The numbers don't lie: Game Pass is a complete failure

[Serotonin]

When Game Pass released, it became one of the few competent things the declining Xbox brand had going for it. It was so good it was carrying Xbox by it shoulders and forced its competitors to adapt (PS+ and NSO). After early success, Phil Spencer went all in.

The Game Pass dream was what pushed Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard, a very controversial but promising avenue to sell Game Pass subscriptions. After all, day one Game Pass Call of Duty would in theory be a no-brainer for Netflix-addicted normies.

Shortly after the acquisition, Microsoft reported 34 million Game Pass subscribers. They wanted 77 million subscribers by 2026.

It didn't go up. It went down to 30 million.

This is very disturbing because we now know that MS's acquisition philosophy was built entirely on Game Pass subscription potential - doesn't matter if the game sold well or was critically acclaimed or had large customer retention, if it didn't result in a Game Pass jump, the developers suffered.

The saddest thing is that good people have to suffer because of the brunt of Microsoft's excess. The excellent Hi-Fi Rush was shadow dropped to test the online-focused Game Pass. Despite being the best thing Microsoft has released since the 360 generation, its company was nearly shut-down. Asha's 'reset' is only going to make things worse. id Software are one of the gaming industry's most important companies, but because Doom: The Dark Ages didn't result in a billion Game Pass subscribers the company was decimated. And god forbid you if you're a smaller/AA developer that MS only bought for indie cred, like Double Fine.

So what now? What does Xbox do? They seem to be going for desperate crowd-pleasers but a third version of Halo: CE now on PlayStation isn't going to mend the damage caused. They can't decrease the quality of Game Pass nor can they convince gamers to jump on it.

 

[Neb Lleb]

And so... The damage caused by the current ongoing Video-Game Crash has finally begun to rear its ugly head. They tried to turn gaming into an always online subscription-based service, and it has begun to backfire horribly.

First the stocks crashed, and now the anti-consumer practices are beginning to reek havoc on those who implement them.

 

[Vardalis]

Rip bozos.

Really though, the entire strategy was flawed for a medium where most cash is generated through initial sales, DLC and microtransactions. People already embedded in an ecosystem, like Steam or Playstation, aren't going to jump ship because of Gamepass. People who buy Fifa, CoD and nothing else aren't likely to keep forking out month after month for Gamepass. People who have dozens of subscriptions for things like Netflix, Prime, Doordash, etc, aren't going to be as enticed as opposed to just buying a game outright. They also kept giving out cheap or extremely discounted periods of Gamepass. What was the retention rate on those? It's also the thing of when a game leaves the service that's it. You don't own it. You're doing rentals on things that tend to last longer than a box set or series of movies on a streaming service, and if you ever wanted to play them again after they're gone you'd have to buy them anyway. So why not buy them in the first place.

Not to mention the whole "everything is an xbox" campaign muddying the waters and general signposting and consumer awareness being extremely poor during this period of Xbox. I couldn't even tell you what the most recent powerful version of the console is called as someone embedded in the hobby.

 

[Anim8rDude Anim8rDude]

Not really all that surprising. When the gamepass price almost doubled in Canada I just put my Xbox away in the closet for good. Sad to see'em go but not much sympathy.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

I think that we can start to say goodbye to ID and other companies brought by Microsoft

 

[MajorMachina]

I think that we can start to say goodbye to ID and other companies brought by Microsoft

I can't though
I just can't

 

[NardoBoom]

Gamepass is cool, but it should never have been the priority for xbox, just a secondary service and first party AAA games should have never been released day one on game pass.

 

[Dyne]

And so... The damage caused by the current ongoing Video-Game Crash has finally begun to rear its ugly head. They tried to turn gaming into an always online subscription-based service, and it has begun to backfire horribly.

First the stocks crashed, and now the anti-consumer practices are beginning to reek havoc on those who implement them.

Long live piracy emulation!!

 

[teqdust]

dayum

 

[SeventhSon]

Rent-seeking destroys everything

 

[iamthemilkman]

They really thought Game Pass would be the Netflix of gaming. Someone should've told them that Netflix sucks.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

They lost a few countries' worth of subscribers??? At this point, it is truly remarkable that they are still breathing...

