I expect a price increase to come to Game Pass but removing day one from the service completely would significantly harm the appeal of the service and potentially harm the console too, Xbox is going multiplatform whether we like it or not, whether Game Pass exists or not and we have people cheerleading to significantly weaken Game Pass, a key thing which sets Xbox apart from PlayStation, Lol.
Now I'm not opposed to making day one an Ultimate only perk but that's because I've always been on Ultimate and the vast majority are on Ultimate (70-80%) but there's other things they also need to do, firstly they need to figure out a way to merge Game Pass Console and Game Pass PC into one, the idea of splitting the two is dumb, there's not a Netflix TV and Netflix PC, it's just one subscription.
So it should be Game Pass Basic, Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate.
Core should be renamed into "Basic" because "Core" isn't clear enough branding.
They need a 1st party only offering to put on Steam, nobody wants to use Windows Store, take the L and accept defeat.
But Game Pass isn't the reason Sega, Sony, EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft, The Entire Industry, has had layoffs, nor is it the core reason why Xbox has had layoffs, it may not have grown as much as expected but nothing has and nothing would have done even if GP didn't exist and these layoffs would occur even if GP didn't exist because MS acquired ABK and saw what incredible profit margins can be achieved by focusing on a select few popular IPs.
Microsoft's own shitty explanation is that they were spread too thin with Tango and wanted to focus on their popular IPs, Tango notably being the only Japanese studio, goes against everything they've said about caring about Japan but it makes sense to a cynical business who wants to focus on spamming out Fallout/Elder Scrolls/Doom.
It's baffling, especially when you consider how few AAAs that Microsoft has released and various factors can be said of their underperformed before Game Pass, Forza Horizon 5 did amazing, Halo Infinite was F2P so irrelevant, they had nothing in 2022, Hi-Fi Rush was niche and sold poorly on PC/PS as well, Forza Motorsport was undercooked and Starfield isn't frigging Elder Scrolls and still sold great! Lol.
