Basically Microsoft are desperate to get everyone on Gamepass so they decided to double Gold price to make everyone think Gamepass is better value than Gold. Instead there was a backlash.
Microsoft doesn't seem to get Gamepass is simply not for everyone. There are gamers out there that play half a dozen games a year. So having access to a ton of games don't really matter for them. There are gamers out there that only play COD, FIFA, Fortnite etc basically games that are not on Gamepass so they don't see the value of Gamepass. Games take a long damn time to play and people don't have the time to play that many games. A game like Monster Hunter I have put over 200 hours in, being subed to Gamepass if I'm only playing Monster Hunter is a waste if money. The Gamepass model isn't comparable to Netflix where you can binge shows, movies and documentaries and finish content in a weekend and make use of your sub where as games where we have a single game that takes 100 hours of your time.
Here are examples of people I know where Gamepass doesn't make sense to them.
Friend 1
He mainly plays FIFA, plays the occasional singleplayer game at most maybe 2 or 3 singleplayer games a year. For example I remember he played Uncharted Lost Legacy, God of War and FIFA multiplayer for a entire year.
Friend 2
He plays around 5 games a year which are usually games that are bought in sales. £5-£10. He never buys a game day 1 ever. Probably spends max £40 a year on games.
Nephew
This kid only plays Fortnite, luckily it's F2P so he doesn't even pay for PSN Plus.
Myself
I rarely buy games day 1, and the games I do buy day 1 are games that are not available on Gamepass day 1. For example I bought Monster Hunter World which was not available on Gamepass. Because I have a wife and kid, and a full time job it takes me a very long time to finish a game. I buy most games dirt cheap under £10 and play probably around 6 games a year and that's when I'm not playing a multiplayer game. For example when Monster Hunter World came out that year I probably bought 1 other game.
These are just a few examples but Gamepass can have 9000 games and it wouldn't make a difference for many people as they simply don't play that many games. This idea where Microsoft thinks everyone will want Gamepass is not going to happen and Microsofts desperation by upping the Gold price to incencitize people to Gamepass was a terrible idea and the backlash made them do a U turn. I'm sure Microsoft will try another way to try get Gamepass users up but I think it's not working as expected for them and Gamepass isn't going to be the Netflix of gaming as games media cannot be consumed at such a fast rate as watching movies and TV shows.
Excatly!
Yet "bbbbut game pass is incredible value!!!111" gang continues to spam it as only truth like jehova witnesses.
IMO GP is expensive scam of quantity.
Like you would need to buy household item that lasts 6 months, and then store would sell you 100 of them as a bundle, because price for one would be "so cheap"
Gamepass fans always use the failed argument of "lol games cost 60-70$€£! gamepass saves so much, you are stupid!", maybe they are stupid enough to pay full price for games, so they assume others do it too?
In reality most gamers I know just wait for sales or buy used copies, so even "launch window" games can be 25-30e if you are lucky. and usually games drop to 5-15e range, so meanwhile you play old backlog, those new games drop to that level.
I think I saw statistics that average gamer/console attach rate is like 5-6 games per gen, aka people dont buy even few games/year. Lets say average gamer plays 10 games on their console = they dont need a library of hundreds.
So, gamepass is scam that makes certain kind of people see it as "omg hundreds of games and it costs only xx$£€! incredible deal!"
Because they lack the ability to think the big picture.
GP is about 15€ here = 180€ year, 6 years of gen = 1080€ = people waste 1000€ and own zero games.
For 180€ smart consumer can get 5-20+ games / year by buying from sales or used. Even getting used launch games that are almost always 40-45e after week or two, you can get 4-5 games/year.
And play them, and then sell them for small loss or profit = you can "recycle" those games and play tens of games/year, if that is your thing
(another thing is how this business model will affect the game quality and so on)
Then games that dont come in the game pass? Do they then pay 70€ per game, like they have been saying how others must pay for games they get in GP?
So now it GP price + games that dont be there.
Gamepass is good for only those that play +50 games/year, and I would bet that not many really do that.
So, my conclusion is that gamepass is mainly a scam to fool fools, whom lack the ability to think further than "omg hundreds of games for 15€!"
Like those whom run 10 different streaming services on the same time because they dont understand that they pay thousands every year. GP have basically the same problem as streaming services = not all games are or stay there, so you need to spend extra money to get what you want.