Game Pass is a win for the consumer, for now. It's good for the industry as long as MS keeps subsidizing it.

However, I paid $120 for FS2020, been playing it almost daily for 15 months now and will keep playing it for as long as it sticks around. 15*15 = $225, already saved $105 buy buying the premium deluxe version day one (Gamepass doesn't have the premium deluxe version btw. It's an expensive upgrade $85 and you still lose access to that when cancelling gamepass)

I've played other games of course, none are on gamepass, most I wanted physical editions to keep.

It's a great deal if you like the library on offer and play a little bit of a lot of games. I play a lot of a few games and GP doesn't overlap much with my tastes. Not a great deal in that case.

Anyway those looking foolish are those that have to promote/defend game pass at every twist and turn. Why so insecure when it's such a great service. It's starting to become a religion at this point. I get it, it's Q4, XBox time to shine, two of its most popular games just came out. Enjoy it instead of worrying about whether everyone likes GP yet.

I might pick up Halo Infinite after co-op is finished and I can get my hands on a Series X slim. No rush as I only want to play local co-op anyway. It will be the physical release however, definitely looks like one to keep. After finishing the digital version of TLOU2 yesterday I'll be buying the physical version to keep. I bought it digitally because of the pandemic, but regret that now. Amazing game.

He now, only Sony sacrifices goats to promote a new game :p

I just wonder how much it actually does for less mainstream games. It's like FS2020 is already forgotten again. The GOTY edition just came out with the first huge expansion to almost zero noise, 4 comments...
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-11-19-flight-simulators-competitive-multiplayer-dlc-and-big-free-goty-update-are-out-now
Sure the upcoming Halo release is taking all the attention away but still kinda disappointed how quickly FS2020 sank to the background after all the trouble Asobo and players went through with the XBox release.

https://steamcharts.com/app/1250410
It did bring some players back, on Steam peak of 14K concurrent players, up from 10K the 2 months before. Is there such a stat for the XBox ecosystem? I'm curious what the split is. There should be far more players on the XBox side with gamepass but I can't find any metrics.
I'm sure the unique player count is quite high, yet how many return and actually keep playing the game and bring in revenue on the marketplace.

Anyway, back to testing the Goty edition, DX12 isn't doing well so far, using a lot more VRAM and overall lower fps after the update. DX11 is definitely better for now but a bit more demanding on the CPU since the update.

Pretty much. And like you OP states its a subscription service, very much like PS Now, Google Stadia, etc. I think its a great value for the sheer library of new games. Though its not for everyone and people get too worked up about it for and against. For me, I'm wary of more subscription services taking off as we've seen how video games companies act when they have new means of making money. Be it through horse armor dlc's, mtx, online paywalls etc this just looks to be the next logical evolution of that.

Though with GPU I think choice is a good thing and by someone like MS offering a great value service, will spur on others to innovate. I do think think that the constant critiquing on something is a bit much. But also the guys who keep banging on about it likes its the best thing since sliced bread. Its a little like if like people kept calling at how good/bad value Netflix/Disney is. Like who tf cares just watch/sub to what you want or not.

I don't hate Game Pass. It's just not for me; I prefer to own my games.

People also often act like its this megaton killer app that's going to turn the tides of the console war, when the data says that simply isn't the case.

Stadia is a shit model. Pay to subscribe then pay full price for games you don't own. Stadia is mostly forgoten and now and just a matter of when it's killed off at this point. Google already shut down the studios they bought. Not making games for it now and I imagine support is drying up unless Google is just throwing money into a pit to lure them in for now.  Stadia is already a dead service walking.

Yeah but those are all low budget A/AA micro transaction infested multiplayer GaaS garbage.