Well, but obviously not in the first week especially at retail when people have the game already downloaded through game pass and only have to click "buy" when they like it.  

No doubt currently its not sustainable....  alot of that is probably due to promotions though.
1$ for gamepass is too little for it to be profitable.... its to grow the user base.

Once it becomes popular enough, they ll start hikeing the price up in steps.

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Game pass Ultimate is what they will look to push. They sign deals with indie games in there to last awhile and put their content in. Their games anchor the service and they generate ongoing revenue from the subscription. They can do a mix of games, including older titles, multiplayer focused, midtier indie stuff and base games that you buy DLC for.

What I want to see a push for and one of my eSports project is to run a league of competitive play for all content in subscription service. Appeal to general gamers as a test of skill.

Thanks to the incredible support from our fans, Gears 5 kicked off the Holiday season strong – attracting over three million players in its opening weekend and setting new records for Xbox Game Pass with the biggest launch week of any Xbox Game Studios title this generation. The performance easily doubled the first week’s debut of Gears of War 4 and made Gears 5 the most-played Xbox Game Studios title in its first week since 2012’s Halo 4. First week performance includes the four-day early access period beginning Friday, September 6, which was exclusive to Gears 5 Ultimate Edition and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members. On the PC, Gears 5 has nearly tripled the performance of its predecessor, becoming the biggest-ever launch for Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Xbox Game Studios’ best-ever debut on Steam.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/09/16/gears-5-breaks-records-as-biggest-launch-for-any-xbox-game-studios-game-this-generation/