Correction: It is to make money, but the goal is to get people to subscribe now then jack up the prices once people start relying on it.

They've already plateaued and basically admitted to it. It's a large revenue stream that's not as large as they thought it would be, so now they're going to coast with it and rely on just being a massive publisher instead.

It's happening across the board at every industry.

Rather than try to appeal to a larger audience, they've found it's more profitable to take greater advantage of an ever-shrinking pool of saps.

Mark my words, they legitimately don't want the business of people with standards or self-respect. They want to cultivate communities where the only participants are Stockholm Syndrome victims and their abusers.

People never bought music from artists.

They bought it from record labels.

Whenever you see an artist complain they had a million streams and made twenty dollars, it's not Spotify that's keeping it all.

Renting games and music seems like a bad idea to me, but I am in the minority. Buy a new album once a month for $8, after a year I have 12 albums. Pay that to spotify and I have nothing.

Gamepass is priced more aggressively at $12/mo, but I assume it's a loss so they can eventually raise prices. Even so, if I buy a new somewhat discounted game for $36 every three months, after a year I have four games. With gamepass, I'm pretty sure I end up with nothing.

But I don't think humans are known for long term thinking.

"Artists" lol.
The ratio is 100:1 (1 being an actual artist or a studio still enacting on this believe)

Yeah, subscriptions are trash. Will be glad to see it go when it finally does.

GamePass used to be such a good value, but it’s gotten so overpriced. I’d rather keep the money and spend it on a few games a year I get to keep. Plus, not being available on Linux and/or Steam Deck makes it easier to ignore. Never going back to Windows.