Looks like Microsoft is now entirely focusing on selling games rather than selling Xbox. I read somewhere that eventually they'll bring the Game Pass to Play Station and Nintendo. It's no surprise if they do so because last year they earned more money on Game Pass than selling hardware.
this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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The only reason anyone wants to sell consoles is to get you locked in that ecosystem and sell you games. They don't make a profit on the hardware, Xbox game pass is their headstart into purely game sales, well a subscription and cloud service that everyone is trying to jump on right now.
When they lock you into their hardware they get commission on third party game sales as well, or don’t have to pay other people commission on their first party game sales. Traditionally this is how console manufacturers made the bulk of their money but now Microsoft has game pass so they want to get it in front of as many people as possible I guess.
Admittedly, that's helped by them doing terribly at selling hardware.
But also, screw gamepass and the subscription model overall. If we're gonna crap on Ubisoft for their recent foot-in-mouth episode let's be consistent and call all of it out. I'm cool with this as long as I can keep buying these in boxes.
I honestly don’t hate game pass, it’s great for trying games id never even consider buying and if I really like the game and it’s off of game pass I would purchase it. Or if you have a group of friends that like to hop between co-op games you can do that too.
Like the Yakuza game series they have all of them currently on game pass, but the new one won’t be and I’ll definitely be buying the game.
But if it gets to the point where Ubisoft goes and every studio starts making their own, I don’t think that will work if they don’t have the game catalogue to support it, that would mean Ubisoft could just start churning out horrible games to build their stupid catalogue.
It's good now, but so was Netflix before everyone decided they needed their own streaming platform.
It actually floors me that people don't understand this. It's the tried and tested subscription model business plan.
Create a compelling service > gain market share > crush competition > ramp up prices and introduce anti-consumer policies
And contrary to popular belief, GamePass isn't making money. There's a reason MS are very tight-lipped about saying whether it's profitable or not, and why they hide GamePass within another segment in their financials.
Shit, look at the FTC leaks where Phil Spencer says nowhere near enough people have subscribed to GamePass to make it viable (no wonder they want it on more platforms!). Microsoft will up prices.
And people here will say "yeah but then I'll cancel, I already have a large game library" - yeah, you do. But a kid in 10 years that has no games library, only GamePass? He won't say "man, another GamePass price hike? I'm gonna cancel", because his choice is between another, say, £18 per month (I just went with what I was paying for Netflix, idk what it'll be), and having to drop several hundred/possibly over £1k just to get all the games he wants back. Games he will probably have to buy across 3+ different launchers.
Microsoft is in it for the long haul. Subscription Office software, GamePass, rumours of subscription options in Win12. MS doesn't want your money now, they want money from you continuously and from any family you build (remember: if you have kids, they'll use this stuff too, and you'll be paying for it... until they're an adult, then they'll be hooked on it and probably pay for it thereafter).
You'll be paying until the day you die and your children will pay from being 18 until they die.
That's the plan. It's sinister.
Sure, it has its uses. So do the subscriptions from Ubisoft or EA, though.
All I'm saying is that the digital distribution outlets that people like and have a good reputation (Game Pass, Steam) still have all the downsides that people love to get mad about in the alternatives they dislike. That doesn't mean you should refuse to use the ones you like, but you should probably keep an eye on the effects it has on the art form and the industry.
I do see that since it’s Ubisoft, they could still push for games on the subscription service but in reality I could see the games being loaded up with micro transactions.
Or it could turn into a convoluted game demo service, where you can play a portion of a game then they hit you with a pay wall, and since you’ve already played X% of a game they could view it as more likely to buy.
OK, but that's not how reality works, you're making up offenses that nobody has committed because you've decided a particular brand is "bad" while ignoring actual offenses from brands you like and so have decided are "good".
So no, I'm gonna have to say your hypotheticals don't make their offerings any worse (or better) than Microsoft's or Valve's. Now, the pricing and lack of content? Yeah, we can talk about those. But those don't have anything to do with preservation concerns, lack of ownership or content churn, which are all legit issues with all digital distribution and subscriptions.
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They’re horrible at making games too. Their biggest games have been IP conceived and developed externally and once they took them over they’ve run them into the ground of mediocrity. In over twenty years I don’t think any developer or franchise has benefited from Microsoft owning them.
I'm not sure who "they" is in this scenario. If it's Microsoft Games Studios... well, yeah, they're a publisher. You just described what a publisher is.
