Xbox writes: "Please join us for a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast.
Hear from Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty as they share updates on the Xbox business."
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Not sure it ever was. It's upside was day 1 releases from 1st party. Few and far between plus it is just a rental service where you don't pick. It is fairly cheap for now that's a bonus. I think the beat deal in gaming is gamesale on reddit , and watching amazon
I got PSPlus and let me tell you it already feels like too much. As in, its nice to have all these games to play, but I'm still human and I only have a limited amount of time for gaming. The selection is definitely larger and better than Game Pass, but keep in mind, its 'Value' isn't something that normal people can really cash in on. Perhaps if you had it for GP ultimate, to get day on MS games, and only those games, and MS delivered on some bangers, it would be cool, but the same thing applies as with Plus. You are going to wind up paying for more than you actually use over a five year period. With GP set to go up in price, this exacerbates the situation. Plus you still got to PAY for games that aren't in the services that you want to play like GTA 6.
The only conclusion is that you pay more. You will not be able to get around that with any subs in the long run.
As a subscriber to Game Pass, I believe the service has the potential to be the best in gaming. However, to achieve this, it needs to consistently release three first-party exclusives each year: one AAA title and two AA titles, all with Metacritic scores of 82-85 or higher. Currently, it feels like we are not seeing this level of quality from Microsoft. Since acquiring numerous studios, the only standout game has been Hi-Fi Rush, and unfortunately, that studio is now closed.
I suggest that Microsoft's CEO consider bringing in experienced leaders like Jack Tretton or Shawn Layden to guide Xbox. Their leadership could help the Xbox brand become more competitive with PlayStation. Phil Spencer and his team, despite their efforts, seem to be struggling to keep up with the competition. It's concerning that Microsoft, having invested so much, is still unable to confidently report sales numbers without appearing lackluster compared to competitors.
Phil Spencer once mentioned that if Game Pass didn’t reach a certain threshold, they would reevaluate their strategy. This moment might be approaching. By 2030, there seems to be a higher likelihood of Xbox shifting to a software publisher rather than being a strong competitor to PlayStation or Nintendo.
The acquisition of Bethesda, motivated by fears of losing Starfield to Sony as a timed exclusive, hasn’t yet yielded the desired results. Over the past decade, Xbox has struggled with a series of underwhelming releases, and it’s time for a significant change to turn things around
It was only worth it for me when I got 3 years for $45 per year. I'm not paying $18 a month to wait 6 months for their next first party release.
This service would work better for me if it was cheaper and you got their exclusives 3 or 6 months after launch. My gaming group all bought three years because of the low price and we ended up playing a lot of smaller games we would have never tried.
I can't play or keep up with all the new content and I suspect most others can't either. I just feel like the service is better in the other direction instead of focusing on the big budget IPs and "AAAA" budget games.
It most certainly is the best deal in gaming. It's definitely not GOOD for gaming. But, the value is undisputable right now. I fully expect that value to decrease within the next year or two though. It has never been sustainable. It's only a matter of time.
I really have a hard time with calling these subs value. This is because as I tried to explain above, I link value to not just money but also time. You can't play all the game in the service to completion. Most games you would never touch. You may 'try' games with the service, but you are only going to play the games you enjoy. Games you come back to and play for years. If you are paying $200 a year for a service for 10 years, thats $2000. With that much money, you can just buy and keep all the games you are actually gonna want to enjoy. This is just my analysis btw and its subjective based on what I define as value which may be different to you.
"Suddenly", my gosh are people so slow on the uptake.
I've been saying this for years, its just a rental service nothing special, and you don't get to pick what the rental catalogue is nor how long it lasts. Anything can be taken away from you on a whim, even while you keep paying.
You know what the best deal in gaming is? BUY your games on disc / cart, OWN THEM, play them as much as you want, and no one can take them away from you.
Tapes and cartridges from the 80's still work to this day, and people can still enjoy them without having to pay any additional fees. That sounds like a far better deal than a corporate rental service.
