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Why doesn't Microsoft not get that Gamepass isn't for everyone

KAL2006

Banned
When did Microsoft say that game pass had to be for everyone? So there are 4 people you know, including yourself, that won't find value in game pass. Well, so what? Big deal. Don't buy it.

There are people who do find value in it. Those are the people that it's for.

Microsoft isn't forcing you to buy it. They aren't trying to stop you from buying the games you want. So buy your games, don't buy game pass, and live your best life.

The bug deal is subscription services that rely on constant new content requires many subscribers to be profitable to enable Microsoft to add new content. If there are not enough subs then it doenst work. My argument is that I think there are many people out there more than Microsoft want that don't want Gamepass which is not good for Microsofts future plans.
 

KAL2006

Banned
Why are so many people scared stiff of Gamepass lol?, its so bizaare. If you dont like it, dont pay for it.
Once the new studios start deliveing their first party games, i think subs will shoot up incredibly high. And if you include Gamepass PC into the mix, i wouldnt be surprised if Gamepass has 50+mil subs by the end of the gen.

No one is scared this is a speculation thread. With gaming news there is always discussion about gaming in terms of impressions of games or the business world of games. In this thread I thought it would be fun to speculate about Gamepass as a long term business model and if it will succeed. My speculation has lead me to believe i don't think it will work out. And I have given numerous reasons in this thread why I believe this. If you want to get involved in the thread and discuss why you think it will succeed let us know but the post you made doesn't really add to the conversation of this thread. It's not a about if people like it or not that's not the purpose of this topic the purpose of this topic is to discuss if you think Gamepass will succeed.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
This is a gaming froum to speculate. My speculation has lead me to think Gamepass will be profitable for the reasons I have stated earlier in this thread. Microsoft doubling the price of Gold is one of their ways that shows they need to make money on subs so if people are not converting into Gamepass customers they are forced to due to Gold price doubling or if they still don't sub to Gamepass Microsoft still make more money due to the doubling of Gold price. However this has now back fried so we shall see what is Microsofts next move is to be profitable though subs as I still am leaning towards the amount of subs they have is still not enough to be profitable.
Who knows what their next plan will be. Maybe save costs like exclude cloud saves like Sony does.

If it makes you feel better thinking in your head whether GP will or will not be profitable, go ahead. I just enjoy using the service.

I like drinking Pepsi and whatever variants they test every year. I simply enjoy drinking them and don't worry about whether head office is making profits or not on flavour A or B.
 

Stuart360

Member
No one is scared this is a speculation thread. With gaming news there is always discussion about gaming in terms of impressions of games or the business world of games. In this thread I thought it would be fun to speculate about Gamepass as a long term business model and if it will succeed. My speculation has lead me to believe i don't think it will work out. And I have given numerous reasons in this thread why I believe this. If you want to get involved in the thread and discuss why you think it will succeed let us know but the post you made doesn't really add to the conversation of this thread. It's not a about if people like it or not that's not the purpose of this topic the purpose of this topic is to discuss if you think Gamepass will succeed.
Well i'd say leave it to Microsoft to care about that, they are the only ones that know how much it costs to currently run it as it is, and how much money it brings in. Everything else is pure speculation and tiresome conspiracy theories.
 

Hey Blinkin

Member
Game pass is for everyone but some people just don't know it yet...

Spread the gospel!!

For real, it's insane value for the price, but there should still be an affordable option for those who haven't seen the light just yet.

But yes, all will be assimilated!
 

KAL2006

Banned
Who knows what their next plan will be. Maybe save costs like exclude cloud saves like Sony does.

If it makes you feel better thinking in your head whether GP will or will not be profitable, go ahead. I just enjoy using the service.

I like drinking Pepsi and whatever variants they test every year. I simply enjoy drinking them and don't worry about whether head office is making profits or not on flavour A or B.

