Xbox Game Pass has reached more than 35 million subscribers

Xbox really needs to invest more resources in Xcloud. The Game Pass library is great, but streaming games to your phone or whatever platform you want should totally be the future. IF they can finally get it working great. GeForce NOW is a good example of what Xbox needs to be doing. Flexibility in choosing framerate, resolution, bitrate, etc. And it looks amazing with barely any hitches. And even if it does lag, the stuttering doesn't break the game into a blurry mess like Xcloud constantly does. Imagine if the barrier to entry to the entire Game Pass catalog is just a screen that you most likely already have? And maybe a controller? That seems to be what they want it to be... but Xcloud just sucks so much dong that it's never going to get there at its current pace. Streaming could be the future if they just give it some extra love.

Yeah, yeah, there's the whole issue of not owning your games, and that does suck. But digital games have been a thing for a while now anyway. Streaming is just an evolution of how your existing library/Game pass can be delivered to you, but I think the instant-access-to-any-game promise is an overwhelming pro outweighing the cons.
Bro there is like 5 people on GeForce now, if had the same amount of users as xcloud it would be just as shit. Steaming is just not viable to replace consoles anytime soon, they should double down hardware, but ms don't like losing money so seems like they are winding down making hardware.
 
ROG Ally and potential future console plans might ramp this up quite a bit. Game Pass as it was known up until now and what it can be from now on are two different things.

No.
Death No GIF
 
Phil spencer is the worst gaming CEO in history. Went all in on gamepass and convinced Microsoft to spend around 80 billion for publishers to bolster it, just for the service to faceplant and for xbox to have to go third party. What a clown.

SpDnaXk.gif
 
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Phil spencer is the worst gaming CEO in history. Went all in on gamepass and convinced Microsoft to spend around 80 billion for publishers to bolster it, just for the service to faceplant and for xbox to have to go third party. What a clown.

SpDnaXk.gif

It's amazing people in this thread still don't understand what Microsoft's aim is, they're second highest in revenue only to Sony and considering the install base size difference not that far behind them at all only a couple billion per quarter.

It wouldn't surprise me if the end goal is gamepass on PS5 at this point. Software sales and subscription services is where the money is it's the reason they're the richest and largest company in the world. Hardware isn't it, it's a loss leader.

They don't care where you play games, they just want your money.
 
Lol. Any "source" with potentially negative Xbox news, won't be taken seriously by you.
But they eat up anything Jez Corden says.
Let's be honest, you guys know that this kind of information is just rounding off the number released in February 2024. No exact information could be released before MS, a leak of the exact number could bring legal implications, and this goes for journalists too.

This report is a nothingburger, but you can continue to take this seriously as negative "news" for Xbox and argue about it.
 
It's amazing people in this thread still don't understand what Microsoft's aim is, they're second highest in revenue only to Sony and considering the install base size difference not that far behind them at all only a couple billion per quarter.

It wouldn't surprise me if the end goal is gamepass on PS5 at this point. Software sales and subscription services is where the money is it's the reason they're the richest and largest company in the world. Hardware isn't it, it's a loss leader.

They don't care where you play games, they just want your money.
Gamepass will be available on PS5 for sure, like EA Play, but they need to continue to build up the portfolio first.
 
Maybe We're seeing Xbox go third party so that after they've released a good few titles on other platforms, they can they start doing a version of gamepass on those platforms.
Certainly one way of making those numbers creep up
 
It's amazing people in this thread still don't understand what Microsoft's aim is, they're second highest in revenue only to Sony and considering the install base size difference not that far behind them at all only a couple billion per quarter.
Supposedly. That's only because they're simultaneously a platform holder and a 3rd party publisher AND they've spent the last 7 years buying out quite literally half of the significant industry.

The question isn't just about revenues but cost. The overhead on all of this is way above Sony's in terms of percentage of revenues and even in absolute numbers, I promise you that.

It wouldn't surprise me if the end goal is gamepass on PS5 at this point. Software sales and subscription services is where the money is it's the reason they're the richest and largest company in the world. Hardware isn't it, it's a loss leader.
Sony isn't treating their hardware like a loss leader at this point and neither is MS. Besides, Sony will never allow Gamepass on their platform. It would destroy their business model, and seriously piss off other third parties. Someone needs somewhere to actually sell their games, and every year, PS pulls off the most unit sales at the highest average prices.

