Zippy6 said:
I'm sure someone is looking at each release and saying "ok how much did we spend making this and how much did it make back?". With the gamepass model this may give a very negative look at the return. They could think "Ok it sold very little and we didn't see an increase in gamepass subs so it's a failure." But of course you also need content to maintain existing subscriptions. If they're expecting an instant return on investment from their released titles then they don't understand the own business model they've created, and if they were expecting Hi-Fi Rush to provide a decent boost of new subscribers they'd also be mistaken. Basically success for them now should be based on hours played by subscribers. I do wonder what is happening with Gamepass numbers though, we haven't had an update in a long time and NPD is saying subscription sales are down this year, though this number includes PS+/NSO too. It wouldn't surprise me if the number of GP subscribers are lower now than they were a year ago. MS reported 18m subscribers Jan 2021 and 25m subscribers Jan 2022 just after Halo but have not reported the number of subs this year which isn't a good sign, but expected when you have a year without producing 1st party content for it. It'd be like Netflix not releasing anything for a year and just getting shows that are available elsewhere instead. |
Bold is funny and true.
Cause yeah, if Xbox is disappointed then I'm lost. Hi-Fi Rush wasn't going to sell gangbusters, it was perfectly designed as a Game Pass drop (marketing wise) and for a number of other reasons that I've mentioned, it would have never sold a ton.
I'm at a loss, I think either Grubb was told this by some lower position dude just looking at financial data on a piece of paper or it has to be Bethesda who were disappointed in the sales because they aren't in the Game Pass mindset yet, for Xbox to be disappointed it would completely go against the business model they created and defy logic.
Hell, I think even if it's Bethesda who are disappointed, they've being a bit dumb, Lol. But they probably aren't feeling good as a company after a series of multiple flops, even if they don't have to worry about that so much under Xbox now, it's maybe still a bit disheartening if you aren't looking at the bigger picture (I.E. Game Pass).
Game Pass has definitely stagnated but no surprise when there's been no AAAs for 16 months, they could do things to combat it but they seem okay with waiting for ABK to close so they can shove CoD, Diablo, etc. into Game Pass and Starfield should provide a boost.
Issue is though, Game Pass on Console has a limited ceiling, I doubt many are playing their Xbox One's still so Game Pass growth is restricted by Xbox hardware and they've got to be disappointed by PC Game Pass but it's no surprise when the Windows Store was awful for years, if they want Game Pass to continue growing they have to do 3 things.
- Improve console supply.
- Release AAAs consistently.
- Release Game Pass on Steam
Some will pushback on Steam/Game Pass but I think it's too late to convince people in large numbers to come over to Windows Store even if they made it brilliant, Steam won their position in the market fairly and people like Steam for good reason, they're entrenched in the Steam ecosystem, Game Pass on PC needs Steam, Imho.