Yes I also like Pepsi especially Pepsi Max. If I wanted to make a thread about my impressions of Pepsi Max I can I guess, if I wanted to make a thread about the profits of Pepsi I also can. I have made threads on this gaming forum avkut my positive impression of games I have also made threads in this gaming forum avkut viability of a business related to games. I enjoying discussing games both impressions of a game or business aspect. If you don't like discussing business aspect then I suggest don't enter those threads and enter threads that discuss game impressions instead. Thats the good thing about gaming forums you have variety of discussuons you can choose to partake in if you don't like something you don't have to post in that topic.
 

quazy

Neo Member
This is a gaming froum to speculate. My speculation has lead me to think Gamepass will be profitable for the reasons I have stated earlier in this thread. Microsoft doubling the price of Gold is one of their ways that shows they need to make money on subs so if people are not converting into Gamepass customers they are forced to due to Gold price doubling or if they still don't sub to Gamepass Microsoft still make more money due to the doubling of Gold price. However this has now back fried so we shall see what is Microsofts next move is to be profitable though subs as I still am leaning towards the amount of subs they have is still not enough to be profitable.
It was a completely stupid move by MS and I'm not entirely sure what their idea was. But on the other hand I also think that people here underestimate that MS also has some more long term strategy. I don't think that they suddenly became afraid that their subscription numbers are too low. Do you really think that they just bought Bethesda and 3 months later they started to think "Oh shit our subscriptions numbers a too low, we actually can't afford that. Let's double our Gold fees immediately so that we have enough money to finalize the transaction with Bethesda."
They bought all the studios to get them Day 1 in GP. And when the first games arrive, the subscription numbers will increase a lot. At least I hope MS had that in their mind when they decided to buy the studios and release them Day 1.
 

pr0cs

Member
If you only play 2-3 games a year it might not be for you. Or you day one buy 3rd party games (strange but true).
For everyone else it's a no brainer. It's a fantastic service that lets you try a ton of games you might have overlooked if you had to pay up front for them.

I lost count already how many games I would have skipped because I was unsure I wanted to pay full price for them.

Plus if you collect bing points it's damn easy to get gamepass (including ultimate ) for free
 
Yeah yeah we know. So according to the PlayStation users here, GamePass will:

- See a massive price increase
- See a shift to exclusively smaller, A/AA releases by MS
- See a massive drop in quality of games by MS, aka “cheap GamePass filler”
- See the minimum subscription tier jump to one year

I can totally see this happening guys, makes complete sense. MS will sell boatloads of subscriptions with this strategy.
And yet no Game Pass defender has suggested a plausible way for MS to make back the $7+ billion dollars it spent in dev studio acquisitions + $100s of millions in game dev costs + untold millions spent in 3rd party content. Sure, MS would have a ton of subscriptions if it sold them for $1 a month, but having subscriptions doesn't equal profit. MS has to make more money than they spend out. Your analysis is like the joke of a businessman who says "We lose money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume".

Simple question: Where does Microsoft make back the money it is not getting for these $60 game sales?
FYI, Halo 5 made $400 million in its first week which wouldn't exist if everyone had Game Pass.
 

The Fuzz damn you!

Gold Member
Of course the people at Microsoft know GP isn't for everyone -- that's exactly why they're pushing it. It's great value for people who play lots of games and will finish them before they leave the service, but MS didn't introduce the service so that they can get less money out of their most dedicated customers. Like all subscription services, it's about getting money out of people who won't use it. They're making sure that you're paying for 200 games, even if you only seriously play 1 or 2 a year.

Microsoft is not consumer friendly.
Sony is not consumer friendly.
Nintendo is not consumer friendly.
It's absurd that this need to be mentioned, but corporations are not consumer friendly. Not ever. No, not even the ones that did that thing that one time that you really appreciated. Whether you see a corporation's action as "consumer friendly" or not, the intention is still the same: to extract more money from its customers. That's what GamePass is about. That's what doubling the price of XBLG is about. That's what walking back the price doubling is about. And that's what whatever Microsoft, or Sony, or whoever, does next is about, because that's literally the only reason that corporations exist.
 

