I would have expected it to be more with 3 month deals for 1$ and all the other deals.

I guess MS expected to be higher by now as well, hence buying another juggernaut to stimulate game pass.

Was thinking the same. The growth ware more impressive the previous years even if the catalog was kind of lackluster. They added a great variety of games this year, and some of them were day one stuff as well, and the Bethesda showcase at E3, Forza, and Halo Infinite, would've expected more than 5 million new subscribers since June 2021.

Indeed. They just released their biggest games, have the pandemic working for them (more time to game, less availability of competing platforms) and have the by far the best deals around.

As long as MS keeps pouring money into gamepass we can continue to play games on the cheap. But I do wonder about the long term damage. I can't be the only one that's spending less and less on gaming thanks to gamepass, console games on PC and all the other deals around.

I feel a price increase incoming. The xbox division drunk spending like Netflix.

Yeah I think MS is going to have different tiers to increase the price more. Ultimate tier- $18- everything, Gamepass Console or PC w/o EA- $13, Gamepass Console w/o EA & XBL- $10. 

Even if all 25m customers are paying peanuts, its earning MS a fortune. Imagine once Bethesda, Activision Blizzard and Xbox's own studios are firing on all cylinders, their revenue is going to go through the roof.

The more studios they have the less high profile and thus expensive third party games they need to get for Game Pass.
They'll be at a point where they can release two high profile 1st party games almost every single month and thus only need some indies and a few Japanese games to fill the gaps.

18 million to 25 million seems like solid growth to me, over the course of a year. Once CoD, ES, Diablo, etc.... start hitting day one on gamepass, I can see subs absolutely blowing up. In two years they could be 50+ million subs.

It's impossible to answer either question with certainty. Maybe most Halo players are subbed since all the games are on Game Pass, but I highly doubt the majority of CoD and BF players are subbed since CoD has never been on Game Pass so there is no reason for them to have it. A new BF games have never launched on Game Pass either. Most importantly, majority of CoD and BF sales have been on PS so this purchase is about bringing those players over to Xbox. 

I do think most paying for Game Pass are paying the full price, but hard to say. Remember, the Activision and Bethesda acquisitions are long-term investments. The sub numbers right now are a milestone for their vision 5-10+ years from now. 

The goal is not to get the CoD and Battlefield players from PS over to GamePass. The goal is to get hundreds of millions of subscribers from the 6 billion smart phone users floating around.

For those just playing CoD, FIFA yearly it will still remain a better deal to buy the games out right. Gamepass is only beneficial is you buy an play a lot of different games. If you're just interested in playing a few games a lot, it doesn't make sense to lay down $180 a year and prices will only go up.

The 69 billion dollar deal comes with CoD mobile, Candy Crush and Diablo Immortal (in the works for mobile phones). Mobile has been making more money for Activision/Blizzard since they absorbed King. The App store and Google play are the new rivals. Tencent the new competitor. But just as with Sony and MS, MS will likely be working together with Tencent (just like Activision-Blizzard worked with Tencent to develop CoD mobile) to break into the mobile phone space.

We might see different tiers for gamepass
- Cheapest, access to mobile games library, ad free downloads and play time
- Middle of the road, streaming to mobile phones added
- Ultimate, full access to PC, Console and Mobile games streaming
Probably more plans, console and PC centric plans will continue as well.

However consoles are on the way out and game development will shift to be made more suitable for streaming and mobile gaming on the go. It's not a future I'm interested in (don't even have a smartphone) but that's where the growth is at. Once MS moves on to play with Apple and Google, Nintendo and Sony (and who knows a new competitor) can pick up the pieces in console development. Although it's looking like Nintendo is going to stick with dedicated handhelds, Sony with consoles while MS has its sights set on the smartphone market.

Nintendo opted out of the console race, MS is moving on from the console market. Sony seems to be simply continuing with what they are good at.