By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
SvennoJ on 20 January 2022
Edit Thread
Manlytears said:
SvennoJ said:

I anticipate a shift to mobile gaming. CoD mobile is raking in the dough, Diablo immortal is the next project for Blizzard. This acquisition will give MS (more) inroads with Tencent who helped develop CoD mobile. Plus now Candy Crush is also part of MS' portfolio.

MS will begin making more mobile spin offs of their big franchises, or rather make them more suitable for mobile gaming to prop up gamepass for smart phones. That's where you print money. There are 6 billion smart phones in the world. That's the big fish.

This is an interesting point and it makes me a little confused in their mobile strategy...

It always seemed to me that Xbox's goal was Gamepass and Xcloud, "Gaas" where players pay a subscription to play their games, use of "cloud games" where you don't need "certain hardware" to play ok... Then suddenly, they embrace a completely different model "F2P" with Candy Crush, CoD mobile, Diablo immortal.

Do they want to introduce subscription to play these games, similar to apple arcade? I honestly think it's a bad idea, f2P is king on cell phones and that's not going to change! I could be very wrong, but Gamepass and Xcloud don't really have much of a chance on mobile devices, they'll probably be successful on TVs in the living room, but not on cell phones and tablets.

honestly it seems to me that they want to invest in the 2 fronts, have F2P options and "Gaas" options.

Yep, Halo Infinite going f2p confused me as well. Perhaps there still is some tug of war going on at the top level. Maybe MS is just trying to put their eggs in all the baskets and see what works best.

It will be hard to get mobile phone users enrolled in a subscription model, but there are some ways. First as you said, seamlessly being able to continue at home on your tv is a big advantage. Plus the removal of all ads with a subscription and having access to a library of games that hasn't been on mobile phones before.

Anyway, you don't spend 69 billion to try to get some CoD players over to gamepass. Gamepass growth has not been hitting targets and just a percentage of the 6 billion smartphone market can provide some real growth.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/10/20/microsoft-missed-its-xbox-game-pass-targets-heres-why/?sh=97cd61040274
https://www.shacknews.com/article/128384/xbox-game-pass-misses-growth-goal-after-hitting-25-million-subscribers

Gamepass on console and PC couldn't have more going for it atm. The big games are out, people are stuck home again with the ongoing pandemic, Sony can't make more PS5 and has actually had to reduce production. The deals on GP have all reset and are as low as ever. (got my second $1 deal, this time for 3 months)

The mobile sector is the current/next target. Not enough growth nor revenue in the console/PC space.