Microsoft’s Xbox bet on a subscription service called Game Pass after struggling to keep up in the console market. The company spent more than $80 billion to bring major franchises like “Call of Duty”
I want to physically own my games so that I can sell them when I'm bored of it, or keep them when I really enjoy the game. I can't do that with a subscription based game. I'm just throwing away money with a subscription based game because it's just essentially a game rental service.
What they missed is that gamers really want to own there games. Most gamers, as shown by multiple PC surveys, love to continue to play older titles. We want to have them long term.
And everyone is getting sick and tired of subscription models for everything...
I was fine paying $9.99 for Game Pass. Then it went to $15.99, and I was still okay with it. When it increased to $20, I stuck around because we were getting brand-new AAA games on day one.
But then they raised it to $29.99.
That was my limit. I canceled my subscription, and I WILL NEVER get it back. Life long gamer too, sad world we live in
Tbh it really took over 10 something years before Netflix became the machine that it is. Gamepass tbh spent too much money on Activision and if it hadn't would probably be in a better place until it could get its numbers up. It also had the issue of not getting its actual studios to produce games. They should've had 4-5 exclusives a year and were barely doing 1-2 at the size they were at. In reality it was more so mismanagement from management that really killed gamepass.
One major problem that’s being overlooked is that Xbox problems go way back the Xbox one reveal. Xbox has not had a good public profile with gamers. This cycle is typical of Xbox.they close down first party studios, fans leave the console, Xbox panics and goes on a buying spree to buy up new 1st party studios and then panicked again and now once again started selling/closing or letting go of studios. The other major issue are the executives they put in charge. They can’t decide what their brand is, what they want it to be and so on.
I think a lot of parents were just paying for it for kids who weren't even using it, $10 a month can fly under the radar, but when that $10 becomes $30 it's on the radar, that's $360 a year, and then they're going to start asking their kid about it and find out many of them are barely even using it, if at all, then it gets the axe.
Spent too much on acquisitions then raised GP price to a level consumers rejected. More fundamentally, games are a much bigger time sink than tv and movies. It’s questionable whether the entire strategy was viable.
Subscription models just totally suck. Nobody wants them anymore, especially in gaming. People would prefer to own their own games and buy pre-owned on the cheap for any older titles they want.
This feels like it's missing the last 1/3 of the story, and just abruptly ends. Would have been great to get some insight and analysis into their plans going forward.
My game pass went from $14.99 to $29.99. I immediately cancelled. I was fine with $14.99 because I rarely if ever played games but liked having the option to. $29.99 was just not worth it and I switched to PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2.
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And everyone is getting sick and tired of subscription models for everything...
I was fine paying $9.99 for Game Pass. Then it went to $15.99, and I was still okay with it. When it increased to $20, I stuck around because we were getting brand-new AAA games on day one.
But then they raised it to $29.99.
That was my limit. I canceled my subscription, and I WILL NEVER get it back. Life long gamer too, sad world we live in