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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Game Pass subscribers reaches 25 million

Paatar on 20 January 2022
Dulfite said:
Paatar said:

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.

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.



you have family that’s willing to do that, not everyone does. It’s great that it works for you, but to say it’ll improve the experience for the vast majority isn’t really realistic. The number of services keeps increasing, and eventually the amount of subscriptions for shows will reach a cap and several will be shut down. The same thing would inevitably happen to games.

DVD and Blu-ray exist alongside all these streaming services. To say physical media is the past is just ignorant. Physical media in games will always exist. Even look at music, CD’s and Vinyl’s have been making a comeback the last few years. 



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SvennoJ on 20 January 2022
KiigelHeart said:
SvennoJ said:

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?

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.

The margins on hardware are slim and only getting slimmer now there isn't really a second half of the generation any more where the bulk of sales generate a profit on hardware. It has become harder to make cheaper slim models next to sales becomes more front loaded.

The XBox app will be the main platform and will be available on PC, TV and mobile phones. I doubt gamepass will ever come onto Sony consoles, but I see it as very possible that it will come to Sony TVs, build into Android. Who knows MS might even be working on a TV OS themselves to become the Windows for TV. That's where MS thrives. MS always wanted a PC in every living room. However Apple beat them to putting a PC in everyone's hand, skipping the living room. MS tried to get into the phone market but was too late. Now hey have a chance with gamepass to get a foot in the TV and mobile market all at once.

Consoles will still be around for a while, yet once xCloud takes off, the masses will go for convenience. We've seen it with music, we've seen it with movies and tv. Consoles will becomes less important just like CD and blu-ray players.

PC will be the place for the hardcore gamers. MS already succeeded in getting Sony to follow putting their games on PC. Next is making PS consoles less desirable by removing the big games on the platform, future CoDs etc, while offering them with gamepass on PC and phones. Then gamepass can thrive on PC, TV and smart phones.



chakkra on 20 January 2022
Paatar said:
Dulfite said:

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.



you have family that’s willing to do that, not everyone does. It’s great that it works for you, but to say it’ll improve the experience for the vast majority isn’t really realistic. The number of services keeps increasing, and eventually the amount of subscriptions for shows will reach a cap and several will be shut down. The same thing would inevitably happen to games.

DVD and Blu-ray exist alongside all these streaming services. To say physical media is the past is just ignorant. Physical media in games will always exist. Even look at music, CD’s and Vinyl’s have been making a comeback the last few years. 

In one paragraph you complain about subscription services and in the very next one you admit that DVD and Blu-ray exist alongside all these streaming services. Now, I´m curious, exactly how does the existence of Netflix and Disney Plus stop you from purchasing your movies?



eva01beserk on 20 January 2022

Looks like its moving at a snails pase. If and when these adquisitions start to deliver I could see some growth but I also expect a price invcrease that will slow growth. Theres also no telling how many people subbed for a month when both halo and forza launched then just quit after.



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Farsala on 20 January 2022
SvennoJ said:

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.

Yeah getting monthly revenue/profit from smartphone gamers would be massive for any business.

Right now Smartphone games mostly take advantage of the whales, but businesses want the steady Netflix revenue/profit and growth. Netflix started the prices low and steadily raised the price of their subscription, I see a similar thing for Gamepass. And MS already tried to raise the price of XBL Gold.

Anyone who owns a phone already pays for a subscription to use the phone and probably a TV plan of some sort, and have a PC. The companies who manage these types of subscriptions are very rich.

MS already has similar things with PC and Console in Windows/ XBL Gold/ Gamepass , so expanding into mobile will be yet another strong pillar for making money.



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SvennoJ on 20 January 2022
chakkra said:

In one paragraph you complain about subscription services and in the very next one you admit that DVD and Blu-ray exist alongside all these streaming services. Now, I´m curious, exactly how does the existence of Netflix and Disney Plus stop you from purchasing your movies?

They still exist, yet the Orville doesn't come out on blu-ray anymore, The expanse S5 is still missing in action on blu-ray. Just two things I could watch on TV before but are now locked behind different streaming services.

It has also become more difficult to get movies on blu-ray. And imo the quality has gone down overall, but that could just be that I don't particularly enjoy these young folks shows and movies :p

Subscription services for music, tv and movies have changed the way they are made, for who they are made, and how they are delivered. Binge watching 6 episode seasons instead of 13 episodes over 13 weeks for example. The music album still exists but is rare nowadays. Movie extras on DVD and Blu-ray peaked over a decade ago and never came to streaming services.

But subscription services indeed don't stop you from buying what's left.