I've got to hand it to EA though, they aren't just being lax and keeping up the status quo. Just in the last year or so, they acquired Codemasters, they announced that DICE LA will no longer be a DICE support studio but will become Ripple Effect Studios lead by former Infinity Ward and Respawn head Vince Zampella working on a new AAA IP after Battlefield 2042 releases, they announced a new AAA action-adventure studio lead by former Monolith (Middle-Earth: Shadow of series) head Kevin Stephens, and now this new AAA studio lead by Marcus Lehto of Bungie fame. That's 4 new AAA teams for EA in less than a year.

It really feels like EA is trying to improve here lately. They are no longer vying for the spot of worst AAA publisher at least, it's pretty much unanimously agreed that Activision-Blizzard is now the worst AAA publisher, between making all of their Activision studios CoD support and abandoning IP's like Tony Hawk and Crash, and the sexual harassment culture at Blizzard. 

August was delayed 2 months later. With 9 - 10 months to go, they could've easily revised their numbers. They didn't, which suggests they felt they could still hit it.

Still, growth is growth, even if it is a little slower than expected. They should see a strong increase this holiday season I'm sure.

Yeah, if it is tied up like that then perhaps it's more difficult (or less likely for anyone to try) to change it. I saw your further post where it seems MS might've been a lot more aggressive in the first place. 

Well yes, that may be so, but the delay of Halo was so close to the original target announcement. I still feel they could've done it. But I also don't think this is a major issue or anything. But I do look forward to seeing their next financial report. 

I'll say again, something seems badly off with these latest numbers. They had 80% growth in just 9 months between the quarter ending March 2020 and the quarter ending January 2021, from 10m to 18m in 9 months, yet somehow growth from June 2020-June 2021 is just 37% percent? It just doesn't check out with anything resembling logic. Sub growth doesn't just fall off a cliff like that, especially since MS was doing even bigger things to grow gamepass on that 2nd window than on the first, like 2 day one AAA 3rd party games, Outriders and MLB The Show.

Only other possibility that I can think of is that the early 80% growth in 9 months was referring to peak sub counts only, rather than long term sub counts, so it was counting people who got the $1 Gamepass deal and such and people who subbed for just 1 month and then quit, whereas this 2nd 37% number is long term subscriber growth, people who sub long term either with multi-month cards or who turn on monthly bank account withdrawals.

Either way, it definitely seems like MS needs to be doing more to grow gamepass than they have been. It's time to go for day one gamepass on an even bigger AAA 3rd party than Outriders, MLB The Show, STALKER 2, etc. We're talking something like Elden Ring in February 2022, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands in March 2022, or Hogwart's Mystery in late 2022, a AAA game that has 10m+ copy lifetime selling potential across all platforms. If MS does indeed have billions set aside for Gamepass deals as rumored, they can afford it, and they need a big hook to get growth back up to large numbers again. 

Early 2022 looks dead AF...Again, I can't really see much.

• As Dusk Falls
• Grounded

2nd half should be decent.

• Redfall
• Forza Motorsport
• Starfield

Still a bit light, they have a month they could fill, maybe something is announced next E3 for whatever month is free. 2023 should be when things kick into gear, according to Grubb's document on Xbox's internal dates it has.

• Avowed
• Fable
• Perfect Dark
• Everwild
• Hellblade 2
• Contraband
• InXile's IP
• Compulsion Games IP
• The Coalition Next IP

Some of that stuff doesn't seem likely though, like Everwild and InXile's IP but I think the rest are real possibilities and even with a few delays it should still make for a nice year.