They don't care where you play games, they just want your money.
And they're clearly not getting enough of it.
 
As much as I like the idea of a Netflix style of Game pass, my experience in Windows has been nothing but bad. First, what is with that awful Windows app format? I tried playing Halo with my friend and everytime I had a glitch or error I need to redownload the game to "reverify". On the other hand it's amazing how Halo on Steam is a far better experience.
 
After all this time and expanding to PC, all they can muster is 35 million? Lol. And even that's after renaming live gold to gamepass. Once the series consoles are decomissioned these numbers will tank hard (as that is where the majority of gamepass and all "gold" subscribers come from).

People who think MS will be successful as a third party are in for a rude awakening. They are basically just "activision+" now, but with an extremely incompetent management team at the helm. Better hope all the kids still want to play call of duty for the next 10 years.
 
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Crazy they couldn't grow this thing much larger than it would be if Xbox Live hadn't gotten a name change. Think about it. They offered an entire platforms first party lineup for long term and too good to be true kind of deals. And I've seen people claim you can even pay monthly, cancel at end of month, and get full refund still (hysterical if true btw). They need complete overhaul of leadership in my opinion.
 
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This is not surprising really. Matt has been saying for a long time that sub services have stalled. If there were any real growth in GP he would be saying it.
Exactly. And because Game Pass is most popular in the US and Mat covers the US market, if GP growed, it could have had an impact on the US subscriptions market.

But no subscription has been growing.

Andor developer even told in an interview that Disney was not giving them the full budget money for Season 02. Disney literally said to him that "Streaming is dead now."
 
Assuming this to be true,

In addition to the report we got of cod's performance and gamepass growth due to it. It could mean either of the two things-

1. They have a very high churn rate. Even for cod, people subbed for a month or three and didn't resubscribed afterwards.

2. The linkedin profile doesn't contain updated numbers. The 35 mil in it is the last known userbase number publically revealed by ms and that's what the user put on his profile rather than the actual number of users it now has.

Considering how many studios ms has, I hope it is the later.
 
It's amazing people in this thread still don't understand what Microsoft's aim is, they're second highest in revenue only to Sony and considering the install base size difference not that far behind them at all only a couple billion per quarter.

It wouldn't surprise me if the end goal is gamepass on PS5 at this point. Software sales and subscription services is where the money is it's the reason they're the richest and largest company in the world. Hardware isn't it, it's a loss leader.

They don't care where you play games, they just want your money.
nicholas-cage-laugh.gif
 
Really does seem like Game Pass's total potential is like 40 million subscribers.


Which I don't really understand, particularly when people are so vocal about not being able to afford $70 and $80 games.
Can't afford doesn't equate to want to play.

I can afford Fortnite but I'm not touching that game.
 
Wow huge jump from the 34 million from February 2024, I guess buying Activion helped a lot
Wow such pathetic fanboy talk .

I would at guess the goal of Xbox is not just getting new subscribers, but also very importantly keeping a solid base of existing subscribers paying their subs each month
 
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Sony isn't treating their hardware like a loss leader at this point and neither is MS. Besides, Sony will never allow Gamepass on their platform. It would destroy their business model, and seriously piss off other third parties. Someone needs somewhere to actually sell their games, and every year, PS pulls off the most unit sales at the highest average prices.

How long do they have a say for? Everyone in Europe seems to bitch and moan about the App Store and so happy for alternative app stores to be legal requirement now what makes the PlayStation any different at all in this case?

It's the exact same scenario. You bought a piece of hardware you should be allowed to install games from anywhere you please no?

Don't be surprised to see this push and angle in the next few years.
 
Gamepass will be available on PS5 for sure, like EA Play, but they need to continue to build up the portfolio first.
Subscription service which offers new AAA day1(so ubi/ea sub and gamepass) conditions playerbase to stop buying games, especially AAA at launch, sony excecutives obviously dont want that plague to spread across their ecosystem, they already know how nasty consequences it had for xbox, both with terrible hardware and software sales, even MS with their crazy money/warchest and aquisitions had to bend to knee and go multiplat.
 
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To be honest that's not a bad number at all to have as a recurring income. Taking the absolute worst case scenario, say they only had 12 million people which are ultimate and full paying customers - this is likely to be higher but again worse case. 12m * 14.99 - 20% (VAT in UK but apply local taxes) and that equates to almost 145m a month. Multiply that by 12 and you get 1.75bn. I've left out currency but these values apply to US / UK currently.

