I knew this game would be a hit from the start.

Sounds good I guess. That number doesn't really mean anything without a break down. I would like to see sales numbers or something along those lines.

Sunk my first Galleon last night. 2 vs 4 and I came out on top with the Sloop. So far I am loving the game. Grinding my way for the pirate legend title and I have not seen the Kraken.. yet.
The more content due in the future, this game can only get better.

How is it a "no brainer" there's many factors involved.

2m subscribing for one month is $20m. 1m purchasing the title at launch would be $60m. And let's not forget game pass gives you access to 150+ games so it can be said that not all that $20m is going to sea of thieves assuming they played any other title on the system that month.

There's a vast amount of information we don't have to make a "no brainer" assumption. How much of the gamepass revenue goes to third parties who put their games on the service for instance.

The fact is even if MS received 100% of the revenue, you can subscribe to game pass for $120 a year, so if MS release more than $120 of content that you would have bought at launch, 2 games basically, they're losing out on money, and that's assuming you have no breaks between subscription months also.

Umm.. Well, I would go with the 1 million copies sold ($60 mil) in one week versus counting "2m monthly paying subscribers" ($20 mil for first month and half) before the first week is even done.

There's a reason why mmos die off so much. They can't sustain a big enough player base. What really matters with game pass is how many tried the service for sea of thieves and how many will stay subscribed to it after the trial ends/done with the game. It hasn't been a month yet so we don't know if it being on that service was a positive for ms or the game. They're better off getting sales while it's at full price versus people using game pass to play it.

I think MS wants people to use gamepass instead and stay subbed. All the SoT ads have all been about gamepass.

It takes one person six months of being subbed to that service to equal one sale during the months after the game's release.

^ more than that Aeolus.
Because alot of these gamepass users, are people that where planning on useing the free trail for this game.

I hope SoT is not the first example of the new strategy of Microsoft, which will lead to the same results for every new game. Because with games avalaible day one with a 10$/euros subscription on game with pass,there will only be games as a service in the future, just like SoT. So only one kind of games with different settings, digital multiplayer only, and finaly microtransactions, only way to make money out of the games.

Thats great i will try it after i buxed the XOne X in the next weeks