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Axios: Microsoft misses Xbox Game Pass subscriber target for second year

feynoob

Banned
Not to sound like a dick, but I feel like every year we get people making excuses for xbox and saying that the next year it will be better... it's been going since 2014.
There is no consistancy with their output, during that period. Which explains their poor output.
Hope their 20+ studio can find that rhythm. This gen is where they need to put their mouth, where it belongs.
If they cant achieve that, there is no hope for them.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
The success of Game Pass is pertinent to the Activision deal, as the UK's Competition & Markets Authority has suggested that if Microsoft puts Call of Duty on Game Pass, there could be "substantial lessening of competition" in "multi-game subscription services."
Tomorrow French CMA will investigate why Mona Lisa is exhibited uniquely at the Louvre. "Lessening of competition", amirite?
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
It goes from "publisher of the year" and "neogaf game of the year" to "not remarkable" on a whim.

I can't keep up anymore.
Thank you.

This right here is why trying to have a normal debate with some folks is a waste of time.

On a side note...that publisher of the year title is gonna be interesting as hell this year .....stay tuned....lol.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Tomorrow French CMA will investigate why Mona Lisa is exhibited uniquely at the Louvre. "Lessening of competition", amirite?

Should be framed and stored as NFT, the entire concept of illiteracy distilled into avant-garde posting, it has everything from cultural identity to bureaucracy, historical art, time and place folding on itself connecting a 14th century renaissance man to 21st century console wars in a singular shit post.
 
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This is exactly what they want. Get the vital money making games, put them on their service, then offer their service to everyone who wants those games for their customers.

Makes almost too much sense. Risk killing 85% of your business and your position as a platform holder to advance the 15%.
 
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Reactions: TLZ

Cyberpunkd

Member
Should be framed and stored as NFT, the entire concept of illiteracy distilled into avant-garde posting, it has everything from cultural identity to bureaucracy, historical art, time and place folding on itself connecting a 14th century renaissance man to 21st century console wars in a singular shit post.
Keanu Reeves Thank You GIF by NETFLIX
 
Thinking while 💩. This "GP is profitable" BS + GP missing the mark.

Is just stresses the point of how important/critical content is. And not any content.we are talking about the AAA GOTY/ Zeitgeist/New IP/Sequels are.(the content that actually moves the needle/matters)

Philly Says a lot of things, green influencers like Jez "expert analysts" Corden laydowns the master plan. Yet:

Xbox just had one of worst years (of a consistently weak release schedule) of such content.

It doesn't matter the business model, at the end of the day you need that content frequently enough.

Even with Activision/Blizzard, this issue is not solved. Why?

1. MS first Party output was/is so pathetically behind that adding Zenimax+Acti/Blizz is going to make MS's output roughly on par with PlayStation's = Good for competition but not enough to make this "Mastet Plan" to work. Especially when:

2. This critical content is already established with communities outside Xbox ecosystem (CoD, Minecraft, Overwatch).

a) or you make them exclusive (and piss off 66% of the market)

b) leave them as is (which negates their purpose as "First Party" content)

c) some of them are already Free to Play in which GP becomes totally irrelevant.

3. This content takes a long ass time to make. Just to put in perspective: Starfield comes next year...how many years is going to take for Bethesda to release their next AAA game? 5 to 7 years?. We all know how much time Blizzard takes to make games as well.

If you see the entirety of MS first party/Acquisitons you have a shit tons of Studios....how many of those are able to make this critical content?....yep, the list is dramatically reduce. Even smaller studios like double fine take a long ass time to make a game that should take no more that 3 years.

So, the question is:

Is Game Pass the Keystone in which the success (as in: finally be able to take the number 1 and beyond -Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook- of the gaming market)? ....Or not?

These flip-flopping, weirdly vague statements from Phill a couple of months before the year in which we are supposed to witnesses the the arrival of the mythical "wait until next year". Are just sus.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
It goes from "publisher of the year" and "neogaf game of the year" to "not remarkable" on a whim.

I can't keep up anymore.

That post was made without knowing exactly what months were being covered in the fiscal report, don't pat yourself on the back that hard :messenger_grinning_sweat:


No you see Starfield bigger than Halo and Forza combined.

Could be. Could very well be.
 
