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"Xbox Game Pass Standard" is launching in September

Guy will now spend the next 10 days scanning your entire posts history lol.

Will Ferrell Lol GIF
 

Sanepar

Member
If you really think PC gamers will save Gamepass...just go and take a look at the most played games on Steam. They are all F2P games.

And "they will need more time"? Gamepass is 7 years old already. How long can MS keep up a failing subscription service? If 2 years ago someone told you MS was about to release their stuff on Playstation 5 and starting to clearly move towards PC more and consoles second no one would believe that. Yet here we are: MS consoles are failing to sell like never before, all MS games selling well now are 3rd party Activision releases (basically games they just bought...and didn't participate in their development) or Sea of Thieves that just released on...PS5.

This year will be a huge test for MS...whatever COD does on Gamepass will dictate what will happen to the service. There's no bigger franchise out there than that one (except for GTA)...if Gamepass not only fails to gain subscribers but also if COD loses lots of sales (or revenue) because it's Gamepass day one, you can bet your ass Gamepass will be considered a failed experience for MS.
I don't believe on that but they have money to try anything. For me gamepass is a stupid model to consume games and a bad product.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
Here in the UK it seems to push you towards monthly and to Ultimate. I'm sure there must be other options and ways, but its not intuitive to just get Core for example, or yearly.

This is what I get when looking to join from outside my account and just clicking to join gamepass:

skmfUnb.jpeg

And from my account. The yearly or Core options simply aren't given:

GxSPIxz.jpeg
This and them making it harder to do annual subs when it was Gold flew so far under the radar.

And so many just accepted it because Its The Best Deal in Gaming.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
It's not a different topic, it's all under the same umbrella.

They lied about the impact of gamepass on game sales as a means of making content acquisition from 3rd parties easier and they got prominent journalists and analysts to do their bidding.



We've had "it's sustainable", "it's profitable for us" along with "it increases game sales".

It was all a lie, top to bottom.


Again, the difference is time. The ‘Gamepass increases sales’ talk came from a 2018 interview and used data from FH4 and State of Decay, older games from 2018 at a time when GP subscriber count was much lower than it peaked at. There were about 4 million GP subscribers when that statement was first made.

Things change. And we can’t rule out Spencer upselling the service for easier content acquisition. But if you have proof of Phil making this same claim in more recent years, feel free to share.

Why in the world would that tweet now be deleted? :messenger_smirking:

Yes the discussion about GP sustainability and what is doing to the industry has been discussed before 2023 fish brain.

And it shows that these butt smooching Analysts have been willingly blind.

Mat now: " true for a while"

The conversation I was engaged in talked about Mat suddenly pivoting to say GP or subscription services aren’t the future of gaming. Meanwhile there’s hard proof that he’s long talked about sub services peaking, with growth slowing significantly.

People who whine about lies shouldn’t be here pushing lies.
 
Nah this was their plan (I know it's a bit long, but read the whole post for the full picture):


Hence the "spend Sony out of business" and the hopes of acquiring Nintendo (they hoped all this would put them in a compromising position to the point where their market value drops substantially and they become vulnerable to shareholder manipulation).

But here we are just a couple of years later and what actually happened was both Sony and Nintendo sat back and left them to it when it comes to the most financially irresponsible elements (day one first party titles and encouraging your customers to only subscribe and no longer purchase games) of this business model.

wAHrc5M.jpeg
OPGLbJX.gif
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Well it was a great 5 years

40Oz Pour One Out GIF
Was it, really?

Game Pass subscribers shot at the start of the next-gen because Xbox showed a lot of games in their 2020 showcase, and most of them haven't even been released it yet (e.g., Fable, State of Decay 3, Everwild, Contraband, Perfect Dark, etc.). And the ones that did release did not live up to expectations (e.g., Forza, Starfield, etc.)

So people kind of wasted a lot of their money on promises that never came to pass.
 
The conversation I was engaged in talked about Mat suddenly pivoting to say GP or subscription services aren’t the future of gaming. Meanwhile there’s hard proof that he’s long talked about sub services peaking, with growth slowing significantly.

People who whine about lies shouldn’t be here pushing lies.
Nothing to back your arguments...except of proving just Mats pivot.
Talk about lying with your friend chumdoog.
 
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I was an ult subscriber before -- I'll stay an ult subscriber. I do think it's needless confusing -- but it's not 'dead' lmao -- I don't understand people wanting GamePass to fail. If I'm willing to spend $20 a month instead of buying a new full price game every 3 months, what's the difference to you?