oldergamer

Member
I agree. I can't finish 10 games a month and I have a huge backlog, it wouldn't make sense paying monthly for it. Options are great, but it seem like MS wants to force it down everyone's throat in the long run and this was the first large attempt. I'd like to say they learned their lesson, but I fear they'll just try to put a pretty ribbon on it next time. If the value is there people will come, just take it easy.
Also ms reversed the decision to hike the price didnt they? No reason to complain now. Who needs to finish 10 a month? Games are up for months and if you need time to finish you can buy it usually at a discount
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
And yet no Game Pass defender has suggested a plausible way for MS to make back the $7+ billion dollars it spent in dev studio acquisitions + $100s of millions in game dev costs + untold millions spent in 3rd party content. Sure, MS would have a ton of subscriptions if it sold them for $1 a month, but having subscriptions doesn't equal profit. MS has to make more money than they spend out. Your analysis is like the joke of a businessman who says "We lose money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume".

Simple question: Where does Microsoft make back the money it is not getting for these $60 game sales?
FYI, Halo 5 made $400 million in its first week which wouldn't exist if everyone had Game Pass.
Mircotrans and cuts from third party digital sales. Keep people in the ecosystem.

Also, when companies are bought out for $XXX, it doesn't mean the company doing the acquiring expect to make back every $$$ in entirety or short term.

Lots of pro sports teams are now valued at $1 billion or more. Do you really think the company or business people buying them expect to get back $1 billion in profits anytime soon? Maybe. Maybe not.

Miami Marlins were bought for $1.2 billion. The team with probably the lowest fan attendance. Someone bit.

Most small bio tech stocks have no sales, lose $100s of million, but some big cap will come by and buy them out for $3 billion. At this moment in time they have nothing but some phase 2 or 3 drug which nobody even know will be approved or sell well. But the deals happen.
 
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Stuart360

Member
And yet no Game Pass defender has suggested a plausible way for MS to make back the $7+ billion dollars it spent in dev studio acquisitions + $100s of millions in game dev costs + untold millions spent in 3rd party content. Sure, MS would have a ton of subscriptions if it sold them for $1 a month, but having subscriptions doesn't equal profit. MS has to make more money than they spend out. Your analysis is like the joke of a businessman who says "We lose money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume".

Simple question: Where does Microsoft make back the money it is not getting for these $60 game sales?
FYI, Halo 5 made $400 million in its first week which wouldn't exist if everyone had Game Pass.
I think even at its highest popularity in the future, i'd still guess we would probably only be talking 50% of gamers. So they will still get plenty of sales.
To be honest, i dont really now how any of these subscip[tion services turn a profit. Its like Netflix, how can it afford whatever it pays out for all these movies and TV shows, AND produce their own content (75 movies coming this year apparently), all for $10 a month or whatever it is.
There must be some thing about these sub services that we dont know, or we dont realize.
 
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sublimit

Banned
Like me and many others have said a million times before:

1)I will always prefer physical even if physical sometimes is more expensive than digital. I will never trade the right to own what i buy.

2)If a game doesn't have a physical version then i will still prefer to buy and own my game. I want to be able to play it WHEN i want to play it and not when someone else chooses it for me.

3) I don't like to rush through my games due to some invisible time limits behind them.

4)I often like to replay the games i own.

5)I hate the concept of subscriptions.


I also hate PS+ but at least with PS+ the games don't go away from my library after a couple of months. Recently i played Spec Ops The Line on my PS3 along with a few other PS3 games i had on PS+ for years and it was a great feeling to finally be able to play them at no extra cost after so many years.
So in comparison PS+ (and XBLG) have much better value (for me) than GP.
 
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Like me and many others have said a million times before:

1)I will always prefer physical even if physical sometimes is more expensive than digital. I will never trade the right to own what i buy.

2)If a game doesn't have a physical version then i will still prefer to buy and own my game. I want to be able to play it WHEN i want to play it and not when someone else chooses it for me.

3) I don't like to rush through my games due to some invisible time limits behind them.

4)I often like to replay the games i own.

5)I hate the concept of subscriptions.


I also hate PS+ but at least with PS+ the games don't go away from my library after a couple of months. Recently i played Spec Ops The Line on my PS3 along with a few other PS3 games i had on PS+ for years and it was a great feeling to finally be able to play them at no extra cost after so many years.
So in comparison PS+ (and XBLG) have much better value (for me) than GP.
You are so misinformed and behind on Game Pass that it's absolutely disgusting.

