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
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
If they’re acting this way it means that either they’ve already seen a decline somewhere (or at least not as big of a growth) thanks to other storefronts (and maybe other companies’ launchers like Rockstar and similar), or anticipate things will get worse in the future. I get it, as a company they want to make more money YoY, but this is definitely an ugly move. Guess I’ll add another reason not to buy from them!
I see, thanks for the clarification. That does sound a bit shitty on their part, especially because when most people are asked “gaming on PC?” they answer “Steam”. Lower prices elsewhere might have given a better chance to other storefronts, although I don’t think that would have made a huge difference, since Steam is THE storefront
What’s that about price parity? I’ve often bought games from 3rd party sellers like Fanatical, to name one, specifically because their prices were lower than Steam’s. What am I missing?