Those games are hugely expensive to make, and take forever to make too.
Whats to stop people from subscribeing for 1 game (like a big title) and then dropping the subscription afterwards (like for just 1 month).
A person like that (which there will probably be many), would be a huge loss in terms of revenue vs a actual sale.

Then theres the people that are subbed always,.... while you might go, a big title like that is why they stay subbed.
Its not really won revenue, as they are likely just perma subscribbed. Its hard to attribute it to each game, or big ones. 
Which again, will have to be split to go to multiple devs/studios.  

People look at renvue for gamepass and think "wow thats a big number".
But realistically that big number, is money thats needed to pay off studios, for their losses compaired to normal game sales.

Call of Duty is a game like that. A big title, as you wanted.
We need to see how that does, if its day and date on gamepass.
Does its revenue (call of duty's) drop off? does gamepass revenue spike upwards? How long does the subscription spike last ect.


*edit:
People have started doing the sub for a month, binge watch a tv series, unsub thingy more and more (as prices of subs have gone up).
Supposedly its playing havok on some of these subscription services.  If it grows bad enough, it might imact how much they want to spend on each project. Ei. Some tv shows, might be too expensive to make, in a subscription model (if they cant depend on people sticking around).

The same issue, is without a doubt, also a problem for something like gamepass.
Its one of the reasons, MS wants all its game multplayer online GaaS type games.
Gamepass might be affecting the types of games, xbox is willing to make, and how "big" titles (budgets) are.

What are you talking about Machia...The Board absolutely does run Microsoft. The Board is the governing body of a company, the members are elected by shareholders to set the strategy of the company, oversee the company and protect shareholders and stakeholders interest. Satya Nadella is literally a member of the board.

We have a lot of memes about "Microsoft wants to get rid of the Xbox division" but IIRC I've only ever heard one shareholder publicly say they should, it's more that Xbox division was so small and irrelevant that Microsoft's Board and shareholders at large mostly ignored it because it wasn't important to Microsoft at all but it being irrelevant to Microsoft's financials also meant it could fly under the radar.

That is until Satya Nadella, the man you claim does nothing, straight up asked Phil why they're still in gaming and told Phil to come up with a plan otherwise they would have very likely shutdown their gaming division, so what you're claiming is that he got involved then but didn't get involved when Microsoft acquired a $68bn company?

It's also wrong about the hierarchy, Satya is Phil's boss but so is Amy Hood (literally confirmed by Phil). Every single Executive Officer is above Phil.

Yep you spend $68.7 bn on activision blizzard, and Zenimax for over $7.5 bn..... you get shareholders attention.
Thats atleast $76.2 bn total for those studios (in the last few years).

A shareholder might ask "whats the plan, here?"

I'm confused what we're debating about honestly. Are we trying to blame Game Pass for the current issues? Lol. Game Pass has absolutely nothing to do with the current issues, Game Pass literally saved Xbox from Satya killing it and today it is profitable. Game Pass wasn't the reason Unity, EA, Embracer, Sony, Epic, Take-Two, Riot, Twitch, Sega, Niantic, Ubisoft, Amazon Games, CDPR, etc, had layoffs.

The simple explanation is that what is going on is a combination of.

A. Current issues in the industry which are affecting everyone, a stagnant market which isn't growing, investors aren't happy with flat growth and they aren't happy with 1% growth, it has to be big growth otherwise it's not good enough, it has to be infinite growth otherwise investment slows down and/or stops, the gaming industry overall lately is flat.

This leads to Microsoft making moves like releasing on PS/Switch and Sony releasing on PC.

Hi-Fi Rush flopped on PS and Steam as well.

B. Acquiring ABK. When you have a division (XGS/Zenimax) which has a combined profit margin of under 10% and then you acquire a publisher which has a profit margin of around 30% then as a financial person you're going to ask the question "Why can ABK do that but XGS and Zenimax can't?" and projects like Hi-Fi Rush do not bring in big money or big profits.

Coupled with the success of the Fallout show they're probably like "Why the fuck do we not have Fallout in development? Why don't we have multiple Fallouts in development?" What they're going to do is layoff employees and then use that freed up logistics/funding, etc. To then hire people to work on Fallout/Core IPs so they can get them out faster.

These problems would exist with or without Game Pass, these layoffs would have happened with or without Game Pass, I would argue without Game Pass, Xbox would be in an even more dire situation because they have a lack of exclusives and flatlining console hardware, Game Pass is a key reason to remain locked into the Xbox ecosystem now.

As for the COD debate, I think whoever argues against it being in Game Pass at Microsoft is being a little short-sighted or perhaps does not know much about the gaming industry, they're thinking about it in too simple terms of just "lost sales" when that doesn't paint the full picture.

Firstly, most of CODs sales will be on PlayStation, where Game Pass doesn't exist, it'll also expand to Switch, it'll also be on PC where they avoid Game Pass in favour of Steam. So the only consumer base you're hurting is the Xbox one but if people come over to Xbox to get COD in Game Pass instead that should be a good thing, more people in your ecosystem means more spending in your ecosystem.

Secondly, what are some of the biggest money makers in the industry right now and what do a lot of them have in common? Counter-Strike (F2P), Valorant (F2P), Apex Legends (F2P), League of Legends (F2P), Dota 2 (F2P), Genshin Impact (F2P), Overwatch (F2P), Fortnite (F2P), Destiny 2 (F2P), Warzone (F2P), Roblox (F2P).

Notice the trend? The vast majority are F2P. Could these games have been paid instead and sold millions on launch? Absolutely, but the publishers have said F2P is better financially for them, why? Cause these games are littered with MTXs, Lol. If a game is F2P it makes it easier to access for millions more gamers but also makes them more inclined to spend in the stores precisely because they got the game for free.

Call of Duty nowadays has like fucking $30 skins and people still buy that shit.

I do not believe that including COD into Game Pass would hurt its financials enough to care, any damage will probably be off-set by the increase in Game Pass subs and/or in-store spending. Especially when we're basically talking about an Xbox userbase only, barely anyone uses GP PC and thus all you're really doing here is ensuring people stay locked into an Xbox ecosystem which also makes them spend more in the Xbox ecosystem outside of COD.

And if they're really that concerned about it then just do that Goddamn early access shit, over a million people bought Forza Horizon's early access before its launch into Game Pass, you know what will happen if you offer a similar early access offer to COD gamers? They'll eat that shit up and millions will buy its early access upgrade for an increased price!

Game Pass is goated, only reason I came back to Xbox at the end of 2019 and made Xbox my main platform since the early Xbox 360 days.

You could just as easily make the argument that COD should go F2P like everything else.

Make the MP F2P but release a paid COD Campaign once every 2-3 years.

This would make more sense to argue than not putting COD into Game Pass, Imho.

And BTW for you rumour lovers.

Nate Drake said that he has been hearing Perfect Dark is not in a bad state and that maybe some of the rumours this week are from outdated sources. He also believes we see it at the showcase.

See how one rumour comes out then another completely contradicts it weeks later? Lol. We'll see anyway, Nate Drake has proven to be spot on about almost everything Xbox the past few months.

But almost every videogame goes through rough patches during development, it's nothing new and I wish gamers would stop freaking out about it when it happens to almost everyone, a rough spot in development doesn't mean a bad game in the end.

Thought you could preload HB2? Where it at

Imo COD Zombies should be standalone F2P as well.

• COD Arena - F2P
• COD Zombies - F2P
• COD Warzone - F2P
• COD Campaign - Paid (Every 2-3 Years).

It's especially weird about Zombies, it feels like they're leaving so much money on the table by not making Zombies a standalone.