That's quite a chunk of beans to pay for licensing / play-time and new acquisitions to the platform. I guess it must be working as the service recently only seems to be getting better with content both from MS and third-parties. I know people love to hate it, but it seems to make a lot of sense for them.
 
How long do they have a say for? Everyone in Europe seems to bitch and moan about the App Store and so happy for alternative app stores to be legal requirement now what makes the PlayStation any different at all in this case?

It's the exact same scenario. You bought a piece of hardware you should be allowed to install games from anywhere you please no?

Don't be surprised to see this push and angle in the next few years.
Destroying gaming through lawfare would be crazy, but I don't put it past MS. That being said, I have very high doubts that's going to work.
 
Destroying gaming through lawfare would be crazy, but I don't put it past MS. That being said, I have very high doubts that's going to work.

Do you agree with the EUs decision to allow other app stores on the iPhone but bypassing their 30% cut and moderation?

Thats the issue here, a lot of posters would be agreeable with wanting that and against Apples 'garden' but completely against Microsoft putting Gamepass on PlayStation when it's the same thing.

I think Microsoft seen the writing on the wall some time ago and that's when the huge buying spree began, they them selves have been fighting to get xcloud native on Apple devices for some time along with nvidia. Epic…

Why waste resources building and winning the hardware race when sooner or later you can just get all the software sales you want on said userbase…
 
Do you agree with the EUs decision to allow other app stores on the iPhone but bypassing their 30% cut and moderation?
No actually, I don't. I think Tim Sweeney's a money hungry ghoul with no sense of humility.

Thats the issue here, a lot of posters would be agreeable with wanting that and against Apples 'garden' but completely against Microsoft putting Gamepass on PlayStation when it's the same thing.
I love walled gardens and propriety. If Microsoft was going to bow out of gaming, I'd have preferred they'd done it with some dignity.

I think Microsoft seen the writing on the wall some time ago and that's when the huge buying spree began, they them selves have been fighting to get xcloud native on Apple devices for some time along with nvidia. Epic…
No, they are trying to write on the wall. They didn't see it coming. They'll just try to push the courts to flatten the playing field with their influence because they can't compete.

Why waste resources building and winning the hardware race when sooner or later you can just get all the software sales you want on said userbase…
Software sales are lower than ever for MS and their purchased subsidiaries right now despite being more universally available than ever. One has to ask the question why.

Like I said, what you're talking about would be the destruction of gaming as a medium. It's not even on some platform warz shit. It's an existential question for the medium as we know it.
 
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They developping games that need to be paid, all the games in the pipeline can cost billions, maintaining the whole Xbox servers, updates, etc, also cost money, they also spend up to 1 billion for external games to be added to the service. And to pay all of that, you have people who pay 10-20$ per month, or people who buy the games, which number gets lower and lower, as game pass is growing, but the drop is sales isn't compensiated by game pass growth, so they increase the price. And a big majority of game pass users are Xbox console users, which install base doesn't really grow nowadays. But you still have to pay people to make games, and more and more deals to keep your service relevant.

So yeah it's burining a lot of money to earn a bit. Could've work better if there were no day one games on it (or not like all big budget games), it would've help the service keeping a bit of more money.
So...what do the financials say at the end of the day
 
So...what do the financials say at the end of the day
They hide alot of information in their financials. So nobody knows exactly.

What we do know is microsoft are insecure about xbox failures, so when things go wrong they hide the information, e.g. they didn't give a hardware forecast for next quarter which might signal they longer report hardware revenue.
 
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That world where your average normie plays a game on tv or mobile instantly via gamepass streaming is when the service will grow and I don't think it'll happen in the forseeable future.
 
Pretty sure they say more than that. Also just as sure you dont have a clue. You are making vague points that dont add up to anything tangible.
You mistake "having a clue" with "sourcing with actual figures and balance sheet" which I don't, as Microsoft hides them.

