Xbox | Zenimax Development Studios | Activision | Blizzard | King

[Legend]

Raphael founded Arkane and directed Prey and Dishonored. Very afk is publishing director at Larian.

Fairly big voices to be saying this on twitter.

[kitler53]

[the-pi-guy]

I've said it a few times now. But it's pretty remarkable how much the tide has changed on Gamepass. 

It feels like watching some big conspiracy fall apart. But no one is like "oh we were wrong about Gamepass". Instead they're like "well that figures".  

[BananaKing]

I've said it a few times now. But it's pretty remarkable how much the tide has changed on Gamepass.

It feels like watching some big conspiracy fall apart. But no one is like "oh we were wrong about Gamepass". Instead they're like "well that figures". 

Yeah it's crazy. The people who doubted it from the start (like me and kitler lol). Have been saying this doesn't make sense and been saying all these points as to why. And the there was adamant insistence from GP supports that it works and it's even good for the industry. 

But now that's it's all falling apart the responses from previous supporters are like you said, acting like they knew so all along. 

[BananaKing]

Phil Spencer and the Xbox team are the kings of spin. As someone who has followed gaming news heavily throughout the years, it's insane to see how they spin everything, and their words are never clear. 

[kitler53]

I've said it a few times now. But it's pretty remarkable how much the tide has changed on Gamepass.

It feels like watching some big conspiracy fall apart. But no one is like "oh we were wrong about Gamepass". Instead they're like "well that figures". 

Yeah it's crazy. The people who doubted it from the start (like me and kitler lol). Have been saying this doesn't make sense and been saying all these points as to why. And the there was adamant insistence from GP supports that it works and it's even good for the industry.

But now that's it's all falling apart the responses from previous supporters are like you said, acting like they knew so all along.

i feel like there are still a fair bit of gamepass supporters.   ...it's just now they only talk about how they don't care if the service is profitable or not and that all they care about is they feel like they get a good value out of the service.    totally fair, imo, to like the service.   if 10 years ago you were one of those guys that purchase 12+ games day-1 then it's clear and obvious that you'd like a service that literally saves you thousand(s) of dollars a year.

i'm just glad these guys are no longer pushing such obviously stuipid claims like "gamepass actually increases game sales" 


i really feel like that "is it legal" guy is owed an apology.   from what i remember his whole argument was that gamepass could qualify as Predatory pricing:

Predatory pricing is when a company sets its prices very low, often below cost, to drive competitors out of business. Once the competition is gone, the company can raise prices because it has less or no competition left.  This practice harms competition and, in the long run, it can result in higher prices for consumers and lower wages for workers.

So like,.. it didn't work out for MS but its finally clear that gamepass was setting prices low (below cost) and i think it's obvious that the reason MS did it was because they thought they could drive sony/nintendo out of business.   they only reason what they didn't won't be litigated is that it didn't work...

[kitler53]

appears there is more activity worth porting over.

Ok, I need to correct/clarify something. First, Xbox Game Pass is profitable, even when you factor in the lost sales for its first-party teams, sources who would know have told me.

Over 18 months ago, I checked with Xbox about what's included in the Game Pass P&L. Basically, I was looking to see if Game Pass's costs factor in the impact to unit sales of their internal studios. I was told that first-party games have their own P&L separate to Game Pass as they make money via other means. I felt this piece of internal accountancy might mean Game Pass is profitable, but it sure does put pressure on the margins for its internal games and POSSIBLY means some studios don't make as much profit (or any profit at all).

That doesn't actually matter in real terms, but seeing the impact Game Pass was having on first-party games, and the amount of money Xbox was spending on studios, I wanted to check if the full impact of the service was being considered in their 'Game Pass is profitable' line.

(This was before Xbox started publishing fully on PS5. Studios can now make stronger margins on premium sales as a result of that move)

But regardless to all that. sources have reached out to tell me that even when you include lost revenue associated with first-party party games (not just unit sales, but microtransactions), Game Pass is still profitable. So... that's great!

Right. Tony Hawks is out. Let's get back to that!