Microsoft spending $1B annually on third-party Xbox Game Pass titles (www.gamedeveloper.com)

submitted 11 months ago by Goronmon@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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[-] echo64@lemmy.world 36 points 11 months ago

this is on-top of all the lost sales from no one buying their first-party games.

Gamepass is not financially viable, it's funded by microsoft office and azure. It never will be unless they get a huge majority of the market /and/ raise praises massively. Which is of course their goal as soon as they kill the concept of game ownership.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 10 points 11 months ago

Yup, it's obvious once you connect everything why Microsoft is doing this. They're monopolizing the game market - and most gamers couldn't be more excited. When I was on Reddit I called out how competition was good and this was bad and was always met with the majority of people saying "nuh uh, they're going to put them all on game pass for only $9 a month!"

Kids let me tell you the story of Netflix.

[-] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Netflix at least didn't plan to be what it became from the start, they even experimented with releasing some of its originals on Blu-ray for a bit. But when every shitty heavy hitter in the entertainment industry comes after you, you're gonna learn to be shitty real fast.

Microsoft is a whole different brand of monster. They have a long, long history of terrible anti-competitve practices, fucking over their own consumers, flagrantly ignoring complaints, and making deeply underhanded moves. In many different markets, for decades. The Xbox One release was almost literally a thesis statement. They could not possibly have broadcast any clearer who the fuck they are and what the goal is.

And still, still, people defend them. They downplay everything and fall head over heels for their marketing bullshit.

That's why we're truly fucked without regulations. It's not just because corporations are terrible and will do incredibly underhanded shit at the drop of a hat to raise profits, it's also because the vast majority of the consumer base is fucking stupid. Incapable of pattern recognition and imagination, and unwilling to change their patterns even slightly. It's really, really, really easy to see the negative effects of a Microsoft dominated gaming market. And the consumers can't see it.

[-] simple@lemm.ee 26 points 11 months ago

Spencer revealed the figure during an interview with Windows Central and stated that Xbox Game Pass is "financially viable, meaning it makes money," despite that outlay.

That's interesting because they missed their milestone for 2021 and 2022 then stopped reporting their numbers for 2023. I kind of doubt they're making a real profit from Game Pass, else they'd be boasting about it more.

[-] Zehzin@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There's a difference between "profitable" and "how much money Microsoft wants to make after investing billions in something" and I'd wager it's a big one

[-] RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

I get what you're saying and I'm sure all the MBAs at Microsoft are shitting bricks, but I never fully understand why a company would be disappointed with a service like this one even doing only slightly better than breaking even.

Not everything needs to have infinite growth and gigantic margins as long as $-in > $-out.

[-] Gigan@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Opportunity cost. The money they are spending on Gamepass could be spent on something else with a better return.

[-] victron@programming.dev 1 points 11 months ago

I get what you saying, but I think (when it comes to video games) MS is in not position (and hasn't been for a while) to spend in something that doesn't gives them a solid profit. I like Game Pass, but since 2021 I subscribe only any other month or so, the novelty wore off and I have a big enough backlog to keep me occupied. MS needs (hear me out lol) some strong first party AA line up to make GP attractive.

[-] deus@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

I bet MS agrees with you which is probably why they've bought Bethesda and Activision Blizzard.

[-] Centillionaire@kbin.social 4 points 11 months ago

Last year they reported 25 million subscribers. Even if every single one of those was the $10 plan, that equates to $3 Billion. Seems like they are doing okay.