When did the question of how SoT is doing become about how Gamepass is doing, then about how Xbox Live is doing? The implication seems to be that it doesn't matter as long as Microsoft is making money, which simply isn't true. Microsoft certainly cares, I assure you, or else they wouldn't have cancelled other projects.
Microsoft games still have budgets and goals.
None of which is to say that SoT isn't doing well or that it isn't contributing to the success of Gamepass, it's just that trying to obscure things behind the success of the overall brand isn't very conducive toward understanding the individual elements themselves.
Of course, we probably are looking at a situation similar to Sony's philosophy, where they are quite willing to take some losses on software as long as those titles contribute to the desirability of the platform. That's an easier situation to analyse, however. With Gamepass, we're looking at a LOT of developers and publishers who need to get paid, which complicates matters greatly. We just don't know what kind of metrics Microsoft is looking for and they certainly aren't going to tell us.
