What Microsoft should do to stay competitive.

[Teno]

JRPGfan said: Xbox needs to do two things (your thinking): 1) add a claim option (keep game forever, even with sub running out), for games you've beaten with Game Pass. 2) offer games exclusively inside Game Pass for at least one year. Not offering them for purchase. They can then sell them like this on all platforms (Nintendo, Steam, PlayStation). Making it possible but costly to avoid Game Pass.  That seems crazy to me. You would probably need to increase gamepass prices by a factor of like x3-5 to pay for all that. Also any game that comes out, flops in reviews, will not benefit from early adopters, that buy it. This would add risk to developements, and you've seen xbox's track record.  Imagine they do that with Call of Duty. That would anger so many users, some might be then forced to adapt, others will just go "I guess this is how CoD dies" and ignore it.  This could destroy alot of valuable IP / studios.  It just seems very risky to me.

Imagine instead of 9.99$ a month, it becomes 29.99$ or 49.99$ a month. Xbox go, "sure Teno, you can have that, it costs 30-50$ pr month" do you take that deal? Will enough others? will it grow gamepass subs?

1) My first point claiming games, doesn't need to be easy or limitless. They could limit it to 1 game per month and even require a special achievement or the "platinum" treatment, which would take a while for most games and less than 3% of players usually qualify for it. A managable risk, but something that strengthen's the platform, because player might start to buy more games on the platform.

2) Well I think it is clear, that they signed contracts with all major publishers for 10 years. Call of Duty isn't part of my plan here. Not before 2033. I also agree it's too risky for any multiplayer title. But without exclusive content, Game Pass can't grow fast enough. Game Pass is a scalable business because it relies on their in house studios. At 90-150 million subscribers the risk is decreasing rapidly. Even if it burn's some cash It needs to be achieved rather quickly.  It's often enough to have one hit up your sleeve to pay for the failures. Look at Ubisoft. Assassins Creed and some Far Cry releases are paying all their bills. Xbox also would gain a 12 month period for a "second" launch window when let's say Avowed comes to all other platforms. And looking at Cyberpunk. A good 2.0 update with DLC can work wonders on even a mediocre launched game.

Edit:

3) Since you added another line. My two short ideas are as mentioned above just directions, not fleshed out and defined in detail yet. But of cause they can't raise the prices, before they achieved at least 100 million subscribers. Growth has to be prioritized. Than they can raise their pricing. But not before people even start using it. I think core users often underestimate, that the most profitable GP users, pay but almost don't play.

Last edited by Teno - on 12 February 2024