We have talked about this several times, but we haven't done much of an analysis of it. The issue with making a good analysis of it is that there are a ton of variables. But I think we can at least see what kind of uphill battle Microsoft has to make Gamepass work.
A few statements that we can take for granted:
Multiplayer games and RPGs tend to be good types of games to keep players invested for hundreds of hours. People put hundreds of hours into games like Skyrim, Call of Duty. So I think it is obvious why MS specifically acquired Zenimax and Activision.
The problem on Sony's side is that they don't create games like these. They create high quality, but usually shorter titles. They can't have people subscribe for a month to play God of War and then stop. They would obviously lose quite a bit of revenue/profit. Even if Sony were creating a God of War tier title every month to keep people subscribed, that still would only appeal to certain groups of people.
Whether game pass or similar is sustainable is dependent on being able to create enough content to appease enough users. This is dependent on the number of users, what preferences they have, what cost the company is able to make content for, whether the users like that content.
The reality is, there are probably a practically infinite number of situations where Game pass is sustainable and where it's not sustainable.
A few statements that we can take for granted:
- Subscription services need constant new content to keep players engaged with the service.
- Subscriptions need to at least break even to be sustainable.
Multiplayer games and RPGs tend to be good types of games to keep players invested for hundreds of hours. People put hundreds of hours into games like Skyrim, Call of Duty. So I think it is obvious why MS specifically acquired Zenimax and Activision.
The problem on Sony's side is that they don't create games like these. They create high quality, but usually shorter titles. They can't have people subscribe for a month to play God of War and then stop. They would obviously lose quite a bit of revenue/profit. Even if Sony were creating a God of War tier title every month to keep people subscribed, that still would only appeal to certain groups of people.
Whether game pass or similar is sustainable is dependent on being able to create enough content to appease enough users. This is dependent on the number of users, what preferences they have, what cost the company is able to make content for, whether the users like that content.
The reality is, there are probably a practically infinite number of situations where Game pass is sustainable and where it's not sustainable.