First of all the first party exclusive stay there permanently and never rotate out. It's only 3rd party titles and the occasional indie game. Plenty of the 3rd party games stay on Game Pass for months. Your 1st party MS titles will be available to you whenever you want them too and you will not be forced to spend $70 on them like Sony is forcing you too. Man, people are so blind and don't bother to do any research. Insane.
 

Genx3

Member
This is quite simple. If you only subscribe, the second you stop subscribing you lose all your games. That is one hell of a lock-in, and you can't simply pretend it doesn't exist. That puts you at the mercy of future price increases versus someone who simply bought their games.

This is not like Netflix, because if you cancel Netflix, there are many other subscription services you can use like HBO Max, Disney Plus, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Sling TV. With Xbox there is only Game Pass. All these TV competitors know their viewers have this option so there is a check to keep them from price gouging that does not exist for Game Pass.

Back to Game Pass, the longer you stay subscribed, the more hooked you become. As an example, I don't have Game Pass and saw a great deal for the Halo: The Master Chief Collection for $24 late last year. I snatched it up and can now play the following games. Hooray for me!
  • Halo: Reach
  • Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
  • Halo 2: Anniversary
  • Halo 3
  • Halo 3: ODST
  • Halo 4
Someone on Game Pass would have passed on that deal because they can already play those games. Rinse and repeat for games as they go on sale. As time went by, I built a huge library of games that I can play at any time, where the Game Pass owner has built nothing. Just as a quick check, I've got ~30 games in my library not counting Halo that I want to play, and either haven't played, or only partially played. Just about every one of those I got on a great sale like the one for Halo.

Compare that to a Game Pass player. If they cancel, they have to spend a lot of money just to get where I'm already at, and that's on top of all the money already spent on Game Pass. There's no other subscription service for them to join. It's cheaper for them in the short term to suck it up and eat a Game Pass price increase. That's the lock-in.

If owning your games was that important you likely would have not subscribed to Game Pass or you would have used Game Pass to get yourself a discount on the games you really like.

Pretty simple, if you don't find value in Game Pass what games exactly are you losing?
If you feel like you're losing something that right there defines GP's value and therefore makes it worth subscribing or you can just out right buy the few games you like. The option to buy your favorites is always there and with GP you even get discounts.
 

The Fuzz damn you!

Gold Member
I think even at its highest popularity in the future, i'd still guess we would probably only be talking 50% of gamers. So they will still get plenty of sales.
To be honest, i dont really now how any of these subscip[tion services turn a profit. Its like Netflix, how can it afford whatever it pays out for all these movies and TV shows, AND produce their own content (75 movies coming this year apparently), all for $10 a month or whatever it is.
There must be some thing about these sub services that we dont know, or we dont realize.
Debt. Lots and lots of debt. They're not producing content to satisfy their existing customer base, they're producing to expand it. That means the debt doesn't get paid off by a million $10 subscribers today, but by 5 million $12 subscribers a year from now.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I think even at its highest popularity in the future, i'd still guess we would probably only be talking 50% of gamers. So they will still get plenty of sales.
To be honest, i dont really now how any of these subscip[tion services turn a profit. Its like Netflix, how can it afford whatever it pays out for all these movies and TV shows, AND produce their own content (75 movies coming this year apparently), all for $10 a month or whatever it is.
There must be some thing about these sub services that we dont know, or we dont realize.
Their latest quarterly said 200 millions subs at $25 billion annual revenue. So about $120/yr or $10/mth.

They make about $2-3 billion profit, which means the costs of hosting , people, making original TV shows etc..... is the difference. A little more than $20 billion.
 
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MistBreeze

Member
As long as there is value there it is worth subscribing.

The minute the value is gone you stop subscribing just like you would with Net Flix.
There is no contract here.