The clues:
- as per the ABK trial, a majority of Game Pass users are on Xbox consoles, in order to grow Game Pass subscribers, they main focus was to sell more console, hence the Bethesda acquisition (after Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop were announced as PS5 exclusive, and so was about to be Starfield, Microsoft decided to just outright buy Zenimax to avoid that)
- After a very empty 2022 exclusives-wise (they only got Pentiment and As Dusk Falls - great games but not console sellers), hardware sales dropped significantly, especially when PS5 supply issue was fixed late 2022
- They bet very hard on Starfield, and then right after the fact that Starfield barely moved the needle, their played their last card: they heavily discounted the Series X late 2023 - the discount was so heavy that some on Installbase believed it would be first in NPD/Circana chart - ended up still being 3rd units wise - it didn't help either at the end
- At the same time, in case of "super discount" plan didn't work out, they were preparing the field for 1st party titles appearing on PS4/PS5 and Switch, and at the end we got the February update
-Since then, the whole PR went to "we need more studios to compete with Sony" to "everything everywhere all at once is an Xbox, and when everybody plays everybody wins, exclusives are dead" etc
 
You mistake "having a clue" with "sourcing with actual figures and balance sheet" which I don't, as Microsoft hides them.

The clues:
- as per the ABK trial, a majority of Game Pass users are on Xbox consoles, in order to grow Game Pass subscribers, they main focus was to sell more console, hence the Bethesda acquisition (after Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop were announced as PS5 exclusive, and so was about to be Starfield, Microsoft decided to just outright buy Zenimax to avoid that)
- After a very empty 2022 exclusives-wise (they only got Pentiment and As Dusk Falls - great games but not console sellers), hardware sales dropped significantly, especially when PS5 supply issue was fixed late 2022
- They bet very hard on Starfield, and then right after the fact that Starfield barely moved the needle, their played their last card: they heavily discounted the Series X late 2023 - the discount was so heavy that some on Installbase believed it would be first in NPD/Circana chart - ended up still being 3rd units wise - it didn't help either at the end
- At the same time, in case of "super discount" plan didn't work out, they were preparing the field for 1st party titles appearing on PS4/PS5 and Switch, and at the end we got the February update
-Since then, the whole PR went to "we need more studios to compete with Sony" to "everything everywhere all at once is an Xbox, and when everybody plays everybody wins, exclusives are dead" etc
Ok so you're saying that you dont know the financials because Microsoft hides it. I seem to remember earnings reports that seem to lay it out on this very forum. Shall I retrieve the threads or can you do your own research instead of relying on your "clues" Sherlock
 
In 2 years it will be 10 years since it launched.

Its been 8 years of this for some people:

Season 5 No GIF by The Office


How much of your lives are you going to waste on this? 10 years? 20 years? A life in the service of a plastic box?
 
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Ok so you're saying that you dont know the financials because Microsoft hides it. I seem to remember earnings reports that seem to lay it out on this very forum. Shall I retrieve the threads or can you do your own research instead of relying on your "clues" Sherlock
You know what they say about the Wise, the moon and the finger
 
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Let's be honest, you guys know that this kind of information is just rounding off the number released in February 2024. No exact information could be released before MS, a leak of the exact number could bring legal implications, and this goes for journalists too.

This report is a nothingburger, but you can continue to take this seriously as negative "news" for Xbox and argue about it.
Believe it or not, I seee this as a "potential" positive. If this paves the way for MS making Windows better for gaming or even better gives gamers a bloat free windows option then I'm all for it.

However, I have never been more clear about what I want or how I feel about Microsoft.
I want Gamepass to die and I want Steam OS or Linux to replace windows for gaming as I do not feel MS is competent enough to allow anything to thrive.
 
Ok so you're saying that you dont know the financials because Microsoft hides it. I seem to remember earnings reports that seem to lay it out on this very forum. Shall I retrieve the threads or can you do your own research instead of relying on your "clues" Sherlock
He also makes perfectly valid points.
 
How long do they have a say for? Everyone in Europe seems to bitch and moan about the App Store and so happy for alternative app stores to be legal requirement now what makes the PlayStation any different at all in this case?

It's the exact same scenario. You bought a piece of hardware you should be allowed to install games from anywhere you please no?

Don't be surprised to see this push and angle in the next few years.
As much as I think gaming would be better if all hardware was open, I don't think governments should decide this. The courts make a clear difference between general purpose devices like smartphones and between luxury devices like gaming systems.

If open gaming systems are truly better then I believe we will see that shift happen anyway. In fact, I'd say it's already happening with the growing popularity of PC gaming.

And you know that the US court has also forced Apple to change how their store works, right? In a different way than in the EU, but I would argue that the US ruling may be more damaging to Apple.
 
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