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[adamsapple]

Inshallah, COD 2024 marks the turning point when gamers realize what a dogshit and exploitative series this has become.

According to some, the series has been shit for more than a decade. But I guess it's like a new Michael Bay movie, even if it reviews poorly, people can't stop flocking to it in droves.

 

[diffusionx]

According to some, the series has been shit for more than a decade. But I guess it's like a new Michael Bay movie, even if it reviews poorly, people can't stop flocking to it in droves.

The last one that was good was BOCW, but every year the shills try to tell us that the game is great. I played way too much of the new one and the gameplay is shoddy, map design is garbage, and SBMM is as oppressive as ever. I do think some people do have a form of Stockholm Syndrome that keep them engaged, yes.

HOWEVER, what's new, it's possible that all the AI content, the shitty battle passes, and the now garish and horrid visual design will start turning people off forever.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Explain Phil's statement, another pivot, another goal post moved to hide failure.

but jizz corden: Game Pass is on fire.. will gamers notice?

So... there is a chance that with the Oblivion remake and the 33 game, Game Pass will achieve the growth that Starfield and CoD couldn't bring.

yeah, sounds about right

 

[tr1p1ex]

Explain Phil's statement, another pivot, another goal post moved to hide failure.

but jizz corden: Game Pass is on fire.. will gamers notice?

So... there is a chance that with the Oblivion remake and the 33 game, Game Pass will achieve the growth that Starfield and CoD couldn't bring.

yeah, sounds about right

gamers like free

 

[havoc00]

People not taking advantage of gamepass are nuts it's literally the best value in gaming.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

People not taking advantage of gamepass are nuts it's literally the best value in gaming.

Not if you're not using loopholes, promotions or godawful PC app with outdated builds. Or Xcloud that is lagging behind every other cloud solution on the market.

For new users GamePass is not that cheap. Hardcore people with stacked GPU through conversion and Argentina will understand that sooner than later.

 

[LordOcidax]

I was helping your argument with the 3 year cutoff, dummy. Okay, since you think my 3 year mark is arbitrary, would you consider PS Plus Extra a good value because of TLOU1, TLOU2, GoW, GoW:R, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Forbidden West, Uncharted 1-4, Lost Legacy, Jedi: Survivor, and Marvel's Spider-Man, and Days Gone being on it? Or would you consider it a ripoff? Even the most ardent Sony stans would consider that list stale because we already played most of those on the PS4.

Also, all the Xbox fans in here seem to be creaming themselves over the Oblivion remaster, but took great outrage with TLOU1 Remake and Horizon Zero Dawn, which were both far superior in quality. Which is it? Are remakes good only when Xbox does it and cashgrabs when Sony does it?

Good value

 

[Seiryu21]

For me, it's hard to see the value in something like gamepass because it's like cable. I'm not paying $240 a year for access to games I never wanted to play in the first place. It just makes more sense to buy exactly what I want and just play that. I can see why subs numbers have stalled.

 

[Deerock71]

Dr. Freud would tell me I have a breast fixation, even though I now see they are eyeballs.

 

[Sakura]

Services like gamepass only make sense if they are getting the average subscriber to spend more money on it than they would have spent buying games.
But as you slowly raise prices to get closer to that point where the service starts breaking even, it also becomes less appealing to customers, so I think there is a rather low limit on how much growth these kinds of services can see.

 

[Humdinger]

I'm curious to see whether GP's recent flowering will boost sub numbers. No doubt with all the acquisitions, the offerings are better than they were before.

A 12% boost in one quarter from CoD is nice, but I'm talking about large, sustained growth.

 

[Zacfoldor]

According to some, the series has been shit for more than a decade. But I guess it's like a new Michael Bay movie, even if it reviews poorly, people can't stop flocking to it in droves.

There are these large groups of low brow gamers that only game based on content.

IE: Little kids who only want to play a game because it has monster trucks, macho men who only want to play realistic war games, old boomer dads who only want to play games that have tanks in them, jocks who only want to play the latest football or basketball game, tryhards who only game to "dominate," and PC gamers who only play games to get on discord and chat with their real life mates.

