Think even if Game Pass was on Steam and Windows Store was amazing it wouldn't hit 100m. Maybe even if it was on PlayStation, Lol.

They made a major mistake in placing its trajectory alongside TV Streaming, in some ways it's the same but in other ways it isn't, Gaming is not TV (or music), it requires a lot more time and attention, a person with a job and/or family could take an entire month to finish a game, a Netflix show can be binged easily in a few days then onto the next one, the curation is more palatable, it's harder to find a random game to play but people have no issue finding any old rubbish to start watching on Netflix because again, it requires less investment.

Game Pass has no exclusive titles unlike TV so it isn't essential, I don't need Game Pass for Halo but I need Netflix for Stranger Things, that will restrict growth and all those millions of gamers who only play a single game, they don't need Game Pass and the Fortnite/Roblox/Warzone crowd don't need Game Pass because they're all F2P titles and those are the blackhole games taking everyone's time, Lol.

They'd need to instead do some amazing Game Pass perks to try to tempt people for the single game players.

Spotify has everything, Game Pass doesn't. The only TV services over 100m IIRC are Disney+, Netflix and Amazon Prime...Prime is a bit deceptive because Prime is linked into so much other stuff so what is the "Prime Video" number? I don't know. But Prime is linked to the biggest online retailer in the world so it's hardly a fair comparison. Disney is a fucking worldwide global brand with some of the biggest brands in the world.

Netflix is the only fair comparison but Netflix got here by being first before anyone else entered the scene for years and had a ton of content before everyone thought "huh, subs are cool, I'll make my own" and ripped them from Netflix but now people are entrenched in the Netflix system and they still make some great shows and provide hundreds of over filler to keep people endlessly occupied which is easier to do for the reasons I listed above.

If anything I would say that 100m subs for Game Pass is the absolute peak it will ever achieve, not a target goal, Lol. I'd say more like, if all things went perfectly and Game Pass was also on PlayStation and Steam, I would put the goal at around 60-80m.

Double Fine IIRC has a contract clause that they can buyback their independence which is something I hope they all have (XGS-acquisitions).

That's why they're focusing on the big blockbusters that go beyond the circles of online forum users, CoD been rubbish for years and CoD fans been bitching about it for the past 10 years but it still sells amazing every single year, put it this way, change Hi-Fi Rush to a COD spinoff and it would have destroyed Rise of Ronin, Lol

It feels like they're just going to dump the small creative projects and go all in on the massive blockbusters, guaranteed hits because the fanbase of these titles are way beyond online communities, like ResetEra and VGChartz despise COD, Fortnite, Roblox, etc. Call them every insult under the sun but they are massive titles...Feels like Microsoft will just focus on COD, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, anything that's a huge IP and guaranteed seller.

Like there's probably a very likely chance now that Obsidian and InXile are booted off their original IPs and put on Fallout spinoffs and fans of Fallout, fans of Elder Scrolls, fans of COD, they don't care about this multiplatform stuff and they largely don't care about some studio in Japan. It sucks because it's going to result in a bunch of smaller creative projects getting a bullet in exchange for working on massive IPs.

Hope that Tim saved some of that money since they operate out expensive as Hell San Francisco, Double Fine don't seem necessary at all for MS since their games are all niche and Indie Level . I'm interested in South of Midnight but I don't see that game capturing a lot of interest.

Yeah, basically every studio in CA is expensive to run...

I bet it cost more money to employee the 50ish people at The Initiative than it cost the 150ish employees at Tango...

It must be even more of a gut punch for Shinji because Tango was created to nurture new talent and lead them onto creating their own things and as soon as he leaves, the studio is shutdown and they're all laid off, I hope Mikami doesn't feel like he failed them, Microsoft failed them, John is an amazing developer who achieved his full potential likely thanks to Mikami's guidance.

Getting rid of a talent like John is just downright Idiotic, you have a talented guy that can bridge the gap between Japanese devs and the West it's not like there are a ton of guys like that out there.

And Tango did everything right, released a great title in a reasonable timeframe, even Ghostwire seemed to be decent, both from new directors, we should be encouraging the next generation of directors and propping them up, not treating them like dirt, okay they create one underperformance but what they create next could be a hit because they've already done half the battle, making a quality product.

Microsoft should look for ways to sell it better to consumers in their role, as the developer has done theirs in creating the product, otherwise what is Microsoft's role in this?

I feel like this was an incredibly short sighted move on MS part. At this point I am struggling to follow the strategy...

I thought all the acquisitions were done to bolster gamepass. Gamepass also should relieve the direct pressure on games to sell millions, allowing for games like hi-fi rush to exist and ultimately flourish. Having a varied and quality game library is what makes gamepass valuable how can a studio like Tango Gameworks not be a part of that?

Also with the launch to multi platform - this move feels premature. Microsoft literally has all the ingredients to be a great gaming company, but they have some serious issues with leadership.