I think if we're talking about their recent publishing strategy they've certainly been on a bit of a rut. There's still some interesting stuff happening with their IP. They got Relic to make a surprsiingly faithful Age of Empires, people do like Microsoft Flight Sim, that type of thing. But still, yeah, they've made a lot of purchases and we haven't seen new games coming out from most of those to justify those purchases, which does speak to a bit of a struggle to find a direction. That Hellblade sequel looks intriguing, but for a publisher with a lot of fully owned studios that has been fighting claims of monopolistic practices for their high profile acquisitions their output from that stable hasn't picked up pace yet.
I get it, games take forever to make now. That Hellblade game has been marketed for as long as the Xbox Series has, and that came out in 2020. Still, that itself is a problem. If the big oil tanker is hard to steer you have to plan your turns before you get to the icebergs. I do genuinely hope they get it together, though. That's a lot of talent, IP and potential to let run on idle for too long. Or worse, to fail in the context of a major corporation and stop getting support.
They got Relic to make a surprsiingly faithful Age of Empires, people do like Microsoft Flight Sim, that type of thing.
"Their biggest games have been IP conceived and developed externally" so not really a counter argument to phillaholic when you mention two games outsourced to external developers.
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But also, screw gamepass and the subscription model overall.
If GamePass meant "you just get everything", I see a case for that but GamePass isn't that. It's "Here are a few Microsoft 1st party games scoring 7/10 other games cycle in and out like Netflix and you get no DLC so when you buy DLC and the game cycles out, you're out of luck"
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I wonder if Sony would allow gamepass in their ecosystem. That said, if this is true then we are likely to see Microsoft leave the console hardware market.
No fucking chance Sony's going to let a rival set up shop on their own consoles. Not even a possibility. Look at how much Apple and Google fought with Epic over keeping them off their phones. And that's just over a secondary app store on a device that can do a million different things that the parent companies can still find ways to monetize. You're talking about a competitor selling a subscription to bypass PlayStation's only source of sales. Sony will fight that with everything they've got and no cut of the subscription fees will ever be enough to change their minds.
I agree, they have no reason to allow it, specially to their biggest rival.
Microsoft has been betting on content delivery for a while now. They don't care how you play their games, they just want you playing them.
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They'd love to have GamePass on Switch and PS5 already, Nintendo and Sony are the roadblock because they don't want to lose the share of cash and hours of playtime on their own platforms.
Then there comes the EU rules. I think if Sony or Nintendo try to block the Game Pass on their platforms. MS will seek the EU's help.
Looks like Microsoft is now entirely focusing on selling games rather than selling Xbox.
If that were true, they would have discontinued Xbox already. You are falling for their lie that they aren't trying to lock people into a closed ecosystem.
Hardware is a race to the bottom, and MS is ultimately a software company first.
Especially since in the near future streaming games will be a thing. Amazon is already working on it.
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Would be massively surprised if this means anything else other than CoD which they got regulators worried about a little bit. they just want to reduce the eyeballs.
Yeah, don't think we're seeing a PS5 release of starfield any time soon.
So, at bare minimum COD will stay multiconsole. That's not surprising.
In order of least to most surprising to go multiconsole:
- COD
- Diablo
- Elder Scrolls
- Fallout
- Starfield
- Fable
- Halo
Definitely won't be all of them. Probably just a small set that are not huge money makers. They already publish some titles as third party, like Minecraft, Ori, and Lucky's Tale.
Guessing we just get ports of, like, Hi-Fi Rush and Psychonauts, and continued support of some Activision titles that are 3rd party like Diablo 4, Spyro, Crash, and a token Call of Duty game.
I’m sure this is certainly meant for ABK games.
Earlier, multiple sources had indicated that Xbox is looking to foray into third party development, with ports of several first party titles rumored to arrive on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2
So I guess they know more about the next Switch console than the rest of us.
They would have to if they plan to make anything for its launch. Least of which would be the specifications of the hardware.
Aside all other legitimate concerns mine is mostly that they'll use the MS store on PC...
Would be missing out on too much revenue, they all come back to Steam every time they try their own stores (which MS did already).
They tried this and found it didn't work.
They tried for like a decade before finally giving up. Microsoft has learned a lot of lessons while trying to work on their gaming arm, and some of them have actually stuck. I would expect titles to be sold on Steam until Phil Spencer retires.
I would love to play some Gears of War on my PlayStation, but only if you could buy the physical game and not play through a subscription service like GamePass.
I am very pessimistic about that ever happening but i would love to be wrong. I dont think they have much incentive to make all those physical copies unfortunately
It would still be money into their account even if a subscription model might be better for them. But since, I wouldn’t be subscribing to anything related to Microsoft they would gain less money from me that way..
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I'm not getting my hopes up for the upcoming Fable installment on PS, but I'm getting my hopes up for the upcoming Fable installment on PS.
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