What is your opinion on gaming subscription services?

[Conina]

SvennoJ said:

For example Japanese devs a few years back for more niche games figured an XBox port was not worth the risk because it might not sell on the platform.  But by putting their games on gamepass, the risk is bypassed as they get an upfront payment from MS

How is this any different from the previous 'money hat' way, where certain devs get paid a certain amount up front to put their game on the console?

You really don't see a difference of paying/accepting money to keep a game / dlc away from other platforms and paying/accepting money to offer a game on additional platforms?