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[Draugoth]

Data from Circana (formerly NPD) shows that consumer spending in the sector has completely plateaued.

While more and more people signed up to services like Xbox Game Pass during the pandemic, revenue has peaked at around $400 million per month – after first reaching that figure in November 2021, almost two years ago. Games Industry.biz elaborates: "Subscription fatigue, fewer available dollars for discretionary spending due to higher food and gas prices, slow mass market adoption of cloud gaming, and a strong slate of new premium releases may be contributing factors to the slowdown."

PS Plus, Xbox Game Pass Spending Has Completely Plateaued in USA

Future imperfect

www.pushsquare.com

 

[The Cockatrice]

Considering the price hike I hope they sink below earth.

 

[Saber]

As it should. Subscription should be little complementary to games, not a trend.

 

[StueyDuck]

I'd say wait until at least after starfield because I imagine a spike then...

But I'm also not entirely shocked, gaming is the most popular it's ever been but its becoming far more expensive too as things progress

 

[Montauk]

We already have a thread on this don't we?

 

[bender]

 

[Killer8]

a strong slate of new premium releases

Doesn't really make sense as a reason especially for Game Pass. Every 'premium release' Microsoft puts out automatically goes on XGP as part of the sub. It makes more sense that a lack of premium releases is hurting the service as people unsubscribe due to a lack of meaningful content.

Will be interesting to see how the price hikes for both services impacts not only subscriber counts but more importantly revenue.

 

[acm2000]

there were so few first party games what do you expect? the next 3 months will be the test tho.

 

[Crayon]

Nu-Terfing might have distorted the reality of the terminally online but one thing I learned in my hellish years of retail is that nice stuff makes more money. Not just because the margin is higher but because the customers who pay for nicer stuff also buy more stuff.

Of the last games I can remember buying, none of them were available on subscription. Now some of the games I'd already bought showed up long after but if I want to play a game, I'm not going to wait around to see if it comes up on a sub. That's actually the true value of day one on gamepass. The first party has been weak but at least you know what's coming well ahead of time.

I still beleive subs will grow slowly for better or worse, but the reach just isn't there right now. And maybe never will be as I think the bet on converting mobile gamers is tragically misguided. The rise of f2p has surely made a massive dent, too. Despite what's been hammered into your ears from hanging out online, a sub is not neccessarily an "insane value" irl.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Its also because the rate of output of new games increased since last year. If you look at 2023, we've had seen games like Dead space, RE4, SF6, BG3, Diablo 4, FFXVI, AC6 with more to come and none of these games will be available on subscriptions day one. Only Starfield is a day one GP title.

So I think there is less incentive to sub unless you want to play some smaller games, older games or indies.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Read this in another thread.
Last week.

 

[Pelta88]

Author forgot to add "Until Christmas" in his title.

 

[Banjo64]

Good. Get back to making games on a 3 year cycle now please. The experiment is over and you're spending too much per game.

 

[Fake]

Good. Fuck this mentality of paying sub just for playing online with should be by free from the start btw.

 

[docchicken]

Subscription services are meeting their inevitable doom. Good

 

[MirageMew2]

2023 is the first year we've really gotten into the swing of major $70+ releases. This year alone I've personally purchased EA editions of Hogwarts and Diablo 4. Makes cents.

 

[Osthyvel]

Every console should have a tier for only playing online, thats a no brainer, but not everyone offers that.....

I am stacked on psplus 2 years but after that i dont know...

I can pay for online only, maybe around 40$/year thats ok.