This. Playing xenogears on my OG PS1 right now. Just got to Dazil and have most deathblows learnt but not accesible due to my level. What makes it bearable on a 4K tv is a AV to HDMI upscaler. Obviously has limits but good enough for me. No worries of the game being removed from a service too.
That's the whole point of renting... you rent, you play, you buy your own copy if you feel the need. What GP is doing is no different than the blockbuster or hollywood videos or every mom and pop rental shop. And people would buy their own copies if they liked what they rented.
No. What game pass has done is tried to increase the idea that games have no value when buying. Only that the SERVICE has value through renting. Rent what you like when you like on any platform you choose that we're on for pennies.
When you push the idea upfront that developers games don't need to be purchased, not only does it hurt those developers, it hurts the industry with less revenue and profit to be made. Microsoft doesn't care as the only thing they care about is the subscriptions. They'll just replace you as a developer or your game with someone else if you go out of business or fire employees to stay afloat.
We have not seen one instance where Microsoft cares. They didn't care about Tango even if they made a good game that Shadow launched on game pass and killed the games sales. What makes you think they care about any other developer big or small? It's all about game pass right? This great rental service that's been known to kill game sales as Microsoft no longer reports them. And we've seen every NPD and worldwide sales of games on Xbox that are dwarfed by Nintendo and PlayStation game sales.
The selfishness of thinking about this bullshit value of the service is why many developers and employees have been hurt. The nonsense of Microsoft buying up publishers to prop up the service resulting in even more job losses.
You and Truth are part of the problem.
That may be the point from gamepass but we all know a majority of the base isn't doing that. Most are using it for their gaming period.
Yeah and where are those Blockbuster or Hollywood Videos now? The problem is you claim people will "buy if they feel the need" but they clearly are not doing that and the numbers prove it, MS is removing physical games from stores becasue they know people aren't buying them.
@romulus... well the fall of BB and HV was due to the declining markets for physical media. something that has been happening to gaming as well. The PC market is 99% all digital and it doesnt seem to stop anyone from buying. Consoles are becoming no different. People used to try before they buy thanks to demos... now it happens that these demos are the full thing. And yes, people ARE actually buying the games as a result of GP. You, shin & shadow just arent paying attention, or you deliberately choose to ignore that fact.
I'll probably download 4 of the games they announced coming today over the next month for £9. Seems ok to me.
But then, I tend to play single player games and i rarely revisit so a "rental service" suits me. Pretty much everything I play on PS is via PS+ extra.
I am the complete opposite. I have ditched both GamePass and PlusExtra because I find I just add stuff to my play later queue and end up playing all the games I've bought instead. I went a whole year on both services and barely used them at all.
Sure are. I've stopped buying new releases day 1 too so it might come to the stage where I get through my backlog and whatever I have skipped over for a later day might start showing on these devices and make it too tempting to pass up. Not sure how I feel about the services as a whole either though.
Even now, I just finished playing Mutant Year Zero and kinda want to pick up Miasma Chronicles. I could get Plus Extra to play it but I'm tempted to just buy it on sale instead
Same. I've had both services for awhile now and barely use them. Buying games just makes more sense. I just gotta cancel still though
Mutant year zero was an awesome game btw
It was always overrated. It only ever appealed to a certain subset of gamers anyways, which are the type who don’t care about owning games and are content to just experience them once and move on…or people who wanted to play CoD without buying it. It never seemed that glamorous to me, and I’m not at all surprised it has turned out to be unsustainable for MS.
Looking at GP attach rate for current gen Xbox (70%), the actual subset is gamers that want to purchase games.
Why via a podcast?
why is it a podcast?
i feel a stunt coming.
A podcast? What a weird way of handling this. Xbox PR never ceases to amaze.
Whatever they say it needs to be clear and concise. MS are hilariously bad at communicating but they had weeks to figure it out. There's nothing they can say that wouldn't cause backlash (if it's as bad as we think it is) all they can do be crystal clear. Don't say on thing now, then later in the year have another buissness meeting, yeah no absolutely not. One and done and don't ever talk about it again it needs to be that clear.
I still believe ABK will be full multiplat that's a given. Certain LS games will be multiplat while BZ and Xbox Game Studios will be exclusive.