this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
305 points (96.4% liked)
Gaming
19726 readers
687 users here now
Sub for any gaming related content!
Rules:
- 1: No spam or advertising. This basically means no linking to your own content on blogs, YouTube, Twitch, etc.
- 2: No bigotry or gatekeeping. This should be obvious, but neither of those things will be tolerated. This goes for linked content too; if the site has some heavy "anti-woke" energy, you probably shouldn't be posting it here.
- 3: No untagged game spoilers. If the game was recently released or not released at all yet, use the Spoiler tag (the little ⚠️ button) in the body text, and avoid typing spoilers in the title. It should also be avoided to openly talk about major story spoilers, even in old games.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is a bad take. Any and all large corporate mergers are bad.
Microsoft gaming strategy does benefit gamers. Which counteracts the problem of losing a competitor.
Microsoft doesnt care about profits on single products much compared to the grand strategy they follow. For example AoE4 and all the aoe franchise doesnt really give a lot of profit Microsoft would care about, yet they keep investing and updating it bc they like it and like the strategic benefit.
Not caring as strictly about profit means you dont get as many greedy microtransactions and more balanced approaches. The game pass is also a really cheap deal if you play variety
No subscription deal is ever a good financial decision long term and companies know that. Most people keep their subscriptions running and will end up paying more long term.
That's not even getting into the "ownership" vs renting aspect.
They already have cut benefits and raised prices. I expect more price raises in the coming years
They went up from $15 to $17 or so; the small single digit shift does kind of make me think they've eyed the big "2-0" as the price point where a lot of people might reconsider.
I'm certainly considering the benefit of it each month, and so far I've consciously decided to keep it. If it's ever poor value like Netflix, it's going (that said, Netflix has introduced enough shows that I have weighed whether to resubscribe)
They used to under 10, and sharable, now for me and 3 family members its 51 dollars...
Oh, I guess I was referring to Ultimate. I don’t think regular one-system pricing has gone up yet, it’s still $10. I’m just going for Ultimate for other perks.
They basic now includes ads...
Grandmas tend not to have gamepass
Grandmas, young people. Most people are notoriously far from financially savvy. Many overpay or fail to track their subscriptions.. If you didn't know at least one person paying for a subscription they didn't actually use in the last month I would be surprised.
You have to keep up with your gaming habits long term to keep up with the subscription costs, basically never replay anything (especially not long RPGs that can take you months to finish), not waste subscription time playing non-GamePass games, or remember to cancel. And Microsoft, like most subscription services, are banking on people maintaining subscriptions they aren't fully using.
My other stance is that Activision is so shitty to its workers and customers, let's give someone else a try
I just want to see Bobby Fucking Kotick gone.
Yeah he's a real piece of shit. That alone is a good reason
See, I agree with this angle, but at the same time it kind of feels like a Pyrrhic victory.
Microsoft doesnt have a bad track record in gaming and doesn't have greedy approaches. They like to dump money without forcing profits. It is a win for gamers
Eh, depending on where you're at, not so much is lost
Further consolidation is a major loss
Correct.
This, I'm not quite understanding. What do you mean?
So far there's nothing that says this is a loss for anyone other than Sony not able to do exclusive COD things or keep COD off Game pass