| Ryuu96 said: 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.
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. |
Yes with Xbox console sales declining this year it does hurt the GP audience. GP has a very high potential on PC I don't really know how well it is performing there. The problem with PC subscription though is literally anyone could become competition. Epic, Valve even Sony could release a subscription service for PC games, at least with Xbox it's only GP and whatever MS choose to allow on their platform and also the advantage of bundling gold with it.
Looking at player numbers on a site like exophase could give an indication of GP PC performance compared to Steam, but most games combine xbox+windows player numbers so only works on a few.
| Game | Windows (GP) Players Tracked | Steam Players Tracked |
| Age of Empires DE | 6,417 | 5,323 |
| Age of Empires II:DE | 26,912 | 31,923 |
| Age of Empires III:DE | 6,604 | 10,140 |
| Age of Empires IV | 17,333 | 12,679 |
| Microsoft Flight Simulator | 39,389 | 7,237 |
| The Outer Worlds | 20,841 | 16,022 |
| Wasteland 3 | 4,909 | 9,796 |
If MS did release GP on steam it would not doubt have to be a separate "Gamepass for Steam" subscription like EA Play for steam is separate to the sub on other platforms. Valve will want their cut after all and if Valve determine the money they'll get from GP will be less than what they'd get from the cut from game sales (mainly in regards to non-ms titles here) they also wouldn't allow it. A 1st party only sub for steam would be more likely to be approved by Valve.
