GP doesn't have to be exactly like EA Play. EA Play is just proof that you can make a service with just 1st party games and place that on as many platforms as possible without spending billions on Hardware. If Sony wants MS games than they will need the service, otherwise Nintendo and PC will take the deals which would make those platforms look more attractive.

That’s great, but I’m still waiting for the part where it makes financial sense for Microsoft to give up loads of revenue to make less revenue. Yes, Microsoft saves on hardware in your theory, but they lose out on all the revenue I already mentioned. 

People are too short sighted and assume if you aren’t in first place in console sales then you must be losing money. This has to be the only industry where this mentality is so rampant.  Again, Microsoft makes loads of money off of Xbox, even with the console in third place. 

Phill spencer is the best thing that hapened to sony, let the dude be there more years , fans love him so he should stay continuing to do noyhing for the brand but getting praise and awards by media and fans

Same was said about streaming TV/movies in the early 2000's... vs Music streaming.

MS doesn't think it's years away, nor do 5G providers
https://www.tomsguide.com/features/5g-smartphone-gaming

Steamdeck proves people are ready to play their favorite games on smaller screens on the go. Sacrificing quality for convenience.

It is viable now for casual gaming. It is ready for the mainstream. It's not ready for the 'hardcore' gamers, but those are in the minority and basically got used to get gamepass going. Let your most dedicated fans promote gamepass far and wide + make it available everywhere through streaming -> tap into the blue ocean of the other 2.2 Billion gamers out there. (The number of active mobile gamers worldwide is over 2.2 billion. Apr 9, 2023)

What incentive will MS have to still release more plastic boxes when gamepass + xCloud makes them magnitudes more income?
What incentive do people have to buy a blu-ray/dvd player when your tv menu offers a faster more convenient way to watch movies?
What incentive will people have to buy a console when your tv menu offers a faster more convenient way to play games?

Netflix taking off depended on getting rid of the middle man, the console or PC as streaming device. Gamepass/xCloud is in that stage of still being dependent on extra consumer hardware. That's what MS is working on, to get rid of the box in the middle and stream directly to your tv or phone. Project Keystone is the Roku stick. But MS is already negotiating with TV manufacturers to get xCloud on your TV, and is looking at getting it onto your mobile phone as well.

Sure, it means in addition to now. In 10 years the hardware (if still available) will be in addition to streaming. Maybe it will take a bit longer without the ActiBlizz deal going through, but it's coming. 

Lol funny you saying people are too short sighted. 2.2 billion smart phone gamers, all with TVs at home, is what MS is hoping to tap into with gamepass. MS is playing the long game, giving up revenue now to make gamepass the (only) way to play games, paid for by quantity in users paying a monthly fee.

There is little to no profit on hardware and generational transitions are risky every time, starting over basically.
Launching games is a risk every time as well, and a lot of hard work.
Gamepass + xCloud solves both 'problems' but needs a huge user base to be sustainable and become profitable.

Gaming PCs / consoles it's all small beans compared to how many TVs and smart phones are out there...

They already said they never made profit out of Xbox hardware sales in 20 years

Phil even said they lose between 100 and 200$ per console sold this generation

I believe they probably are.

They easily have enough studios to compete with Sony but the studios aren't consistent enough and need direction.

None the less, the bulk of the acquisitions still haven't had time to put anything out. This could all feel very different in a year's time (unlikely)

lol @ the only way to play. Last I checked every game in the service is available outside of it. This is the same junk people said when EA Play launched. By now we were supposed to be in a world where every publisher had their own sub service with games locked behind it. Turns out people aren’t ready to game on the cloud. Nonsense. Even Spencer says there will always be hardware. 

Yep consoles are risky and so are games. All the more reason for Microsoft to maximize their revenue. Locking games behind a cloud service to play on your TV is not what a majority of gamers want. You’re confusing mobile gaming and actual gaming. Your example from another reply of the Steamdeck is just making my point. Yeah people sure love playing games on a small screen on the go. But mobile gaming and the Steamdeck aren’t the same thing, not even close. Just like Switch and mobile gaming aren’t the same thing. 

I respect the opinions of you guys and agree with some of what y’all are saying. Cloud will grow and become much bigger in gaming. But as MS has said in numerous interviews, it’s in addition to, not in replacement of traditional gaming with local hardware. Just because mobile gamer person is happy to play Candy Crush or RAID on their phones doesn’t mean traditional gamers are ready to play laggy and blurry versions of blockbuster traditional games on their smart TVs or phones with horrible touch controls.

I stand by what I said. If you’re a fan of Xbox games or GamePass, what you guys are describing is terrible for both. 

MS' goal is to remove the lines between mobile and console gaming. That you don't want to call mobile gaming actual gaming doesn't take away from the fact that there are billions of people out there ready to be locked into a gaming subscription. Aren't Switch games actual games? That's mobile gaming as well, but still on a dedicated game box. MS wants to get rid of the box, have everyone use their server farm to game on. That is the long game.

That is has not happened yet doesn't mean it's not happening. It's not a, oh well cloud gaming doesn't quite work yet let's forget about it. MS has been steadily working on their cloud infrastructure and gaming is a perfect companion to fill in all the idle time in off work hours.

The advantages are simply too big for MS. They have the server capacity. Mobile phones don't need the highest fidelity, thus easier to render many games. The casual gamer doesn't care much about graphical fidelity either, Switch, Steamdeck, plenty people still playing on older consoles or potato PCs / laptops. Your idea of the traditional gamer is describing a niche. A niche that (used to) buy(s) a lot of games and was worth pursuing for their deep pockets, but still a niche that can't compete with the potential of half a billion gamepass subscribers.

And once the ball is firmly rolling, it becomes a lot more efficient to only release games on the Cloud. Why? One hardware spec to develop for. The advantage consoles (used to) have, allowing better optimization and not having to deal with a lot of different configurations all needing fixes and patches. Basically first party cloud games can be tailor made to the cloud hardware.

Yes, it's all quite terrible for what you and I and most people here want out of gaming. But I've had these same discussions on blu-ray / movie forums in 2006, and look where we are now. People go for convenience and (no up front) price, picture quality a distant third. And input lag, the avg person doesn't even know what that means.

Yes, for now, every game is still available for download to run locally. Physical releases, much harder to get nowadays if at all. With more and more focus on live service, soon the download part will become a nuisance when you can instantly stream the game directly with the latest updates on any device you have gamepass on.

Don't listen to mouthpieces. Spencer contradicts himself all the time, and yes there will always be hardware in the cloud and hardware you stream the games to ;) Accessories will come for buttons and analog sticks (are already here). But games will also change to fit the common denominator better, which will be streaming in the future.

Yes, it's terrible, but that what's Spencer is selling with Gamepass. That's the way to make gamepass profitable.

Dude I don't know if you read your own article but there's not a single positive word about mobile cloud gaming there, it's all negative. So I don't know why you linked it.

And your comparison to Netflix is just flaw. When Netflix launched their streaming service it grew super fast. Compare that to game streaming, we had several attempts since 2014. PS Now, Stadia, Geforce Now, they all went down the tubes. We have Amazon Luna which also looks to be a total flop.

The arguments you're making is the same arguments we seen the last 10 years and nothing has happened except all streaming attempts have flopped. For the next 10 years I expect Amazon Luna to be closed and Microsoft have launched Xcould as a stand-alone service but it will just flop like we seen before.

My own opinion is that cloud gaming makes 0 sense whatsoever on mobile phones, very little sense in the console space and some minor sense in the pc space. And corporations can try to change this but if there no demand for their service they can't do anything about it. But it's all speculation and cloud gaming discussion will probably go on forever.