When you combine all these groups into one big lump you get the Call of Duty audience. Real gamers need not apply.

 

[baphomet]

Lol, wonder if that growth was worth the ~70% of sales lost on Xbox and ~20% lost on PC.

 

[mckmas8808]

I wouldn't simply say sub services aren't the future. They're just not the immediate future.

Who knows how things could play out of the majority of gamers shift to cloud streaming.

I hope that isn't the future, but I'm not sure many predicted a digital future for music, tv, and movies either, let alone streaming and subscription based.

It's not the future dawg LOL!!! Unless we are calling "the future" 25 years from now.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Sub services are all scams

 

[ReBurn]

It's not the future dawg LOL!!! Unless we are calling "the future" 25 years from now.

25 years from now is probably inside the circle for the future on the Venn diagram of time.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

It's not the future dawg LOL!!! Unless we are calling "the future" 25 years from now.

I'll take that bet...

I played GeforceNow on my LG OLED and a Dual Sense two years ago and it played perfectly fine.

As hardware upgrades give diminishing returns and this becomes an easier delivery system, it's absolutely going to become the mainstream way to access games without having to buy a console.

 

[mckmas8808]

I'll take that bet...

I played GeforceNow on my LG OLED and a Dual Sense two years ago and it played perfectly fine.

As hardware upgrades give diminishing returns and this becomes an easier delivery system, it's absolutely going to become the mainstream way to access games without having to buy a console.

A 25 year NeoGaf bet?

 

[mckmas8808]

I think people are underestimating the size of the growth of 2020-2021. We got a good 3-5 years of growth all in 6 months thanks to the plandemic.

Yall are some weirdos.

 

[diffusionx]

Yall are some weirdos.

imagine believing the government's bullshit about what happened there in 2025

 

[mckmas8808]

imagine believing the government's bullshit about what happened there in 2025

You may not believe "EVERYTHING" the govt said, but to call it a planned pandemic is something else. Like............come on man.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Explains a lot of Sony's actions regarding ps plus in the recent years

Yup.

Sony also announced they wouldnt be announcing PS+ sub anymore too. So despite PS5 sales zooming up the charts, I think their PS sub plans peaked somewhere in the 45M range and was already decreasing slightly. They announced no more stating sub count right before they announced a price increase too.

 

[ZehDon]

Seems clear that Game Pass in particular has reached saturation point.

With that said, I can't help but wonder how much the ceiling comes down when you factor in everything being a fucking subscription service these days. TVs, Movies, Music, Games, Websites, Printer Ink, Heated Seats in your brand new car; how many services do corporations think people are actually going to sub to? Game Pass works for me, but for others, they'd rather have Netflix, and for someone else, they need their Adobe subscription. There's only so much money to go around every month.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Seems clear that Game Pass in particular has reached saturation point.

With that said, I can't help but wonder how much the ceiling comes down when you factor in everything being a fucking subscription service these days. TVs, Movies, Music, Games, Websites, Printer Ink, Heated Seats in your brand new car; how many services do corporations think people are actually going to sub to? Game Pass works for me, but for others, they'd rather have Netflix, and for someone else, they need their Adobe subscription. There's only so much money to go around every month.

I've been saying this for awhile now. Trying to make literally everything into a sub is causing sub fatigue in consumers and a backlash is happening now against the blatant and overwhelming rentierism of subifying everything

 

[Pop]

CoD 2025's gonna add another double digit growth to it.

You're not helping Xbox

In fact killing it. Gamepass is one of those too good to be true scenarios

 

[Mattyp]

Also, all the Xbox fans in here seem to be creaming themselves over the Oblivion remaster, but took great outrage with TLOU1 Remake and Horizon Zero Dawn, which were both far superior in quality

Wait wait wait hold up… you think the small res bumps are superior in quality to a near full remaster or you actually think those games are better than Oblivion?

 

[Mr Moose]

Wait wait wait hold up… you think the small re bumps are superior in quality to a near full remaster or you actually think those games are better than Oblivion?

They run better.

