I think there will be a time in which this comment will ring true. But it’s not this coming generation. Streaming is not yet cemented as a bigger money maker than their hardware based division.
Maybe. A sizeable barrier to streaming games is quality of the internet to get that service and the ongoing cost of it, i.e. decent broadband. Plenty of people can't get decent broadband; I live an affluent area of central London where fibre isn't an option because of the cost/disruption to the area to deploy it is prohibitive but 5G deploys shortly. Comparatively to fibre and other fixed-infrastructure technologies, 5G is cheaper to deploy, subscribe too and will spread very quickly and only get cheaper just like 3G and 4G.
game pass likely sells more on Xbox than any other platform. Game pass revenue is known recurring monthly revenue which is worth more to the company than boom/bust sales.
Subscriptions recur until they don't and have little predictability as they are predicated on the fickle behaviour, circumstances and preferences of the subscriber. I sometimes subscribe to PS+ but more than half of the year I don't. For me it's about how much I will spend gaming but for others it may be about cost, e.g. unexpected expenses making folks cut trim monthly costs for a while. There seems to be no incentive (or penalty) for dipping in and out of GamePass if your gaming time is sporadic.
The other invisible half of the equation, and something I've brought up before, is we have no visibility of the economics of subscription game services. This is a real head scratcher. Ignoring the even-lower introductory prices, I can pay Microsoft £3.99 a month on PC (which includes Spotify Premium) or £7.99 on console and get for less than Microsoft's sales cut of one full-priced new game, access to all the new games that come in a month, which in November and December will be a lot. Games I would otherwise have bought. How is this good for Microsoft or publishers - perhaps Microsoft are taking a hit and fully compensating publishers on the market cost of a lost sale.
I just posted in the sales thread about an Ars Technica report that Xbox profitability is down a second quarter in a row. The article speculates this is because is because nextgen consoles are on the horizon. They say "
It is also common to see slowing growth for a gaming platform just one short year before the start of a new console generation" but this isn't slowing growth, is two quarters of straight decline of revenue; 10% and now 7%. They launched the new GamePass which included Gold six months ago. GamePass is a great deal for subscribers, but is it a great deal for Microsoft? If it is costing them, how long will they sustain it?
The numbers, which in this case are actual revenue and costs - real money, don't seem to add up.