Game Pass Perks need to be promoted more and done more, especially to link GP to F2P titles.

Microsoft executives screaming and crying at Phil demanding to know why Bethesda's next Fallout is years away.

At this rate they going to put Elder Scrolls on ice to get a Fallout 5 out instead 💀

Joking, they'd be insane to do that and I would be fucking livid

But this show has been an incredible success.

That means it officially beat The Witcher over on Netflix for 2nd most watched book/game/comic to tv adaptation in the first month. Netflix said The Witcher season 1 got 76m views in the first month, so 80m in the first month for Fallout beats that. It may even be ahead of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power to become the most watched book/game/comic to tv adaptation of all time, Amazon never gave first month numbers for Rings of Power so it is hard to compare, all we know is that it got 25m viewers in the first 24 hours and 100m viewers in the first 3 months, and that Fallout at 65m views in the first 14 days was tracking behind Rings of Power at the time as Amazon in their 2 week press release said Fallout was there 2nd most watched original series. But it seems like Fallout may possibly be legging better than Rings of Power, especially since the word of mouth is much better for Fallout. It just got 15m new viewers from day 15 to day 30, so it would need to get 20m new viewers in month 2 and 3 to beat Rings of Power's first 3 months record. 

They do drops for Apex Legends, Overwatch 2, and Phantasy Star Online 2, and a few smaller games, but they definitely should try and work drops for other F2P games in there. We used to get Halo Infinite drops but sadly they stopped. 

Interesting results here, seems like more people believe Xbox should either stop doing day one AAA releases on Gamepass or make them Gamepass Ultimate only, than believe Gamepass should stay as is, 3% more people as of now, 45% say to stay as is while a combined 48% say a change is needed to improve Xbox's profitability. 

45% say no, Lol.

Those who vote to make it Ultimate only are likely already largely on Ultimate, the EU confirmed that the vast majority of Game Pass subscribers are already on Ultimate which accounts for 70-80% of Game Pass subscriptions. So changing it to Ultimate only won't change much for most people voting in that poll of which I imagine almost everyone glued into Jez's twitter account are on Ultimate, having said that, I don't think I would be too opposed to making it Ultimate only simply because I'm on Ultimate, Lol.

Those voting yes naively believe that Game Pass is the reason for the layoffs/closures that have affected the entire industry where Game Pass doesn't exist. Not to mention, what AAA day one releases? In 2021, Microsoft had Forza Horizon 5 which still sold great, over 1m in early access sales alone, Halo Infinite a F2P title, in 2022 they didn't have a single AAA release, in 2023 they had Starfield which despite Game Pass still sold great and the only new IP which charted in some sale metrics IIRC.

Can someone tell me a single Xbox IP that Game Pass has hurt? Do people seriously believe Hi-Fi Rush or Redfall would have sold millions if not for Game Pass? C'mon man. A niche title and a straight up bad title. I'll say again, even if Game Pass didn't exist these layoffs and closures would be happening, it's not about simply being profitable but being incredibly profitable, Microsoft says they closed Tango to streamline operations and focus on impactful IPs, aka Elder Scrolls/Fallout/Doom, Hi-Fi Rush doesn't fit into that even if GP didn't exist.

Feels like people turning on Game Pass, the most consumer friendly thing in gaming, despite multiple developers saying how much it has helped them, despite the fact that Game Pass itself is profitable, simply because it's the easy thing to blame and the naïve belief that it would change anything, that Microsoft won't have layoffs if they start suddenly charging us $30 for it or if they just kill it off.

Yeah, it's a shame that Gamepass may end up changing in the end, I love it's incredible value, for a gamer with my budget it has been the best thing that has happened to gaming in my adult life. 

I definitely think the bean counters will get their way in the end and some changes will happen, some combination of day one releases ending or being moved behind Ultimate, Gamepass prices rising a good bit over the next couple of years (especially ultimate prices if they do decide to lock day one releases behind Ultimate). Microsoft wants to see that ABK $70b+ paid off quickly, not over the course of decades.

This week purchases:

-Tasmanian Tiger 2
-Trainstation Renovation
-Octodad

I expect a price increase to come to Game Pass but removing day one from the service completely would significantly harm the appeal of the service and potentially harm the console too, Xbox is going multiplatform whether we like it or not, whether Game Pass exists or not and we have people cheerleading to significantly weaken Game Pass, a key thing which sets Xbox apart from PlayStation, Lol.

Now I'm not opposed to making day one an Ultimate only perk but that's because I've always been on Ultimate and the vast majority are on Ultimate (70-80%) but there's other things they also need to do, firstly they need to figure out a way to merge Game Pass Console and Game Pass PC into one, the idea of splitting the two is dumb, there's not a Netflix TV and Netflix PC, it's just one subscription.

So it should be Game Pass Basic, Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate.

Core should be renamed into "Basic" because "Core" isn't clear enough branding.

They need a 1st party only offering to put on Steam, nobody wants to use Windows Store, take the L and accept defeat.

But Game Pass isn't the reason Sega, Sony, EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft, The Entire Industry, has had layoffs, nor is it the core reason why Xbox has had layoffs, it may not have grown as much as expected but nothing has and nothing would have done even if GP didn't exist and these layoffs would occur even if GP didn't exist because MS acquired ABK and saw what incredible profit margins can be achieved by focusing on a select few popular IPs.

Microsoft's own shitty explanation is that they were spread too thin with Tango and wanted to focus on their popular IPs, Tango notably being the only Japanese studio, goes against everything they've said about caring about Japan but it makes sense to a cynical business who wants to focus on spamming out Fallout/Elder Scrolls/Doom.

It's baffling, especially when you consider how few AAAs that Microsoft has released and various factors can be said of their underperformed before Game Pass, Forza Horizon 5 did amazing, Halo Infinite was F2P so irrelevant, they had nothing in 2022, Hi-Fi Rush was niche and sold poorly on PC/PS as well, Forza Motorsport was undercooked and Starfield isn't frigging Elder Scrolls and still sold great! Lol.