 

[Itchy Tickles]

Never liked these services as a whole. I mentioned it before, but Gamepass costing what it does with a good sized catalogue of gaming, just made it feel like I was paying for a trial of game to see if I liked so I could buy on it Steam.

It gives me the same lack of enthusiasm to games that hit after a while once you chipped your console, e.g, PS2, and you have so much to chose from you end up not having any drive to play anything.

I know we don't "own" our digital libraries and we can kinda ignore it on Steam, but for me, Gamepass gave me that feeling upfront and it never left.

I rather buy the game and not have to be concerned about subscriptions or time limits etc.

 

[balls of snow]

Yeah my gamepass ultimate sub runs out next month. Pc Gamepass being that much more cheaper (for now) so I might continue just for the indies.
Oblivion, Expedition 33 and hell even South of Midnight I just bought it wholesale on steam.

 

[Bloody Crow of Cainhurst]

Wait wait wait hold up… you think the small res bumps are superior in quality to a near full remaster or you actually think those games are better than Oblivion?

Wait wait wait hold up... you think TLOU1 Remake and Horizon Zero Dawn Remake are small res bumps? Go watch a YouTube comparison, they're nothing like the original games. I can see how people think they're unnecessary (I agree) but goddamn, do they look stunning on an OLED.

 

[Draugoth]

Analyst Mat Piscatella, who is part of Circana (NPD), continues to share useful information through his social networks and his new post involves the Xbox Game Pass service. Microsoft doesn't normally release updated subscriber numbers for the service, so by official means, no one has any idea whether the service is growing or not.

On the other hand, analysts can get a sense of how the Xbox Game Pass is doing, and according to Mat Piscatella, the service is struggling to grow, while it has only seen a 12% increase:

US spending on video game subscriptions had been basically flat for years following 2020-21 growth, only boosted by 12% in Q4 thanks to CoD going to Game Pass.Subscriptions are certainly not THE future of gaming (although they can continue to be part of it).

​

That's what the US data is suggesting, at least so far. Can't say it's the same in other territories.And sure, probably on the 2nd point. I mean, we are seeing manufacturers shift focus a bit away from pushing subs.​

 

[Unknown?]

No wonder it is now, "an option."

 

[WoJ]

Shocking. I remember a few years ago when those of us questioning the gamepass strategy were told how wrong and dumb we were.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Also, all the Xbox fans in here seem to be creaming themselves over the Oblivion remaster, but took great outrage with TLOU1 Remake and Horizon Zero Dawn, which were both far superior in quality. Which is it? Are remakes good only when Xbox does it and cashgrabs when Sony does it?

Oblivion Remaster is on GP. The Sony games you still got to pay for.

 

[QLQ]

Take notice, subs grew 12% in that Q4, but that's not all due to Game Pass and the whole growth didn't go to GP. GP growth played a major part thanks to CoD, but the 12% growth is not solely for GP but for all sub services combined.

 

[jm89]

No wonder it is now, "an option".

Makes me wonder if his words are a precursor to some change coming.

 

[IDKFA]

I used to think subscription and streaming were the future of gaming. I envisioned a future where Microsoft dominated gaming.

In this future, Microsoft made Gamepass compulsory and removed the option to buy and download games, making streaming the only option.

Other publishers existed, but they would be in a continuous and literal war with Microsoft. Small mercenary armies would be sent out to fight to take control of indy developers working from a 2 bed house.

I think I might have got my predictions wrong on that. It appears subscriptions and streaming are not the future.

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

If the service moved the needle or went above 40 million MS would be shouting it from the roof tops.

 

[bitbydeath]

If the service moved the needle or went above 40 million MS would be shouting it from the roof tops.

With the amount of people that moved on from Xbox to other platforms over the past 1-2 years, I wouldn't be surprised if it's under 20M by now.

 

[Deerock71]

This is where Microsoft has stolen the Mercedes and starts selling it off in parts.

 

[Sacred]

"so by official means, no one has any idea whether the service is growing or not."

So why make this thread? GP is in a prime spot right now with a boat load of great games releasing in the last several months.

 

[Mr Moose]

Overwatch?

