4 ms·

In what regard has gamepass failed? I keep hearing nothing but excitement about it? Does it lose a lot of money? Similarly, how did they trash the Xbox brand?

In what regard has gamepass failed? I keep hearing nothing but excitement about it? Does it lose a lot of money? Similarly, how did they trash the Xbox brand? I've always been a PlayStation or Nintendo user so my view is quite tainted here.

bombcar 2y ago
From what I understand gamepass has heavily undercut actual game sales (why buy a game for $70 when it'll probably be on gamepass at some point, and most games are a month of play or so).
- anbotero 2y ago
  With games costing $70 now, I'm thinking it several times now before shelling out the money, specially for those AAA-valued bad/low-quality games, Game Pass or not. Argument is still valid, since I’ve not bought AAA games for more than two years now, only indies or AA, even if I already beat them with Game Pass.
fidotron 2y ago
I refer to my other answer about gamepass. For the Xbox brand they have failed to release quality versions of every major Xbox franchise bar Forza Horizon (Halo Infinite, for example), and this mismanagement has been ongoing for so long the sales figures of the Series consoles are dire. (And the Series X is not bad by any stretch). Now they are having to release their games on their major competitor, the PS5, making the point of buying into the Xbox ecosystem . . . what exactly? And to emphasise here Sony are not exactly doing stupidly well with PS5 software and support, they just aren't actively screwing it up completely.
- mynameisvlad 2y ago
  They’ve already expressly said they’re shifting from a hardware-focused business to a software-focused one. Did you miss that and think they’re just bad at business? Hardware has always been a loss leader used to sell games, nothing more. If they can sell the games just as well on their “competitiors platforms” then why bother spending time and exorbitant amounts of money building your own hardware? Exiting the hardware space looks like a loss only if you don’t understand the dynamics of the game industry.
  - fidotron 2y ago
    I've actually worked at a high enough level in the games industry to know about the non-public dynamics, and that includes working with some of the people involved in this story. > Hardware has always been a loss leader used to sell games, nothing more. If they can sell the games just as well on their “competitiors platforms” then why bother spending time and exorbitant amounts of money building your own hardware? By this logic Sony and Nintendo are completely wasting their time making hardware, yet they persist in doing so. Does this make them bad at business?
    - guipsp 2y ago
      Both Sony and Nintendo have expanded outside their traditional exclusive hardware. I don't think the parent is saying that doing hardware is useless, but rather that the writing is on the wall to some extent for pure console exclusivity.
      - kaibee 2y ago
        It ain't the PS3 era where consoles are some radically different hardware stack. The latest gen, except for nintendo, are basically just x86-64 gaming PCs.
    - mynameisvlad 2y ago
      > Does this make them bad at business? No, and nobody said as much either. It just means they get enough out of other sales (including an increase from hardware) that they have decided hardware is still worth it. Microsoft has decided otherwise. They’re both perfectly fine decisions. > I've actually worked at a high enough level in the games industry to know about the non-public dynamics, and that includes working with some of the people involved in this story. Then you should very well know how hardware has always been a loss leader intended to drive people to exclusives and first party services. It shouldn’t be a surprise that once a company finds just as successful ways of driving the same engagement, they no longer need hardware.
      - 2y ago
- falcor84 2y ago
  > For the Xbox brand they have failed to release quality versions of every major Xbox franchise bar Forza Horizon They did also release Microsoft Flight Simulator in 2020, which while also available on PC was in my opinion a massive win for Xbox
- magnetowasright 2y ago
  Give them some credit - Forza Horizon 5 was extremely buggy on release and for months after! Many non-race goals/activities, a significant part of gameplay were totally broken. I don't know if it ever got better? It could have been a quality game but I gave up. You're spot on. It's just funny to me that the lone quality release was also botched imo.
ErneX 2y ago
Xbox was at their prime on the 360 era, they sold almost as many consoles as Sony did PS3. Ever since then they are selling half of PlayStation and their current consoles are tracking behind the previous generation in sales launch-aligned. Even with GamePass which is undeniably great value for gamers. Seems they are now seriously considering becoming a third party publisher and release all their games or at least most on PlayStation and Switch, which honestly makes sense considering the amount of new development studios they acquired that used to release their games for every platform available, there are not enough Xbox consoles with paying customer to sustain all those studios I think.
etempleton 2y ago
I think it is popular but not growing as fast as Microsoft would have hoped. When I talk to some of my friends about it they don't seem to realize how deep the catalog is and just buy games that they could have played on GamePass, but most of those games are third party games that happen to be on GamePass. The Xbox brand issue at this point is a lack of quality first party games. They can never seem to nail a release. Even when a game is pretty good there is a caveat. - Halo Infinite was pretty good, but buggy and they struggled to release new content. - Starfield is Bethesda's most ambitious game yet with the best combat, graphics and polish from the studio to date, but the exploration loop that defines their games is broken by interplanetary travel. It is still pretty good, but just not what it should have been. - Forza Motorsport launched buggy and while technically proficient is perhaps of the most joyless games I have ever played. - Redfall was hyped as a first party release and is absolutely mid I do think that both the Xbox and PlayStation brands have put themselves in strange positions strategically. People buy consoles to play certain games and if you know that you can play those games on PC (eventually) why would you ever buy a PlayStation or Xbox?
hypertexthero 2y ago
I don’t think it failed yet, but I’m not renewing my subscription, gifted to me by a friend, for the following reasons: 1. Too many game choices without having to think about spending money for each one is very expensive when the currency is time. 2. Video games will never be Microsoft’s primary business, while video game players and makers are Valve’s. This is why Steam is so much better than Xbox/PC Game Pass. 3. It’s bloody difficult to take screenshots!

