shikamaru317 said:
The reasoning behind making it free vs locking it behind Gamepass would be that Gamepass costs twice as much as both Xbox Live Gold and Playstation Plus, they'd be putting themselves at a pricing disadvantage against Sony next gen, unless they start offering multi-month discounts on Gamepass like they always have on Gold. Also, online play for Xbox games on PC is free, even though those games are using the same servers as the Xbox versions, which is unfair to the console owners. So while they would be losing alot of Gold revenue by making online free, they would be giving themselves a major advantage over Sony next-gen in the form of free online play, and they could also put the money they were spending on 4 Games with Gold each month towards adding more games to Gamepass each month instead, boosting the value of Gamepass which would in turn boost Gamepass subscriber counts. |
Those free games are trash usually and probably cost microsoft a dollar. Microsoft knows console gamers will pay for online, but PC gamers won't because there is alternative services out there. The only reasons I can think of to make xbox live free is to get a leg up on the competition and because a lot of Microsoft's games are now GaaS. They might be able to generate more money by having customers buy DLC/Microtransactions from their games.
It would be amazing if Xbox One Series S / Lockhart launched with xbox game pass and had free online. All of this for the rumour price of $299. Even the hardcore playstation fans will give it a try for sure.
Last edited by Snoopy - on 26 July 2020