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feynoob

Banned
Thinking while 💩. This "GP is profitable" BS + GP missing the mark.

Is just stresses the point of how important/critical content is. And not any content.we are talking about the AAA GOTY/ Zeitgeist/New IP/Sequels are.(the content that actually moves the needle/matters)

Philly Says a lot of things, green influencers like Jez "expert analysts" Corden laydowns the master plan. Yet:

Xbox just had one of worst years (of a consistently weak release schedule) of such content.

It doesn't matter the business model, at the end of the day you need that content frequently enough.

Even with Activision/Blizzard, this issue is not solved. Why?

1. MS first Party output was/is so pathetically behind that adding Zenimax+Acti/Blizz is going to make MS's output roughly on par with PlayStation's = Good for competition but not enough to make this "Mastet Plan" to work. Especially when:

2. This critical content is already established with communities outside Xbox ecosystem (CoD, Minecraft, Overwatch).

a) or you make them exclusive (and piss off 66% of the market)

b) leave them as is (which negates their purpose as "First Party" content)

c) some of them are already Free to Play in which GP becomes totally irrelevant.

3. This content takes a long ass time to make. Just to put in perspective: Starfield comes next year...how many years is going to take for Bethesda to release their next AAA game? 5 to 7 years?. We all know how much time Blizzard takes to make games as well.

If you see the entirety of MS first party/Acquisitons you have a shit tons of Studios....how many of those are able to make this critical content?....yep, the list is dramatically reduce. Even smaller studios like double fine take a long ass time to make a game that should take no more that 3 years.

So, the question is:

Is Game Pass the Keystone in which the success (as in: finally be able to take the number 1 and beyond -Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook- of the gaming market)? ....Or not?

These flip-flopping, weirdly vague statements from Phill a couple of months before the year in which we are supposed to witnesses the the arrival of the mythical "wait until next year". Are just sus.
????
?????
?????

Gamepass can't be moves just by having Goty games alone(Goty is just for forum people).

You need diversity content. All kind of genres, in order to get majority of people.

Even with that move, its still not enough.

The xbox series consoles are limiting the growth of gamepass. Because they aren't selling 20m a year. It will take them 3 years to hit 40+m. That is not enough.

Which is why MS needs other avenue to reach for my gamers. Cloud gaming is important to them, to achieve that.

All these cry for AAA first party games won't fix gamepass issues.

MS should focus on increasing gamepass PC, and try to make a deal with steam. That move would raise gamepass numbers. Until then, gamepass won't be growing super fast.
 

GhostOfTsu

Banned
Starfield isn’t going to give gamepass the boost you all think it will.
Opening the GP market to millions of cloud users and all the "Publisher of the year 2021" games like Halo and Forza only gave them a 28% increase. And that was with popular PC stuff like Age of Empires 4 and Flight Sim too.

The people interested in stuff like Starfield is already subscribed. PC users will prefer playing on Steam because of modding and cloud mobile users for massive RPGs don't exist.

The only growth will come from Series console for new users (not upgrading from X One and not subscribed to GP).
That post was made without knowing exactly what months were being covered in the fiscal report, don't pat yourself on the back that hard :messenger_grinning_sweat:
Reality is hitting you hard. This thread is going so slow. No spinning or damage control possible 😅
 

feynoob

Banned
At this point people are trolling here.
That is to be expected. Anytime gamepass is mentioned, the troll won't stop.
I guess trolls gotta be trolls.
Who Knows Idk GIF
 

PeteBull

Member
Yup acquiring Steam would probably be the only way to take their marketshare. Epic has literally been giving AAA games away for years now (plus locking up popular exclusives) and probably hasn't even put a dent in Steam's sales.
Lets hope phil doesnt read it coz with MS kind of money he would be desperate enough to do it, if valve was public trading company, luckily for us, it isnt, and Gaben has final say;D
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
When does sonys figures come out? It's important to see how the market leader has been affected in this start of an economic downturn. If they can weather the storm hats off to them.
 

Chukhopops

Member
At this point people are trolling here.
That is to be expected. Anytime gamepass is mentioned, the troll won't stop.
I guess trolls gotta be trolls.
Who Knows Idk GIF
The moment I saw people treating « growing by 28% YoY » as « absolutely collapsing and about to self-destruct » I knew the thread was going nowhere fast.

