Game pass as a trend poses a serious dangers for developers and publishers alike, the moment people get used to pay €2-5 for a game it will be difficult for them to compete with €60-70 a game.
For us gamers is a blessing as long as the monthly price doesn’t exceed the price of the combined games you can play in that period.
I for example get 1-2 months a year of Game Pass. I’m getting 1 month next. I’m planning on play Dead Space, Lies of P and Persona Tactica, and, since I have holidays vacations this year maybe I will able to play either Starfield or Jusant. That mean I will be paying €10 for playing games Worth €180-240. Never in history have we gamers had this kind of deal.
Generally, the value proposition of subscriptions for publishers is the lack of friction for a lot of people.
You’re managing your expenses tightly, which is smart, but I think that’s not as common as you expect. A lot of people might hear about a cool game coming to Game Pass in two months, and for simplicity just decide not to unsubscribe even though they’re not playing it for the next month.
People also make theories that everyone uses the XBLGold promotion trick, but I also think that’s not so common.
What a wonderful multinational corporation, spending all this money out of the goodness of their heart! It’s moves like this that let me know I can trust Microsoft™
I agree that they’re getting something from this (no way they just bleed money on it without a sound investment plan), but what do you reckon they actually get? Money directly from subscriptions can’t be enough to cover everything… is it just to build a walled garden ecosystem so they can “lock” people in and pick the fruits in a year or two? Although if something like a huge price hike happens, they will lose many customers
I think the goal is to eat market share away from Steam, once users are too invested in the platform to switch (and/or steam is no longer relevant) then they start hiking the prices. It has the added effect of reducing the switch to linux momentum that the steamdeck started, but perhaps that is still too small to get MS’s attention
I have no cars in this race, but if that’s their aim I think it will be impossible to achieve it. Steam already did that years ago, making people too invested in their platform I mean, MS is late. No way enough people will leave Steam to move permanently to Game Pass. They might get some users, but I don’t think they’ll ever get enough to make a difference for Steam or MS themselves. Buy we’ll see. I don’t really care either way
Things like buying the console, buying add-on content for games, etc. People have a membership, and want to make more use of it- though MS likely doesn’t mind people keeping it to the basics, since they don’t make huge bank off of singleplayer gamers anyway. I won’t even deny, I’ve bought small microtransaction items in a few games I only access through Game Pass - but I’m sure other people do far more often than me.
They can't raise the price too much, or people quickly find out that it's cheaper to just buy the games outright. Their sweet spot seems to have stuck right at 1/4th the price of a new AAA game per month. Believe me, I was surprised to find out from all kinds of failed products and services over the past few years that people can actually do math.
If you ask me, I'd say that's exactly why they won't rise further, or much further. They're measuring all of this before and after they take action, and if the price increase sees a trend line go in the wrong direction, it'll be a while before they bump it again. I wasn't angry at Netflix for raising their prices such that you could call it a backlash; it just became too expensive to justify having it around when there isn't anything I know I want to watch on it.
Netflix also made a killing by creating the ad-supported tier, because the ads more than cover the cost of lowering the subscription. My folks pay for Netflix with ads but you can block them with a DNS sink like AdGuard or a Pi-Hole.
I think it’s a scam honestly. Netflix’s library has shrunk with all the other streaming services coming into the market. It was convenient when it was the only game in town but now it’s just one of a dozen services feeling more like cable than streaming.
I just saw an article where Apple TV+ was going to bundle with Paramount+ for a lower rate.
It makes 3 Billy a year according to them. Sounds like a tidy profit but you’re probably right that hikes will continue, especially if they start getting some better games out at a better cadence.
Half the time I can’t install games from gamepass. On steam I install a game in 5m. On gamepass I have to schedule installing a game 2d in advance and hope at some point overnight it installs. Sucks so hard, because I actually like it. But it’s such a drag to actually use, I just don’t…
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