Teno said:
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. |
MS spent $69 bn, on activision-blizzard, and another ~ $30 bn or something on other studios, in the past few years.
Thats alot of money.
Investors wont be happy, being told, this investment will only lead to loss of profits and devaluation of said studios/plublishers, over time.
(Ei. buy something, watch it devalue)
However, it wont last forever, we just need to hit 100m gamepass subs, before it "should" pay off, and we can then increase gamepass prices to cover the losses.
Gamepass subscription is currently somewhere between 20-30m (i got no idea, where on that scale).... and 100m is along way off.
How many years would it take, for to them hit 100m?
Investers will see, a protential for huge profit growth, by simply going 3rd party.
And ask, why not just cut losses on gamepass, instead of growing it as fast as possible, and then make tons of money from 3rd party sales (here and now) instead?