It’s ok though, everyone processes grief differently and there’s a lot of grieving now that GP is actually profitable.
 

GhostOfTsu

Banned
Set an unrealistic target and you’ll get a realistic result.

73% lol wow…
They went up 37% the year before without any big release. 73% with all their big 2021 games coming out and the cloud expansion wasn't that high. The growth actually went down to 28% in 2021, a magnificent year for them. Publisher of the year according to Metacritic.

The year before that (2020) they went up 85.75% so 73% was not pie in the sky crazy target.
When does sonys figures come out? It's important to see how the market leader has been affected in this start of an economic downturn. If they can weather the storm hats off to them.
Sony already reached saturation with PS+ (50 millions). They don't have PC or Cloud to expand.
 
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Kikorin

Member
I think at first the growth of Gamepass was related to the insane price deals they did, I remember I bought months of the service for basically nothing, then they sent me 3 free months more for free in mail. Now, if they don't want to give it away for 1€, they need to release big games and sell a lot of consoles.
 

reksveks

Member
Now, if they don't want to give it away for 1€, they need to release big games and sell a lot of consoles.
Yeah, they are currently struggling on both fronts.

Will also be interesting to see how hard they push the Riot deal/benefits whenever it finally happens.
 
They went up 37% the year before without any big release. 73% with all their big 2021 games coming out and the cloud expansion wasn't that high. The growth actually went down to 28% in 2021, a magnificent year for them. Publisher of the year according to Metacritic.

The year before that (2020) they went up 85.75% so 73% was not pie in the sky crazy target.

Sony already reached saturation with PS+ (50 millions). They don't have PC or Cloud to expand.

2020 was a year of really big increase for all home Entertainment business so this 85.75% was simply possible due to that. Since beginning 2022 it's clearly not the same story for deifferent reasons, and they did not start from the same number so stop with stupid comparison.
 

Three

Gold Member
Didnt you read Sony marketing clause? They have the first right for subscription service.

Also, devs not agreeing with MS is very normal. Victoria 3 is good example of that.

Both of these are factors. You cant exclude one, while calling the other.


And those games are put in negotiation table. They discuss about it. If both party agree to it, they would make the deal.

As for battlefield, doesnt EA has a contract with MS? Their woud comes come to EA play, which gamepass has.

Activision deal has no impact about these negotiation. you stretching this too far.
The marketing agreement contracts go all the way back to 2015. Why did this supposed gamepass problem start this year? Just because the RE8 contract leaked in 2021 due to an Epic court case? MS stopped paying the big bucks to third parties and started spending big on acquiring major publishers like Zenimax and Activision. You trying to blame somebody else is a copout.
 
They just need a new lockdown for Game Pass subscribers to skyrocket. Netflix has the same woes, since it peaked in 2020-2021.

The climate paranoia is coming next and should "help"...
 

ergem

Member
The audience/market for subscription of games is very limited and small. It's so different how we consume video games from the likes of music, shows, and movies.
 

GhostOfTsu

Banned
2020 was a year of really big increase for all home Entertainment business so this 85.75% was simply possible due to that. Since beginning 2022 it's clearly not the same story for deifferent reasons, and they did not start from the same number so stop with stupid comparison.
The 86% was from July 2019 to June 2020. The pandemic was barely starting. There was no widespread shutdowns yet.
 

feynoob

Banned
The marketing agreement contracts go all the way back to 2015. Why did this supposed gamepass problem start this year? Just because the RE8 contract leaked in 2021 due to an Epic court case? MS stopped paying the big bucks to third parties and started spending big on acquiring major publishers like Zenimax and Activision. You trying to blame somebody else is a copout.
Why are you hell bent on defending Sony?

Every one knows Sony wants to defend their marketing investment. So blocking gamepass access is sure way to ensure that. Or else, MS would get those games either day1 or 6 months later.
Also, what does those acquisition have anything to do with this topic?