You guys make it seem like you're stuck if you subscribe which is simply not true.

people know that and know they are not stuck and they can cancel sub anytime they want

but the big picture is the long term game

when someone only subscribe to game pass and not building a library of games be it digital or physical and just keep playing what gamepass feed him

he will be forced to sub every time he want to play his consoles cause this is the only way he has to play

yesterday Microsoft made it clear that gamepass is the only way they want their customers to play

raising game with gold double price means they don't want u to buy any games outside of game pass

stop being delusional it is clear as day

if their consumers did not sub to game pass regularly or keeps ending the sub they will do any means necessary to combat that

maybe after the backlash they knew they can not force it by doubling price

but maybe next time they do extreme measures like perfect dark only exclusive to game pass u can not buy it outside of game pass or fable will be episodic there is an episode every month so u have to subscribe indefinitely or close to that to get benefit

they made clear gamepass is not a choice it is a must
 

Blond

Banned
You have no evidence of this. You can still buy 1 month subs to XBL Gold.
That would be the equivalent of me saying since Sony raised the prices of retail games to $70 that soon enough Sony will raise it to $80 and shortly after to $90. Will it happen? Likely but no one knows when.
Why is Sony getting the blame for 70 dollar games when Microsoft is also happy to go along with it?
 

sublimit

Banned
You are so misinformed and behind on Game Pass that it's absolutely disgusting.

First of all the first party exclusive stay there permanently and never rotate out. It's only 3rd party titles and the occasional indie game. Plenty of the 3rd party games stay on Game Pass for months. Your 1st party MS titles will be available to you whenever you want them too and you will not be forced to spend $70 on them like Sony is forcing you too. Man, people are so blind and don't bother to do any research. Insane.

The only disgusting thing here is your effort to spin my post in order to push your petty fanboy agenda.

First of all the first party exclusive stay there permanently and never rotate out. It's only 3rd party titles and the occasional indie game.
I know that. Everyone knows that. But i don't give a shit about MS's first party games personally. I was talking about 3rd parties.

Plenty of the 3rd party games stay on Game Pass for months.
Exactly. And like i said i don't like that. I like to own my games and play them when the fuck i want to play them. Even worse MS doesn't even say how long this time period will be.It could be 6 months ,3 months or whatever they feel like it. It's an invisible time limit and i hate that. Are you so thick that you can't understand or respect this simple concept?

Oh and about the price increase please let me laugh. I don't always buy on day 1 but when i do it's for collector's editions or games from developers i trust therefore i will gladly pay the price and support them.The games i don't want to buy on day 1 i can wait for a few months and i will be able to buy them physically for at least half the price.
And unlike Gamepass users i will own them forever to play them whenver the fuck i want.

So yeah GTFO with your bullshit.
 
Mircotrans and cuts from third party digital sales. Keep people in the ecosystem.

Also, when companies are bought out for $XXX, it doesn't mean the company doing the acquiring expect to make back every $$$ in entirety or short term.

Lots of pro sports teams are now valued at $1 billion or more. Do you really think the company or business people buying them expect to get back $1 billion in profits anytime soon? Maybe. Maybe not.

Miami Marlins were bought for $1.2 billion. The team with probably the lowest fan attendance. Someone bit.

Most small bio tech stocks have no sales, lose $100s of million, but some big cap will come by and buy them out for $3 billion. At this moment in time they have nothing but some phase 2 or 3 drug which nobody even know will be approved or sell well. But the deals happen.
MS already has all those revenue streams you mentioned without Game Pass, so Game Pass isn't contributing to those.* Game Pass has to make up for the money that it is loses by not selling game outright. It's subscription revenue counts, but its hard to see how that exceeds the money being lost by any significant amount.

It's true that Microsoft doesn't have to make back all the moeny right away, but they do have to eventually make it back, and then some for this to be successful. The fundamental problem is that it looks like Game Pass is making very little money in the best case scenario, and is losing money in the worse case. At some point MS has to improve on that which is why people are suggesting changes that MS has to make to improve profitability. The common refrain that MS just needs to add more subscriptions ignores the fact that that doesn't help if those subscriptions aren't making much money. It's like the fantasy 90s dot-com boom economics where investors thought all websites had to do was to increase their hits per day without any plan to actually make money off them.