 

[MandingoMcThickens]

Their Game Pass integration of all three of those games leaves a lot to be desired, Diablo's being the most annoying.

 

[Kotaro]

MS is a dumbass. With IPs like those, get rid of gamepass. Platform exclusivity business model like Nintendo is the way to go

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Why don't we do a little comparison of growth, say against Netflix. So what things look like without an opinion bias...

NETFLIX

| Year | Subscriber Count (millions) | Annual Growth (%) |
|------|-----------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| 2014 | 47.9 | ((47.9 – 35.6) / 35.6) × 100 ≈ **34.5%** |
| 2015 | 62.7 | ((62.7 – 47.9) / 47.9) × 100 ≈ **30.9%** |
| 2016 | 79.9 | ((79.9 – 62.7) / 62.7) × 100 ≈ **27.4%** |
| 2017 | 99.0 | ((99.0 – 79.9) / 79.9) × 100 ≈ **23.9%** |
| 2018 | 124.3 | ((124.3 – 99.0) / 99.0) × 100 ≈ **25.5%** |
| 2019 | 151.5 | ((151.5 – 124.3) / 124.3) × 100 ≈ **21.9%**|
| 2020 | 192.9 | ((192.9 – 151.5) / 151.5) × 100 ≈ **27.3%**|
| 2021 | 219.7 | ((219.7 – 192.9) / 192.9) × 100 ≈ **13.9%**|
| 2022 | 230.7 | ((230.7 – 219.7) / 219.7) × 100 ≈ **5.0%** |
| 2023 | 260.3 | ((260.3 – 230.7) / 230.7) × 100 ≈ **12.8%**|


GAME PASS

| Year | Estimated Subscribers (millions) | Annual Growth (%) |
|----------------|----------------------------------:|-----------------------------------------------|
| **2017** | 1.0 | – (Base year) |
| **2018** | 2.0 | ((2.0 − 1.0) / 1.0) × 100 ≈ **100%** |
| **2019** | 10.0 | ((10.0 − 2.0) / 2.0) × 100 ≈ **400%** |
| **2020** | 15.0 | ((15.0 − 10.0) / 10.0) × 100 = **50%** |
| **2021** | 18.0 | ((18.0 − 15.0) / 15.0) × 100 = **20%** |
| **2022** | 29.0 | ((29.0 − 18.0) / 18.0) × 100 ≈ **61%** |
| **2023** | 33.3 | ((33.3 − 29.0) / 29.0) × 100 ≈ **15%** |
| **2024 (Proj.)**| 38.0 | ((38.0 − 33.3) / 33.3) × 100 ≈ **14%** |
| **2025 (Proj.)**| 42.0 | ((42.0 − 38.0) / 38.0) × 100 ≈ **11%** |


Given the lack of content, red tape and missteps by MS/Xbox to get where they finally are in mid-late 2024 and now 2025 things are looking up IMO. Given the comparative rates against Netflix Xbox's growth rate is pretty steady and double digits. Is it critical mass? Given content dropping these days, to quote Chief, I'd say we're just getting started. *Fucking finally Xbox.

Shite article if you ask me.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

What am I missing? Game subscriptions is not just Game Pass. PSN is huge.

I don't see any data to backup that title.

 

[Mattyp]

How many times are we going to post this?

 

[saintjules]

No wonder it is now, "an option".

Yup. Just like it was an option for me to play Expedition 33 on there. I'll take what I can get.

 

[Sooner]

People don't want to rent games. Some games take people months to finish. You can often buy them cheaper than it cost to rent them on GP or PS+.

Not to mention, when you buy games, you buy the games you want. When you rent, you let them choose for you. And often, you still buy games not on GP, and pay for GP while not using it because you're playing the game you bought.

It's a much better idea in theory. In reality, an online subscription rental service is fine for TV shows, but not so much for games.

 

[Revolutionary]

Yup. Just like it was an option for me to play Expedition 33 on there. I'll take what I can get.

I didn't even know Clair Obscur was on Game Pass but I don't regret paying for it because this is the type of game that deserves support.
And I'm glad other people feel the same way since it's found great success despite being on GP