MS bringing games to gamepass from 3rd party is not always succesful. This is them losing victoria 3 from windows store, and gamepass. Its up to developers whether to accept MS deal or not.
The breaking news comes from the publisher that reached out to TrueAchievements. Despite the fact that the announcement trailer and monthly update videos include the gaming service's logo, Paradox has announced that Victoria 3 is not coming to Game Pass after all. Moreover, it also informed that the game will be Steam exclusive on the release day, meaning you will not be able to purchase the title on Microsoft Store.
As for MS marketing deal. That is to the 2 companies. Not every company would agree to MS deal. Victoria is example of that.
 
Why are you hell bent on defending Sony?

Every one knows Sony wants to defend their marketing investment. So blocking gamepass access is sure way to ensure that. Or else, MS would get those games either day1 or 6 months later.
Also, what does those acquisition have anything to do with this topic?

MS bringing games to gamepass from 3rd party is not always succesful. This is them losing victoria 3 from windows store, and gamepass. Its up to developers whether to accept MS deal or not.

If MS isn't offering devs enough money to be on gamepass that isn't Sony's fault
 

feynoob

Banned
Yeah, they are currently struggling on both fronts.

Will also be interesting to see how hard they push the Riot deal/benefits whenever it finally happens.
I dont think the console situation would improve at the moment. Its going to very slow until 2025.
PC is their best shot at the moment. That riot deal is the very step to do it. Also improving the windows store, allowing moding more would also make their pc gamepass even more attractive. And since PC isnt restricted like consoles, its easier for PC gamepass to explode fast.

Currently total sub is 25m.

estimate 10m console users until 2025, due to slow console manufacturing.

Estimate 20m pc gamepass growth, should they invest heavily on pc gamepass.

total userbase in 2025 would be 55m.

That is one way, they can hit higher numbers.
 

feynoob

Banned
Okay so what reason did the devs end up dropping gamepass then
Like every deal. If both party dont reach agreement, then there is no deal.
Having too much money doesnt always guarentee you getting the deal 100% of the time.

You have studio, who are thinking like this.
Elaborating further, The Callisto Protocol dev said that the Xbox Game Pass business model is a difficult one to make work as an independent studio. Single-player games will continue being available from similar services, Mark James added, but mostly from platform holders:

here is take 2 point
"Our views remain unchanged. We think a subscription model can make sense for deep catalog titles. But it doesn't really make sense for frontline titles. For any business model to make sense in the entertainment business, it has to work for the creators of the entertainment as well as the consumers of the entertainment. I think catalog can make sense for the publishers, it can make sense for the consumers who are avid, who really want access to a lot of product. But if you're getting into frontline product, then the economics are much more difficult to make sense of," he said during Take-Two's earnings call.
"That remains to be seen. We're open minded. We have made catalog titles available for subscription services. Very occasionally we've made frontline titles available as well. But we do see this more as a catalog offering than a frontline offering," he said.
 
The fact that Phil Spencer himself said subscriptions ain't the future and growth is slowing says it all. Many people thought subscriptions and specifically, gamepass, were going to take over the industry and become the normal way people consume content.
 
Like every deal. If both party dont reach agreement, then there is no deal.
Having too much money doesnt always guarentee you getting the deal 100% of the time.
Okay, you still haven't answered the question.

You have studio, who are thinking like this.
A game with a marketing contract with Sony. Lol
here is take 2 point

AKA our games make too much money for anyone to realistically offer us enough money to add our games day one
 

reksveks

Member
No they aren't. It's the fastest selling Xbox generation.
Maybe struggling is the wrong summary.

I think they are still supplied constrained in certain markets, especially in the US. That's a struggle and Spencer did say that they would be supply constrained this holiday.

I also think that they need additional content for the mass market (personally I am very happy cause my brain is still thinking about citizen sleeper and norco and excited about sommerville/Pentiment/signalis) to push series s sales.
 

feynoob

Banned
Okay, you still haven't answered the question.


A game with a marketing contract with Sony. Lol


AKA our games make too much money for anyone to realistically offer us enough money to add our games day one
Sony is blocking MS attemp to negotiate with those devs. If you cant understand that, then this topic isnt going anywhere.

IF that clause didnt exist, MS will enter the negotiation part. If the devs agree to it. MS would put those games on gamepass. If they dont, then they would go to the next game.

Not every studios would have the same mindset. There are pro gamepass who wants to reach more audience, and there are anti gamepass, who are looking after their pocket.
 
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