cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/games@lemmy.world/p/869515/game-pass-was-supposed-to-save-xbox-instead-its-killing-the-company
“Netflix for games” has proven to be far from the ideal solution.
…It’sKilling the Company
Wow, so Microsoft has zero profit this year, huh? How the mighty have fallen.
I was subscribed to them for months and forgot about it, but then they tried to charge me like $30 and all of a sudden, I remembered my password, and told them metaphorically where they can fuck off by unsubscribing myself permanently.
They would have gotten more from me had they not been greedy.
I’m actually really surprised this didn’t work. They had acquired such a large amount of quality studios, IPs and a huge back catalogue. They had enough money to keep the subscription low indefinitely. Getting added to the Game Pass was a huge deal for indie devs at one point, but I think those who did were disapointed with returns.
Granted the article says they dropped 300 million on Jedi Survivor and Suicide Squad… which gets to the point of how unsustainable subscription models are. It’s like a smaller version of the Ai market. Just like how you can’t break even on 300 million selling a $10 a month subscription, you can’t break even on $30 billion investments with the same $10 subscription.
Still, how could you possibly mess this up. lol
It was great when I first got it, but I ended but getting fatigued with it. New releases wanted time investment, but the rising costs meant I felt I should play more stuff. In the end everything I wanted to play required time and I felt that I was no longer getting value out of it. It would have cost less to not have it and just buy the game for some titles.
I think that’s how it went down for most people.
I remember getting free games with Gold back on the 360 and One. Eventually they became unplayable without the subscription. Kinda enshitified.
There’s just something about your progression being tied to a subscription that makes you want to invest less in the game.
GamePass is killing Microsoft? I don’t think so. And Xbox is not a company. The company that own Xbox is Microsoft.
Look at you expecting quality journalism from IGN.
Xbox has its own CEO, it is its own company, wholly owned by Microsoft. Xbox then also owns other companies like Mojang, Zenimax Media, Activision Blizzard … They own companies too… Its companies all the way down. This way if one fails, it’s bankruptcy doesn’t take down the whole chain.
it is its own company,
No that was exactly the point, Xbox is NOT its own company, it is a division within Microsoft. Something you could have easily looked up before posting false information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_(division)
formerly Microsoft Gaming, is the video game and digital entertainment division of Microsoft,
oh ok how’s that price hike going?
🎻
Dear Capitalists,
Choke on your own subscriptions!
Gamepass never made sense to me as a product. Games make most their sales money in the first few months, but MS gave them away as day 1 additions. Games are heavily monetized with dlc, but a rotating catalog makes buying any less desirable since you could lose access unless you bought the game as well. The subscription seemed to push sales at you, but that’s a turn off for consumers. The used game market was still a thing, a 6 month subscription is less value than spending the same on a handful of games to keep permanently.
I’m not sure how it could succeed unless they stopped selling games at all for Xbox, which would probably kill it faster.
Lol