*Microsoft says Game Pass members generate 20% more in sales, but it's not clear if that's versus the non-Game Pass gamers or versus what those Game Pass gamers previously spent. It's likely Game Pass has attracted early adopters who are likely to spend more anyway. Regardless these numbers will go down as more people join the plan, just like new people buy fewer games as more consoles are sold.
 

Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
200.gif
 

Stuart360

Member
At the end of the day, its only Microsoft who know how Gamepass is doing money wise. If its a big sink hole for them, they will drop it eventually, and no one will really lose out as its not a contract driven service.
I dont know why we always have top have these 'doomsday' threads about Gamepass. I mean to say how many people hate Microsoft, they sure worry about them losing money with it.
I have played so many games through it that i would never buy. Going to play Desperado's 3 next week, another game i would never buy. Thats the real lure of Gamepass for me, expanding my gaming horizon. Plus being someone that lives alone and hs tme to game numerous hours a day, its really something thats beneficial to me.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I dont know why we always have top have these 'doomsday' threads about Gamepass. I mean to say how many people hate Microsoft, they sure worry about them losing money with it.
It's because being armchair accountant is the only thing left they can criticize the service. And it's being based on nobody even knowing what GP's financials are because MS has never even stated them.

They can't compare price, tons of recent games, day one MS games and potentially exclusive Bethesda games. The service is also 100% downloaded games instead of garbage stream only (which many PS+ games are), and the PC service isn't like PS+ PC which is all streamed at I think 720/30 fps (unless they upped the graphics settings).

So basically the last thing to argue about is whether GP can be profitable and if MS really cares that much for one product in one division (where MS makes about $150 billion sales at $40 billion profit).
 
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And yet no Game Pass defender has suggested a plausible way for MS to make back the $7+ billion dollars it spent in dev studio acquisitions + $100s of millions in game dev costs + untold millions spent in 3rd party content. Sure, MS would have a ton of subscriptions if it sold them for $1 a month, but having subscriptions doesn't equal profit. MS has to make more money than they spend out. Your analysis is like the joke of a businessman who says "We lose money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume".

Simple question: Where does Microsoft make back the money it is not getting for these $60 game sales?
FYI, Halo 5 made $400 million in its first week which wouldn't exist if everyone had Game Pass.
There are people at MS that make six figure+ salaries to figure this shit out. Why are you expecting random gamers on NeoGAF to have all of these answers?

And as a gamer, why do I give a shit about how MS makes ends meet? If they provide me with a good service, I’ll subscribe. If they don’t, I won’t subscribe. I’m not obligated to support GamePass.

Also, you’re way off on the “analysis”. I’m making fun of people who are expecting MS to take an amazing service like GamePass, take away everything that makes it awesome, jack up the price, and still sell it. Tell me how that business model works 😆
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Like any entertainment, its purely optional for anyone. But the original poster misreads the market and value, gamepass actually has the most value to those who are casual gamers, as they have not run out and bought the games for $70. So maybe now, with gamepass, instead of 3 more hours of Netflix tonight, they play doom eternal instead.
I think there is a ton of people out there who haven't tried gamepass yet that would love it if they did. None of us really knew we wanted Netflix until after we tried it.......

$15 per month is a paltry amount for the sheer volume of high quality entertainment it represents.
 
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That's the argument I also don't understand from SonyGaf. Assuming you play multiplay so you have Gold anyway, which costs 60€/year in europe. GPU is 156€/year here, so deducting the 60€ from Gold leads to 96€/year for GP. And this is equivalent to 2-3 games a year, of you always buy on sale. Considering that big titles are coming Day 1 soon from all the new MS Studios, this is a really fair price.
However the push at this time was really stupid, because the next (known) AAA game coming day 1 is more than half a year away.
.
Yeah I mean the push was dumb I agree - the whole value argument to me just seems really stupid. Basically you pay the extra price and you don’t worry about online or gamepass for the year and that’s that. It’s perfect for being a casual gamer because at any point if I’m bored I go - I look at what is on it - and I try it - and if I’m not into it meh. Really I just wouldn’t even try most of these games if I didn’t have the service but since I do I’ll try em out, and I even discovered one of my top games of last year from this - Doom Eternal - definitely don’t need to own physical editions of games - just don’t have that sentimental attachment, It’s got EAplay and Gamepass. I got the psnow/+ stuff it just has far less games that are local multiplayer or came out recently enough to be interested in - it’s good for Sony first party games but I usually buy those right when they come out anyway. I wish they would just do the same thing frankly people against that I don’t understand.

