Started by Xevross, Jan 22, 2021, 02:41 PM
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well that settles that. i'm going to be quite mad if sony follows suit. i'll take sony's $70 pricing model on games over this. i can hold out easy enough for a game to drop it's price. i can't do that so easily for subs.Yeah doubling of a sub price is really bad. The price hike of games in the US was "only" +17% which is obviously a lot smaller, and games will probably be found for similar prices on sale for those who wait.
MS is no longer in the Xbox business, they are in the Game Pass business. Every other part of their game strategy has been or will be made to support the health and reach of Game Pass.
| VizionEck Cube Royale is releasing this year "I'm Mike Armbrust" -Me |  |  |
What the heck?greed.
That's great but how could something like this happen?
If you've followed me in the past you know that I've talked a lot about Xbox is moving beyond the console and has a goal to offer multiple entry points into its ecosystem, with Game Pass being the main entry point into its software and services ecosystem.https://t.co/CfEWbDyKB6
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 23, 2021It's also why Xbox has plans to extend Game Pass + xCloud to iOS, Windows and other devices (Smart TV's) in the future.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 23, 2021
Its investment in studios and IP aims to increase the value prop of Game Pass, with multiple AAA titles available on the service day 1.
All for $15pm.For example, cloud gaming isn't viable for everyone just yet. It's currently being used by existing console players to extend play to other devices.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 23, 2021
Even with recent acquisitions, Game Pass doesn't have a steady flow of day 1 AAA content just yet (Halo delay).Right now, Xbox is focusing all its efforts on transitioning existing and new console players to Game Pass. Hence all the incentives over the past years
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 23, 2021
It's long term goal, as above, is to grow Game Pass subscribers off console or via low cost hardware like Series S for example
Xbox knows they have two issues right now.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 23, 2021
1. A lack of scale not just on console, but beyond console. (The former referring to installed base vs PS4/5. This is also why Xbox has Series S now)
2. Not everyone (millions) has converted from Gold to Game Pass Ultimate on console.Double the cost of Xbox Live Gold over a 12 month period.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 23, 2021
Why?
- The assumption that most users well see the value in upgrading to a Game Pass Ultimate sub.
- Even if some do not shift, the assumption is they stay on Gold at the higher cost, which increases sub revenue anyway.The reversal shows that Xbox is indeed responsive to criticism of how it is achieving its goals, as it does not want to have a repeat of the Xbox One launch debacle, but it should be noted that Xbox will continue to find a solution to increase the revenue per user on console.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 23, 2021The F2P announcement has been in the works for months and that announcement was dropped today to help offset the backlash from the original price increase announcement.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 23, 2021
Microsoft will continue its focus on Game Pass moving forward, and its acquisition of IP for the service.
I still don't think gamepass is viable. his thread reenforces that. if they can't convert a huge portion of their gold subscribers on xbox how are they going to convert the mainstream.For it to be successful they need to convince millions upon millions of casual gamers to get it. It needs to become as huge as Netflix.
For it to be successful they need to convince millions upon millions of casual gamers to get it. It needs to become as huge as Netflix.there are huge differences between the music/movie industries and the game industry but the main one is gamepass isn't a great value for a huge potion of the gaming community.
And they're not there yet at all. Hardcore gamers may be buying into it, but xbox don't gain anything from this, in fact it might be a net loss as hardcore gamers could be saving money with game pass compared to buying their games full price from xbox.
Game pass is extremely high risk, and not just for xbox. If they acquire lots of IPs and studios for it then others have to respond. If the "value" of game pass becomes expected from everyone, other places may also have to take risky strategies that lower their profits just to compete. Its risky for the entire industry.
I have many reasons to ignore game pass, I'm not supporting any of this. A sub model is just not what I want for the gaming industry.
there are huge differences between the music/movie industries and the game industry but the main one is gamepass isn't a great value for a huge potion of the gaming community.Yeah definitely. Game pass has a great start due to appealing to people that view it as amazing value and are actually saving money with it. There's not many of those people left now though, they've got to try and convince people to actually spend more than the otherwise would for this new service. That's why they're doing stuff like buying Bethesda, so they have lots of big games coming out on there day 1.
when netflix took off the alternative was cable at like $180 per month (in my area). $10 per month was an amazing value.
huge portions of the gaming community (even just the portion of gamers that buy consoles) don't spend $180 a year on games. they play f2p games like fortnight. they buy one game a year like CoD or Fifa. or they buy quite a few games but by them on sale instead of day-1 (like i do). the "tie ratio" for ps4 was better than most consoles at 11 games sold per console. 11/6 is less than 2 games per year "on average". the average gamer is not spending $180 a year on games. it's going to be a much harder sell to the average gamer to pay for to get more compared to netflix which was pay massively less to get the same and get it in a way that is much convenient (on demand) and gets rid of commercials. netflix literally had everything going for it and even then it took a decade to grow to a place where they could be profitable.
| VizionEck Cube Royale is releasing this year "I'm Mike Armbrust" -Me | | |
Not to take away from Daniel's analysis, but the TLDR is:Well of course they want to make more money. The interesting bit is how they are planning to get there.
Microsoft wanted a lot more money.
I think that was crystal clear and this attempted price hike should tarnish their "player positive" perception for years, just like Xbox One's DRM. It's ludicrous that they thought extorting players into gamepass was a good idea.
