I would say that is steady growth. The day 1 exclusives are nice, but the real heavy hitting ones did not come till year's end. I suspect once more big 1st party games come day 1 such as Hellblade 2, Fable 4, and Bethesda games we will see a huge boost. Then a second wave once the Activision deal closes (no matter what they decide to do with CoD).

That growth had come primarily from older titles being added. Almost none of the studios they have purchased have produced new exclusives since being bought. By 2025 these studios will be pumping out Xbox exclusives left and right. That 25m is impressive considering it's got to that almost entirely based on legacy content. Imagine what it will do with nonstop new exclusives coming in!

As much as I know people love game pass—I’m worried about the inevitable. It only takes one subscription to start up tons more. Netflix was one of the first to do so, now look at how many streaming services there are for television. It’s becoming ridiculous, and the same thing will happen with game streaming subscription services. Soon there will be too many to where it gets overwhelming when the competition starts to see the revenue benefits. I think that’s just an ugly future.

The goal is both. Obviously they want more marketshare in console business, especially outside US. Every CoD player on Playstation is a potential gp subscriber and would potentially buy games and mtx on Xbox.

This AB aquisition ticks many boxes from console to PC and mobile, even E-Sports. Yes mobile market is huge and important push for Microsoft to bring gp there, but you put too much weight into it while dismissing all other aquisitions Microsoft has recently made to clearly push console sales too.

I don't personally think consoles are going away, afaik it's a growing business still and I can't help you're doing another spin on the "Microsoft is opting out of console business" narrative we kept hearing throughout last gen.

MS has been making the console less relevant for years now. I think they want out of the hardware market, but doing it the Nintendo way. The Switch is practically there for the ones that were playing Nintendo games on console to switch to handheld (that can also work on tv). MS has been propping up their PC presence with gamepass and the xbox app, getting people to switch from buying games on console to play anywhere through gamepass.

True every CoD player on Playstation is a potential GP subscriber, but there are far more people playing mobile games.

Console/PC is the foundation for gamepass, mobile is what will build the sky scraper on top with xCloud and more mobile oriented games.

Once gamepass is available on TV and smartphones, what would the point for MS to keep making boxes?

i suspect premium devices that aren't sold at a loss

Sell hardware, sell 3rd (and 1st party) games and mtx on their platform, sell live services and gp subs.. to millions of hardcore gamers who prefer gaming on console or PC and are spending good money. Gamers who play multiplayer games and want the best performance. It's a huge community and business.

I don't see how game pass would thrive by being just a Netflix of games amongst other subscription services and mobile games.

I agree old content can only get so far. There have been a decent amount of revolving third party games coming and going, and a ton of first party legacy games, but not very many first party brand new games. That will change drastically in the coming months and years.

My in laws subscribe to Netflix and share with us, we subscribe to the Disney/Hulu and share with family, which allows my brother/sister in law to subscribe to HBO Max to share with whoever. Prime we all have because we recoup that money easily with free shipping and other features like Audible.

We also subscribed to Peacock recently. We are all, collectively, saving a fortune in not all having individual television packages, have way less commercials to watch, and can watch content whenever we want.

If Nintendo, Sony, and others each want to make a Gamepass, it will improve the experience for the vast majority of gamers.

Subscription is the future. Owning a game that most of us never touch again just so we can call it "ours" is the past.

Never shared games and movies with friends and family?
Buy them second hand, sell them on, trade?

Your subscription sharing is basically breaking the tos and not guaranteed to remain possible in the long run. Same for gamepass and ps now sharing. With physical items you can always do what you want.

Not a future I like either, but I do see it heading that way.