I usually buy COD every year -- so that's effectively 3 months it's 'worth it' for me -- so another 3 "full price" games that I enjoy in a year, and it's a wash.

I know I don't 'own' them -- but I (personally) don't care about that. If I like the game enough, I'll buy it when it goes on sale. I can't tell you how many games I've played, enjoyed, beaten on GamePass that I never would have spent the $60/$70 on.

TL;DR -- it's still a great service worth the money to me.
People here are just trying their best to whip up a frenzy, there's nothing here really but a negligible price rise and a new tier. It only affects people who want the successful premiere subscription service to fail :messenger_sunglasses:
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Nothing to back your arguments...except of proving just Mats pivot.
Talk about lying with your friend chumdoog.

You mean aside from sharing tweets from Mat back in 2023 where he said sub services are flatlining?

Perhaps the best way to help you is with big images, well labeled with numbers etc just to get you to a reasonable level of comprehension?
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Was it, really?

Game Pass subscribers shot at the start of the next-gen because Xbox showed a lot of games in their 2020 showcase, and most of them haven't even been released it yet (e.g., Fable, State of Decay 3, Everwild, Contraband, Perfect Dark, etc.). And the ones that did release did not live up to expectations (e.g., Forza, Starfield, etc.)

You think people entered multi-year GP subscriptions because of game trailers for games with no release dates? 🤣
 
You mean aside from sharing tweets from Mat back in 2023 where he said sub services are flatlining?

Perhaps the best way to help you is with big images, well labeled with numbers etc just to get you to a reasonable level of comprehension?
Nothing probably will help you...
rWVcGIc.png


But here is a try:
Mat was doing silly tweets before 2023 too.
 

Fess

Member
Yeah just pay £70 for one game, that savings for you 🙄
Depends how many games you play and for how long.

I played Starfield more or less nonstop for 3 months and then on and off for another 2 months, still jump in to try out updates or mods.

If I would add up the subscription fee for that many months it would no doubt be more expensive than just buying it on Steam (which I did).

If I had jumped around on a number of other Gamepass titles and shorter games I would only play once then a Gamepass sub would’ve been cheaper.
 

eerik9000

Member
I still remember people saying Nintendo and Sony needed to adapt or get left behind (regarding sub services like Game Pass). It must be a critical situation if even the talking heads on Twitter are finally being honest about the 'best deal in gaming'.
Sony has had a subscription service years before Game Pass even existed, it's called PlayStation Now (later rebranded to PlayStation Plus). Somehow, Sony's math showed that putting expensive games there on day one was not worth it, and that selling games while taking 30% commission fee on everything is more profitable.
 

clarky

Gold Member
Was it, really?

Game Pass subscribers shot at the start of the next-gen because Xbox showed a lot of games in their 2020 showcase, and most of them haven't even been released it yet (e.g., Fable, State of Decay 3, Everwild, Contraband, Perfect Dark, etc.). And the ones that did release did not live up to expectations (e.g., Forza, Starfield, etc.)

So people kind of wasted a lot of their money on promises that never came to pass.
Regardless of what MS did (or rather didn't) deliver on the First party front Gamepass has been great value for the last 5 odd years. Shame it cost them their console brand lol
 

eerik9000

Member
Game Pass subscribers shot at the start of the next-gen because Xbox showed a lot of games in their 2020 showcase, and most of them haven't even been released it yet (e.g., Fable, State of Decay 3, Everwild, Contraband, Perfect Dark, etc.). And the ones that did release did not live up to expectations (e.g., Forza, Starfield, etc.)

So people kind of wasted a lot of their money on promises that never came to pass.
Are you sure about that? My intel says that it was due to the pandemic and people staying at home spending more time and money on video games. Once the lockdowns eased and world started opening up again, that spending drastically dropped industry-wide.
 

King Dazzar

Member
People here are just trying their best to whip up a frenzy, there's nothing here really but a negligible price rise and a new tier. It only affects people who want the successful premiere subscription service to fail :messenger_sunglasses:
I stepped back from this all earlier. And thought, well for me who isn't into subs, as a customer I would surely just carry on as normal, i.e buying my games. So no problem right? Except when you look a little deeper, it does cause problems. The heavy sub focus and general mis management of Xbox has led to the chronic sales issues. Both games wise and hardware. To the point where by strategy seems to change like the wind and future hardware is very much a question mark. So even if I dont use GP, how can a customer feel secure and safely invest in purchases on their eco system...
 
