It actually floors me that people don’t understand this. It’s the tried and tested subscription model business plan.
Create a compelling service > gain market share > crush competition > ramp up prices and introduce anti-consumer policies
And contrary to popular belief, GamePass isn’t making money. There’s a reason MS are very tight-lipped about saying whether it’s profitable or not, and why they hide GamePass within another segment in their financials.
Shit, look at the FTC leaks where Phil Spencer says nowhere near enough people have subscribed to GamePass to make it viable (no wonder they want it on more platforms!). Microsoft will up prices.
And people here will say “yeah but then I’ll cancel, I already have a large game library” - yeah, you do. But a kid in 10 years that has no games library, only GamePass? He won’t say “man, another GamePass price hike? I’m gonna cancel”, because his choice is between another, say, £18 per month (I just went with what I was paying for Netflix, idk what it’ll be), and having to drop several hundred/possibly over £1k just to get all the games he wants back. Games he will probably have to buy across 3+ different launchers.
Microsoft is in it for the long haul. Subscription Office software, GamePass, rumours of subscription options in Win12. MS doesn’t want your money now, they want money from you continuously and from any family you build (remember: if you have kids, they’ll use this stuff too, and you’ll be paying for it… until they’re an adult, then they’ll be hooked on it and probably pay for it thereafter).
You’ll be paying until the day you die and your children will pay from being 18 until they die.
I’ve been repeatedly downvoted on here and on Reddit for pointing out that Microsoft clearly just wants to capture the market and wield their disproportionate amount of power (their money, pretty much monopolistic OS position, ever-growing IP, and strength to push DirectX over other standards, etc) as a weapon.
People really love Microsoft and won’t hear criticism of them.
People look at gamepass and think ooooh that’s great, such a good price. I’m sure they won’t ever jack up prices once they capture the market!
I’m sure it’s fine that MS has sole control over the graphics API pretty much all games use!
It’s fine that MS is spending dozens to hundreds of billions on buying publishers, because Sony bought one too (that’s a 15th the size)! And it’s fine that they’re making that stuff exclusive to their platforms!
It’s fine that Microsoft hurts open standards!
Etc.
I’m so damn tired of people carrying water for multi billion trillion dollar companies with immense history of anticompetitive and illegal behaviour.
It’s not a crazy what if, it’s a tried and tested, proven business strategy.
Currently Microsoft is losing money on gamepass. That’s why they lump it in with other services in their financials, so you can’t see the losses. The pricing as it stands is nowhere near sustainable
I never said it’s not currently a good deal. Those are words that you’re trying to shove into my mouth.
It’s a good deal now because they’re having the price low while they capture the market.
And what about when Microsoft ups the price on their subscription, which is clearly their strategy as gamepass doesn’t appear to be profitable?
At least if you’d spent that 120€ on 2-3 games you’d be able to keep them forever.
That 120€ subscription could easily become 200€, 250€, or more. Something people may feel compelled to pay for if MS continues buying up the industry and decides to make games exclusive, which is something they’re already doing to some extent.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think giving MS a disproportionate amount of power over the market is a good thing.
I didn’t say people wouldn’t be able to buy any games. Please don’t strawman.
What I said was that plenty of people won’t own games (due to gamepass being sold cheaply initially), then when MS massively jacks up prices, people will have to choose between swallowing that and buying all their games again at whatever the retail price happens to be.
It’s a trap designed to extort people in the long run.
The other thing I said was that some games will be exclusive.
Please address things that I’ve actually said, not things that you’ve imagined I’ve said.