cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/games@lemmy.world/p/869515/game-pass-was-supposed-to-save-xbox-instead-its-killing-the-company
“Netflix for games” has proven to be far from the ideal solution.
…It’sKilling the Company
Wow, so Microsoft has zero profit this year, huh? How the mighty have fallen.
GamePass is killing Microsoft? I don’t think so. And Xbox is not a company. The company that own Xbox is Microsoft.
Look at you expecting quality journalism from IGN.
oh ok how’s that price hike going?
I’m actually really surprised this didn’t work. They had acquired such a large amount of quality studios, IPs and a huge back catalogue. They had enough money to keep the subscription low indefinitely. Getting added to the Game Pass was a huge deal for indie devs at one point, but I think those who did were disapointed with returns.
Granted the article says they dropped 300 million on Jedi Survivor and Suicide Squad… which gets to the point of how unsustainable subscription models are. It’s like a smaller version of the Ai market. Just like how you can’t break even on 300 million selling a $10 a month subscription, you can’t break even on $30 billion investments with the same $10 subscription.
Still, how could you possibly mess this up. lol
Welp, one way to screw up is to buy shitloads of studios, then do absolutely nothing with them.
It is utter insanity that they have owned Bethesda this long, released two seasons of Fallout on TV, and have given fans NOTHING on the game front.
Fallout 76 does not count for 95% of the fan base.
Microsoft and Xbox have been more stupid that just about any company I can think of.
It was great when I first got it, but I ended but getting fatigued with it. New releases wanted time investment, but the rising costs meant I felt I should play more stuff. In the end everything I wanted to play required time and I felt that I was no longer getting value out of it. It would have cost less to not have it and just buy the game for some titles.
I think that’s how it went down for most people.
I remember getting free games with Gold back on the 360 and One. Eventually they became unplayable without the subscription. Kinda enshitified.
There’s just something about your progression being tied to a subscription that makes you want to invest less in the game.
I was subscribed to them for months and forgot about it, but then they tried to charge me like $30 and all of a sudden, I remembered my password, and told them metaphorically where they can fuck off by unsubscribing myself permanently.
They would have gotten more from me had they not been greedy.
Had to hunt for that cancel button myself what a pain
Dear Capitalists,
Choke on your own subscriptions!
🎻
Lol
Gamepass never made sense to me as a product. Games make most their sales money in the first few months, but MS gave them away as day 1 additions. Games are heavily monetized with dlc, but a rotating catalog makes buying any less desirable since you could lose access unless you bought the game as well. The subscription seemed to push sales at you, but that’s a turn off for consumers. The used game market was still a thing, a 6 month subscription is less value than spending the same on a handful of games to keep permanently.
I’m not sure how it could succeed unless they stopped selling games at all for Xbox, which would probably kill it faster.