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Bojanglez

The Amiga Brotherhood
Here is a nice thread for you 🤡:

MAT PISCATELLA (NPD): Still No Sign GamePass Cannibalizes Game Sales​

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
 

Nydius

Gold Member
i know there are not many left, but how don't xbox console owners revolt at this 5th class citizen treatment shit. lol
Revolt?

Out of morbid curiosity I checked the comments on this news on Xbox-centric Facebook outlets and Achievement sites and most of them are gobbling up the shit sandwich and asking for more.

Copium comments like:
  • “It’s still the best value in gaming”
  • “Everything is going up, no big deal”
  • “I wouldn’t mind if it was $25 a month”
  • “You still get the best games day one”
are all over the place on those outlets. The die hards will never revolt, only perform mental gymnastics.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
As always the best way to stay in business is to make a videogame and sell it to people. Subscription services don't work for entertainment. They work for Microsoft Office because every single white collar worker on the planet needs a word processor and spreadsheet software. There is no way you can release $250 million games like Shartfield and Call of Duty and give them away to people who sign up for $1 to play it and then cancel a week later. The math doesn't work, it never added up, people who pointed out the math didn't add up got shouted down by shills, but you can't outrun reality.

The only exception to this is if you were the first and default, like Netflix and Spotify. But Microsoft is not the first and default in either console or PC.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
Sony has had a subscription service years before Game Pass even existed, it's called PlayStation Now (later rebranded to PlayStation Plus). Somehow, Sony's math showed that putting expensive games there on day one was not worth it, and that selling games while taking 30% commission fee on everything is more profitable.

PlayStation Plus was launched in 2010. PS Now was launched as a separate service in 2014. PS+ was initially a game subscription service whereas PS Now was strictly streaming. But yeah.....at no point did Sony think day one releases on either was a good idea.
 
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skit_data

Member
I bet this will make the subs spike, lol.
It's gonna be real interesting to see the events unfold. I'm betting on them more or less scrapping Gamepass altogether unless somehow CoD brings the numbers and the churn somehow remains low.
 

Nydius

Gold Member
They work for Microsoft Office because every single white collar worker on the planet needs a word processor and spreadsheet software.

Slightly off topic but if more places could get past their enterprise fears of FOSS/GNU licensed software, even Office 365 could be in trouble. LibreOffice and OpenOffice have become strong competitors, and both are freeware. I’ve been using LibreOffice for years and going back to actual MS Office with their bloated setup and ribbon design makes me wince.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Slightly off topic but if more places could get past their enterprise fears of FOSS/GNU licensed software, even Office 365 could be in trouble. LibreOffice and OpenOffice have become strong competitors, and both are freeware. I’ve been using LibreOffice for years and going back to actual MS Office with their bloated setup and ribbon design makes me wince.
For small businesses, sure. But not for big ones, not just in terms of enterprise management but lock-in/knowledge from employees. If my company switched to LibreOffice, the cost in training/time/adjustment/slowdown far, far, FAR exceeds the actual dollar amount saved by moving from MS.
 

Nydius

Gold Member
For small businesses, sure. But not for big ones, not just in terms of enterprise management but lock-in/knowledge from employees. If my company switched to LibreOffice, the cost in training/time/adjustment/slowdown far, far, FAR exceeds the actual dollar amount saved by moving from MS.

If they went from MS Office to something else overnight, yeah, the productivity cost would be significant.

But if they properly managed a tiered rollout and gradually integrated it in stages, the productivity cost would be minimal compared to the long term cost savings of enterprise tier Office subscriptions or licenses. Especially since both freeware offices have support for existing MS Office formats.

I’ve gone through similar transitions in the past. It’s rough but can be managed, even in large scale businesses. “But muscle memory” is what companies like Microsoft and Adobe count on to keep people paying more for less.
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
Warzone isn’t the only COD MP. Pretty sure a very large portion of those buying this year’s Black Ops game are interested in the MP mode. For those, it’s never been just a $70 commitment.



You mean aside from the multiple times he posted that subscription growth had flattened?


P7MNjm8.jpeg
May 2024 isn't really a while now. He has played the numbers don't bear out on Gamepass cannibalising numbers for years. 2 months isn't the brag he thinks it is.
 
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