EDIT: this is all to say that if it goes accordingly it actually becomes exactly like Netflix. I don’t have a Netflix subscription because I watched TV all the time or Netflix has the best content. I watch Netflix because I and everybody else I know has Netflix anyway - it’s cheap enough to where it’s a totally doable monthly service. So when I’m looking for something to do or watch - chances are Netflix will be one of the places I go.
 
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Hezekiah

Banned
It's because being armchair accountant is the only thing left they can criticize the service. And it's being based on nobody even knowing what GP's financials are because MS has never even stated them.

They can't compare price, tons of recent games, day one MS games and potentially exclusive Bethesda games. The service is also 100% downloaded games instead of garbage stream only (which many PS+ games are), and the PC service isn't like PS+ PC which is all streamed at I think 720/30 fps (unless they upped the graphics settings).

So basically the last thing to argue about is whether GP can be profitable and if MS really cares that much for one product in one division (where MS makes about $150 billion sales at $40 billion profit).
Do you honestly believe the Xbox division gets a free ride for the foreseeable future because the wider company makes money? They have shareholders who want a return, and a mandate to deliver it.

There's a reason Microsoft doesn't release the financials for GamePass (the same reason they don't release hardware and software sales anymore). If it was a success they would be shouting it from the rooftops. This level of naivety (denial?) Is unreal.

They no doubt think it can be profitable in the near future which is why GamePass will be seeing price increases this gen, especially after the massive layout for Zenimax, and the associated development and marketing costs which will come with it.
 
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I'll repost it here.

Here's the potential gamepass target audience.

1. MS hardcore fan who would support MS no matter what.
2. Trophy hunters.
3. High schoolers who play a lot of games every month - who is not into Fortnite (or other F2P), Fifa, CoD and the likes.
4. Those who have a lot of money that they don't care they waste $15 a month even though they're playing GTA6 (or the latest 3rd party AAA games) almost everytime he turns on his console.

It's so different how we consume games from movies or shows. A gamer can play a game for months and months if he is so engrossed in such a game. This is certainly the case with many FIFA/COD/Fortnite players. Each and every game that is not included in the gamepass service is a gamepass competition.
 

Shmunter

Member
They do get it, that’s why they are trying to strong arm people into it by making gold ridiculously priced.

And now with their flip flop and f2p, their revenue will plummet. Biggest games are f2p, and they take the lions share of a gamers time.

Good luck getting a sub out of these gamers.
 

K' Dash

Member
Dude, if the service doesn't work for you, just don't pay for it.

I'm going to be a dad in 5 months, I already don't have time to play, but I pay for the luxury to just browse and find something I want to play, whenever the fuck I have a couple hours to play. It's not like it's $100 a month.

Also, the people here making their analysis about GP profitability... I'm laughing my ass off just thinking about these neck beards in their basements doing some mental gymnastics to justify their fanboy agenda.
 
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It's not that they don't get it, K KAL2006 , it's that they don't care.

GamePass is the only reason they're still in the console gaming business. It's the lynchpin of their entire platform strategy.

As such they're not trying to understand why it might not be appealing to some gamers, instead they simply want to convince you that it's a universally great value service for everyone (even if it isn't).
DarkMage619 DarkMage619 I know you like to make a childish game out of "LOL"'ing any post that you perceive to be saying anything negative about your plastic box of choice... but this one is gotta be a head scratcher for me.

What is inherently negative or trigger-worthy about the above? Even a cursory observer can clearly see that GamePass is a core part of MS's Xbox strategy and that MS intends to push it on as many users as possible, whether it makes sense for them or not.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Do you honestly believe the Xbox division gets a free ride for the foreseeable future because the wider company makes money? They have shareholders who want a return, and a mandate to deliver it.