 

[MajorMachina]

They really thought Game Pass would be the Netflix of gaming. Someone should've told them that Netflix sucks.

and that movies and tv shows are lot more easily accessible than video games

 

[KamakoKamako's icon]

I heard the other day that XBOX only accounts for approx. ~8% of Microsoft's revenue? And even then, mainly only with Western audiences who actually buy their product.

Why don't they spend that little bit more money investing in the studios that produce their most critically acclaimed works? If it's because they don't feel enough copies, then I guess we're about to see them invest full tilt into the next live service model game? But the timing isn't quite right for that either. I cannot envision a better way for Microsoft to make money on Xbox, than to fund renowned dev teams, and market their products more successfully.

Mostly though, I think it's a losing battle, because the people who run these companies aren't gamers. They're more concerned in slimming business expenses to fatten their own bottom lines in the short-term. I wonder what their life must be like xD

 

[MajorMachina]

I heard the other day that XBOX only accounts for approx. ~8% of Microsoft's revenue? And even then, mainly only with Western audiences who actually buy their product.

Why don't they spend that little bit more money investing in the studios that produce their most critically acclaimed works? If it's because they don't feel enough copies, then I guess we're about to see them invest full tilt into the next live service model game? But the timing isn't quite right for that either. I cannot envision a better way for Microsoft to make money on Xbox, than to fund renowned dev teams, and market their products more successfully.

Mostly though, I think it's a losing battle, because the people who run these companies aren't gamers. They're more concerned in slimming business expenses to fatten their own bottom lines in the short-term. I wonder what their life must be like xD

Given microsofts history of being a monopoly, i wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is/was just motivated by having their name in everything

 

[Gbafan118]

I personally never used game pass, and I did used to hear good things about it. This is also why I rather emulate games tbh, or get older games from flea markets.

 

[diet_orange]

They really thought Game Pass would be the Netflix of gaming. Someone should've told them that Netflix sucks.

Funny thing, I probably get more use out of Tubi and Pluto TV than the actual streaming services I pay for because they actually have shit on there that I want to watch

I think that we can start to say goodbye to ID and other companies brought by Microsoft

But yeah, seriously, Microsoft nuking ID out of existence is not sitting well online and I hope to god it bites them in the ass. It was already bad enough the hell they put RARE through

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

But yeah, seriously, Microsoft nuking ID out of existence is not sitting well online and I hope to god it bites them in the ass. It was already bad enough the hell they put RARE through

Banjo 3 being teased, then - inexplicably - being turned into "Nuts & Bolts" should have been enough to set the world on fire, honestly...

 

[Psychonara]

I am going to predict your gaming futures:

In 2036, The Playstation 6 and the Nintendo Switch 3-D will be all digital platforms with no physical media and all digital purchases are licenses that can be revoked. However, customers will find paying 60 to 80 dollar for individual games you don't own unjustifiable in this sort of environment, especially when the consoles cost 700 dollars, which will eventually necessitate companies to provide more competitive pricing. Sony & Nintendo will invest more in Game Pass-like multi-tiered subscription services & cloud streaming and other enticing premium accessory technologies like VR. Players will still have more games to than they will have enough years of life to play them and the console owners will make lots of money off hardware sales and subscriptions, but the developer environment, at least in the AAA & AA sphere of the industry, will become a survival of the fittest situation as developers will need to prove their worth or risk being branded as expendable because if ever a game doesn't result in a sufficient amount of increase in subscribers, they will be gutted, merged or sold off to make up for the cost. Smaller more independent studios who fill those subscription services with smaller-scale games will likely be more secure, but will have to supplement their own revenues with multiple projects released on multiple platforms at once, both on download-to-own services and through the new Extended Run collector's edition USB thumbsticks. These developers may also rely greatly on developing cult followings online through different forms of social outreach. Nintendo will rely on locking the next Zelda or Mario behind the successor to Switch Online (but only after paying for the Expansion Pack for an extra 30 on top of the 80 per year you pay) and filling the rest of their subscription service with these cheaper, smaller-scale third party indie games that will be purchaseable on every other platform. Sony may rely on this to a lesser extent, but may also invest in microtransactional models for some of their bigger, more expensively developed games.

Xbox Series Y will still be around and people on this forum and others will wonder how in the world they stay afloat after the failure of their "X-Jack" platform that plugs directly into your cerebral cortex. In 2040, Playstation will introduce a new VR headset that burrows into your frontal lobe that's basically the same thing as X-Jack. It comes free with a remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn