[Bloomberg] Xbox's Hike on Game Pass Shows Cost of Lost 'Call of Duty' Sales (more than $300M across console/pc lost)

[Fatboi1]

Microsoft has never had successful hardware. Xbox wasn’t going to be any different

I’m glad you’re now seeing how bad of an idea “netflix of gaming” has always been because you were convinced subscription gaming was the future a couple years ago lol

It's literally MIND BLOWING how people were REALLY thinking GP was the way forward and that Sony should follow suit. Common sense was seen as "stannery" which just made me realize some people were completely blind. With Xbox fans, they were convinced and even when they tried to point the finger at Sony with Playstation Plus, we always was like " They're not going to do that, it's not sustainable." and look at where we're at now lol. Sony fans never proposed PS+ as the end all be all, it was just merely a "check this out this if you want..." kind of thing for us. I subbed to PS+ Premium just for two months to finish Tsushima and to try a couple of things. Already cancelled it, I'm not married to subscription plans and only will try it once in a blue moon.

 

[winb83]

Microsoft has never had successful hardware. Xbox wasn’t going to be any different

I’m glad you’re now seeing how bad of an idea “netflix of gaming” has always been because you were convinced subscription gaming was the future a couple years ago lol

Either gaming as we know it today is headed for a reckoning. The AAA game model as it is now has been driving up prices and having games that are catastrophic failures that close studios. Some of these games are taking upwards of 2/3rds a console generation to make. Game Pass might be having rough times but the status quo is as well.

I may have been wrong about what would happen with Game Pass but that still doesn’t change the fact that the status quo is untenable. So the future may not be Game Pass but it’s also not just going to be a continuation of what’s going on now. Eventually this will break.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Either gaming as we know it today is headed for a reckoning

Yeah yeah….

 

[Instant Classic]

Unsure how they measured the potential loss. There might've been people who wouldn't buy COD but ended up buying the game pass edition or a couple of season passes. I feel a game like COD makes most of their money from microtransactions

I think the idea of gamepass isn't a bad idea, but the service was always going to be doomed because it's growth relied on console sales. Xbox was unable to move enough units to make it work. Growth for the service on PC wasn't going to be there because the xbox store on PC isn't that smooth as steam or even epic game store. They needed to have the xbox app in a better state to possibly have PC gamers sub to the service. I'm sure many tried PC gamepass but it might've left a bad taste for them because the quality of service was behind steam. That part isn't talked about enough because that's another issue with Microsoft's incompetence.

Anyway, sub services rely on growth and Microsoft was never able to do that because most aren't choosing an xbox over playstation, and pc app isn't ready for prime time.

 

[winb83]

It's literally MIND BLOWING how people were REALLY thinking GP was the way forward and that Sony should follow suit. Common sense was seen as "stannery" which just made me realize some people were completely blind. With Xbox fans, they were convinced and even when they tried to point the finger at Sony with Playstation Plus, we always was like " They're not going to do that, it's not sustainable." and look at where we're at now lol. Sony fans never proposed PS+ as the end all be all, it was just merely a "check this out this if you want..." kind of thing for us. I subbed to PS+ Premium just for two months to finish Tsushima and to try a couple of things. Already cancelled it, I'm not married to subscription plans and only will try it once in a blue moon.

I guess you're saying Sony's choice for "the way forward" was just smarter than Microsoft's? The biggest AAA failure in gaming history in Concord and mountains of cancelled projects as well as several high profile titles that are under major duress like Fairgames and Marathon. Both these companies tried to pivot and both failed at it.

The way you say it's common sense that Game Pass wasn't gonna work the same could be said about attempting to put out boatloads of live service games when there's only so much time in the day for people to play. The masses are already playing live service games on your platform. Ultimately the solution is just attempting to lure them to other live service games they'd be playing on your platform?

At least Game Pass had a theory of lower the entry price to grow the market behind it. That failed but there was a logic to it.

 

[Fatboi1]

I guess you're saying Sony's choice for "the way forward" was just smarter than Microsoft's? The biggest AAA failure in gaming history in Concord and mountains of cancelled projects as well as several high profile titles that are under major duress like Fairgames and Marathon. Both these companies tried to pivot and both failed at it.

The way you say it's common sense that Game Pass wasn't gonna work the same could be said about attempting to put out boatloads of live service games when there's only so much time in the day for people to play. The masses are already playing live service games on your platform. Ultimately the solution is just attempting to lure them to other live service games they'd be playing on your platform?

At least Game Pass had a theory of lower the entry price to grow the market behind it. That failed but there was a logic to it.

Concord is one failure, cancelled projects aren't projects that released and THEN bombed so it's not really an apt comparison to GP on top of a major acquisition. It'd be one thing if every supposed cancelled project from Sony was released after hundreds of millions was spent and then ultimately bombed shortly after. People saying GP wasn't going to work was just mathematics and the issue was that was a failure that was happening in real time.


Marathon isn't out yet as is Fairgames. A failed game is just that, a failed game. A failing BRAND/hardware is far worse. Also, people love to point at Concord but then ignore that Helldivers 2 was literally the opposite so it wasn't like every GAAS attempt from Sony was a steaming pile of shyt.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Also sony has had plenty of major gaming failures over the last 30 years (as well as Nintendo), it’s not really an apples to oranges comparison.

Xbox hasn’t had enough gaming success to outweigh its colossal failures. Also, when we talk success and failure a lot of Microsofts is insular to the North American region, not becoming a popular global brand is what ultimately doomed their hardware.

 

[The Mad Titan]

A subscription service had a price increase

Unheard of...

5 pages of Stan babble

 

[winb83]

Concord is one failure, cancelled projects aren't projects that released and THEN bombed so it's not really an apt comparison to GP on top of a major acquisition. It'd be one thing if every supposed cancelled project from Sony was released after hundreds of millions was spent and then ultimately shortly after. People saying GP wasn't going to work was just mathematics and the issue was that was a failure that was happening in real time.


Marathon isn't out yet as is Fairgames. A failed game is just that, a failed game. A failing BRAND/hardware is far worse.

It's not just a failed game. Sony was looking for that as a new direction and multiple projects related to it spun wheels for years and either didn't come out or failed completely. This was a pivot their fans didn't ask for and didn't want and it was just as obvious as Game Pass failure was if not more so.

Either way to what ends? The success of one live service game will come at the expense of another.

Game Pass didn't really cause the failure of Xbox hardware. Xbox had inherent problems that were leading to hardware failure well before Game Pass existed. If anything Game Pass ran into trouble because it was tethered to the hardware not the other way around. Nadella was prepared to cut the cord on Xbox before Spencer sold him on Game Pass. It's the primary reason Xbox even exist to this day. The pivot to 3rd party wouldn't have happened if Nadella got rid of Xbox like he was headed for.

 

[winb83]

A subscription service had a price increase

Unheard of...

5 pages of Stan babble

It's not just a price increase it's the beginning of a death spiral for day 1 games on that service. They hit a hard cap and the number isn't enough to justify having a game like CoD on that service. Their 30 million subs or whatever those people are not buying the game and the subscription revenue they're making off that capped number isn't making up for lost game sales revenue. If they can't get to 100 million subs or whatever they were shooting (spoiler they can't) for this has to stop because it's doing more harm than good.

 

[rdj]

A subscription service had a price increase

Unheard of...

5 pages of Stan babble

Dawg going up 10 dollars in one jump isn't something to dismiss...

 

[The Mad Titan]

Dawg going up 10 dollars in one jump isn't something to dismiss...

People voting with there dollars is the right way to handle things.

Just need some consistency, across the board.

Is it gamepass isn't sustainable or is it gamepass isn't worth it.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

 

[Fatboi1]

It's not just a failed game. Sony was looking for that as a new direction and multiple projects related to it spun wheels for years and either didn't come out or failed completely. This was a pivot their fans didn't ask for and didn't want and it was just as obvious as Game Pass failure was if not more so.

Either way to what ends? The success of one live service game will come at the expense of another.

Game Pass didn't really cause the failure of Xbox hardware. Xbox had inherent problems that were leading to hardware failure well before Game Pass existed. If anything Game Pass ran into trouble because it was tethered to the hardware not the other way around. Nadella was prepared to cut the cord on Xbox before Spencer sold him on Game Pass. It's the primary reason Xbox even exist to this day. The pivot to 3rd party wouldn't have happened if Nadella got rid of Xbox like he was headed for.

To my knowledge, I'm not sure how the few canceled live service games have anything to do with what fans wanted as fans are still getting what they wanted from first party titles.

We just got a new exclusive released and more in track for next year with Saros, Wolverine and Tokon. Not to mention we still have other third party exclusives too with one earlier this year.

The GAAS push from Sony didn't really come at the expense of other things. The one studio that people would've gotten mad at had the GAAS thing kept going was ND since they were supposed to release Factions with fans actually mad it was scrapped.

 

[The Mad Titan]

It's not just a price increase it's the beginning of a death spiral for day 1 games on that service. They hit a hard cap and the number isn't enough to justify having a game like CoD on that service. Their 30 million subs or whatever those people are not buying the game and the subscription revenue they're making off that capped number isn't making up for lost game sales revenue. If they can't get to 100 million subs or whatever they were shooting (spoiler they can't) for this has to stop because it's doing more harm than good.

I have post all over here saying changes are coming to gamepass because you get way too much for what you pay for, too me it seemed pretty obvious. It would be like having a subscription service at a high end restaurant that includes all you can eat buffet, free online deliveries, early access, VIP parking, and select free food from other restaurants, plus a rewards program that allowed you to pay for your subscription just buy going to eat there regularly.


Like with everything in ultimate It doesn't matter if it is or isn't profitable. The value you get compared to the price you pay is heavily skewed. It was never intended to stay the way it is.