LogFAQs > #979577170

hereforemnant posted...

I believe it was proven that, in a bubble, Game Pass is indeed "profitable" for them. But this is after they already invested in cloud systems & so on ahead of time, & Game Pass gets to exist in a bubble by itself & show profitability & success with subscriber counts.

That's if it was living in that bubble where there was ZERO competition.
That's not a realistic scenario.

The problem being, the PS5 is still the objectively better system with backwards compatibility & what you get to play, & if you don't want a PS5, a PC will give you all the benefits & more that Game Pass will give you while still having access to Steam/Epic & whatever.

PS5 offers the same games, but on a more compelling platform that has outsold XSX|S.
That's w/o featuring "Game Pass" as a primary focus.

PC offers a larger library & backwards compatibility, but at the cost of some user unfriendliness and slower release cadence for AAA/AAAA games.

So yet for two generations in a row, Xbox is there, but it's really not doing fucking much. It's been having more misses than successes, & Microsoft as a trillion dollar company & the largest one in the world for market share, has been supporting Xbox like a cancerous growth since the Kinect days basically.

MS has been throwing $$$ into the Dumpster Fire that is the XBOX division since it's inception, at some point, it might think about going the Sega route and just be a "Software Publisher".

That's far more palatable to MS, since it's strengths has always been software, not hardware.

MS has recently divested of it's consumer hardware division for peripherals, despite being successful.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/18841/microsoft-to-discontinue-self-branded-peripherals-focus-on-surface-instead

https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/27/23700998/microsoft-keyboard-mouse-webcam-discontinued-surface-brand

They'll only stick with the over-priced "Surface Brand" that wants to compete with "Apple's Over-Priced Hardware".

Sony is still well & fully capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but it can't be undersold how much Xbox through Don Mattrick, & Phil Spencer, have botched what could have been much more successful. They might as well just move away from hardware entirely, & focus on cloud/software like a lot of people have been thinking. The Xbox glory days have long since past, & Nintendo gets to exist in it's own sandbox doing whatever the fuck, but like someone else said if they became a Sega entity that would be better for them overall.

More Don Mattrick, then Phil Spencer.

Phil has stemmed the bleeding from Don's screw up, but whomever thought the XBOX Game Pass was smarter than the traditional business model, needs to be fired.