too far off what it currently is, and it still seems acceptable to me. Heck, my Alamo Season Pass is $19.99/month. That lets me see only 1 movie per day, and I don't even see more than two movies per month on most months.
So what are your thoughts? Am I missing something that would cause this to be a definite flop? I get that neither company probably wants to get in bed with the other for this, but this is a "what if" scenario. Would you get GamePass at the higher price point if it gave you the option to have games for both consoles on their respective consoles? Am I insane for even entertaining this idea? It's possible I'm smooth-braining it right now and I just need someone to explain why.
The way I am thinking about it Sony would benefit from Microsoft's existing GamePass infrastructure (which I truly believe beats the pants off of PS Now). Microsoft would take an up-front hit as profits would be split between the two companies, but they would also be able to expand GamePass to reach the Playstation user-base which means their overall GamePass subscribers would increase which would (in theory) make up for any losses caused by splitting the revenue with Sony, and it could lead to greater overall profits. Especially if Sony ditched PS Now and split the infrastructure cost for GamePass as well.
PC users would benefit the most from this as both Playstation and Xbox are allowing their games to come to PC now. But Playstation users would also benefit since they would have (what I believe to be) a better subscription-based service for getting their games versus what they have now. Granted, not everyone wants to use a subscription service for games, and that's fine. I'm one of those people. But I was thinking about this today and I thought that this would be a pretty awesome team-up. If the price for the subscription just went up $5/month that wouldn't be too far off what it currently is, and it still seems acceptable to me. Heck, my Alamo Season Pass is $19.99/month. That lets me see only 1 movie per day, and I don't even see more than two movies per month on most months.
So what are your thoughts? Am I missing something that would cause this to be a definite flop? I get that neither company probably wants to get in bed with the other for this, but this is a "what if" scenario. Would you get GamePass at the higher price point if it gave you the option to have games for both consoles on their respective consoles? Am I insane for even entertaining this idea? It's possible I'm smooth-braining it right now and I just need someone to explain why.