bombcar 2y ago

From what I understand gamepass has heavily undercut actual game sales (why buy a game for $70 when it'll probably be on gamepass at some point, and most games are a month of play or so).

anbotero 2y ago
With games costing $70 now, I'm thinking it several times now before shelling out the money, specially for those AAA-valued bad/low-quality games, Game Pass or not. Argument is still valid, since I’ve not bought AAA games for more than two years now, only indies or AA, even if I already beat them with Game Pass.

fidotron 2y ago

I refer to my other answer about gamepass. For the Xbox brand they have failed to release quality versions of every major Xbox franchise bar Forza Horizon (Halo Infinite, for example), and this mismanagement has been ongoing for so long the sales figures of the Series consoles are dire. (And the Series X is not bad by any stretch). Now they are having to release their games on their major competitor, the PS5, making the point of buying into the Xbox ecosystem . . . what exactly? And to emphasise here Sony are not exactly doing stupidly well with PS5 software and support, they just aren't actively screwing it up completely.

mynameisvlad 2y ago
They’ve already expressly said they’re shifting from a hardware-focused business to a software-focused one. Did you miss that and think they’re just bad at business? Hardware has always been a loss leader used to sell games, nothing more. If they can sell the games just as well on their “competitiors platforms” then why bother spending time and exorbitant amounts of money building your own hardware? Exiting the hardware space looks like a loss only if you don’t understand the dynamics of the game industry.
- fidotron 2y ago
  I've actually worked at a high enough level in the games industry to know about the non-public dynamics, and that includes working with some of the people involved in this story. > Hardware has always been a loss leader used to sell games, nothing more. If they can sell the games just as well on their “competitiors platforms” then why bother spending time and exorbitant amounts of money building your own hardware? By this logic Sony and Nintendo are completely wasting their time making hardware, yet they persist in doing so. Does this make them bad at business?
  - guipsp 2y ago
    Both Sony and Nintendo have expanded outside their traditional exclusive hardware. I don't think the parent is saying that doing hardware is useless, but rather that the writing is on the wall to some extent for pure console exclusivity.
    - kaibee 2y ago
      It ain't the PS3 era where consoles are some radically different hardware stack. The latest gen, except for nintendo, are basically just x86-64 gaming PCs.
  - mynameisvlad 2y ago
    > Does this make them bad at business? No, and nobody said as much either. It just means they get enough out of other sales (including an increase from hardware) that they have decided hardware is still worth it. Microsoft has decided otherwise. They’re both perfectly fine decisions. > I've actually worked at a high enough level in the games industry to know about the non-public dynamics, and that includes working with some of the people involved in this story. Then you should very well know how hardware has always been a loss leader intended to drive people to exclusives and first party services. It shouldn’t be a surprise that once a company finds just as successful ways of driving the same engagement, they no longer need hardware.
    - 2y ago
falcor84 2y ago
> For the Xbox brand they have failed to release quality versions of every major Xbox franchise bar Forza Horizon They did also release Microsoft Flight Simulator in 2020, which while also available on PC was in my opinion a massive win for Xbox
magnetowasright 2y ago
Give them some credit - Forza Horizon 5 was extremely buggy on release and for months after! Many non-race goals/activities, a significant part of gameplay were totally broken. I don't know if it ever got better? It could have been a quality game but I gave up. You're spot on. It's just funny to me that the lone quality release was also botched imo.

ErneX 2y ago

Xbox was at their prime on the 360 era, they sold almost as many consoles as Sony did PS3. Ever since then they are selling half of PlayStation and their current consoles are tracking behind the previous generation in sales launch-aligned. Even with GamePass which is undeniably great value for gamers. Seems they are now seriously considering becoming a third party publisher and release all their games or at least most on PlayStation and Switch, which honestly makes sense considering the amount of new development studios they acquired that used to release their games for every platform available, there are not enough Xbox consoles with paying customer to sustain all those studios I think.

etempleton 2y ago

I think it is popular but not growing as fast as Microsoft would have hoped. When I talk to some of my friends about it they don't seem to realize how deep the catalog is and just buy games that they could have played on GamePass, but most of those games are third party games that happen to be on GamePass. The Xbox brand issue at this point is a lack of quality first party games. They can never seem to nail a release. Even when a game is pretty good there is a caveat. - Halo Infinite was pretty good, but buggy and they struggled to release new content. - Starfield is Bethesda's most ambitious game yet with the best combat, graphics and polish from the studio to date, but the exploration loop that defines their games is broken by interplanetary travel. It is still pretty good, but just not what it should have been. - Forza Motorsport launched buggy and while technically proficient is perhaps of the most joyless games I have ever played. - Redfall was hyped as a first party release and is absolutely mid I do think that both the Xbox and PlayStation brands have put themselves in strange positions strategically. People buy consoles to play certain games and if you know that you can play those games on PC (eventually) why would you ever buy a PlayStation or Xbox?

hypertexthero 2y ago

I don’t think it failed yet, but I’m not renewing my subscription, gifted to me by a friend, for the following reasons: 1. Too many game choices without having to think about spending money for each one is very expensive when the currency is time. 2. Video games will never be Microsoft’s primary business, while video game players and makers are Valve’s. This is why Steam is so much better than Xbox/PC Game Pass. 3. It’s bloody difficult to take screenshots!