There's a reason Microsoft doesn't release the financials for GamePass (the same reason they don't release hardware and software sales anymore). If it was a success they would be shouting it from the rooftops. This level of naivety (denial?) Is unreal.

They no doubt think it can be profitable in the near future which is why GamePass will be seeing price increases this gen, especially after the massive layout for Zenimax, and the associated development and marketing costs which will come with it.
Xbox has probably been the worst profit product line since Xbox OG launched almost 20 years ago.

MS is still still making consoles and buying studios, including Zenimax at $7.5 billion.

If head office really cared about Xbox profits, why keep going and gunning for it even more?

MS stock is at an all time high, their sales and profits are the highest ever, and that even includes baking in Xbox. Shareholders are doing perfectly fine.
 
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Warablo

Member
One interesting thing would be actually GPU sharing. I think one reason why Netflix is so successful is because of most people share their accounts. At least 80% of my friends do. If Netflix would restrict this, I think half of my friends would cancel their subscription immediately.
Sharing is basically good way of word of mouth advertisement.
You can already sorta do that if you game share with a friend.
 

Old Empire.

Member
Best service and would happily pay 20 to 30 Euros every month, if every publisher put there games in it day one. Let MS pay the companies the royalties. There simply no way people have seventy Euros to buy game after game. It too much when you have other life priorities.
 

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
I would have loved to have something like Game Pass when I was a teenager. Even more with that 1 euro for 3 months deal.
Now that I can afford the games I play, I still use Gamepass but I buy the ones I loves/want to support (both Ori for example), and I really don't get why people are upset with this. Just don't pay attention to it and you will be fine it's not like there is someone chasing you screaming "SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEPAAAAAS NOW"
 
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Allforce

Member
It's basically 5 bucks a month so my kid can play garbage games I would never buy for him outright. I can justify the 5 because there's the occasional hidden gem for me in there but overall I barely touch the Xbox.
 

FrankWza

Member
Mircotrans and cuts from third party digital sales. Keep people in the ecosystem.

Also, when companies are bought out for $XXX, it doesn't mean the company doing the acquiring expect to make back every $$$ in entirety or short term.

Lots of pro sports teams are now valued at $1 billion or more. Do you really think the company or business people buying them expect to get back $1 billion in profits anytime soon? Maybe. Maybe not.

Miami Marlins were bought for $1.2 billion. The team with probably the lowest fan attendance. Someone bit.

Most small bio tech stocks have no sales, lose $100s of million, but some big cap will come by and buy them out for $3 billion. At this moment in time they have nothing but some phase 2 or 3 drug which nobody even know will be approved or sell well. But the deals happen.
This is the wrong example. You’re speaking to valuation. The example you want is if the Marlins give a player a 5 year contract for $200 million they want a return on that investment and they get it through season ticket sales and selling that players jersey and promoting that player. The 7.5 billion is similar in that they want it to pay for itself so they’ll try to get a return on that investment somehow.
 

Sejan

Member
Gamepass is the closest Microsoft has ever been to getting me into their gaming ecosystem. With that said, games are a bit of a strange situation when it comes to a streaming service or online library.

When Netflix was trying to convince us to buy into their movie and to streaming system, it was an easier sell. Movies and tv shows are things that are disposable. You experience them quickly and most likely only once. Compared to traditional tv, it was cheaper, more convenient, and didn’t have the annoyances that accompanied a cable service (no commercials and watch it whenever you like).

Gaming is a bit different. It’s always been a bigger investment, but it’s a media in which you are supposed to take your time. Games lend themselves to replay far more than the static nature of movies ever could.

Unless you are looking for a large collection of mostly older games that may or may not interest you, game streaming and game collections aren’t nearly the no brained option that Netflix was. Netflix did cable TV, but better in almost every way for the typical consumer. It was so cheap that even the people that kept their cable subscription still had motivation to add on a Netflix subscription.

Gamepass just doesn’t have the universal appeal that Netflix had. I think the idea can still work better, but I don’t think that Microsoft or anyone else has found the perfect solution quite yet.
 
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