Business aspects of Subscription Game Libraries [Xbox GamePass, PSNow]

[mrcorbo]

The way I see it, you save money by not paying for a service which you assess offers no/little value. This is the same for every subscription service including Netflix. You have no control over what appears in them, when it appears or how long it'll remain in. I was a long-time subscriber to PlayStation Plus but quite when I felt I wasn't getting sufficient value.



This. If you know what you want you'll never have a problem. I can see GamePass is insanely good value for some but not for me. I have so little playtime that when I do store it up for special occasions, I want to play something specific. As I said before, if I was 20-30 years younger GamePass would be right up my alley. It's great for people with more time than money and people who are less fussed what they play, they just want a big choice of fun stuff.

I see the value calculation for GamePass to be if you get one AAA game every 6 months that you play via GamePass you break even and anything beyond that is a win in $$$ spent. Given that I did the 3 years of pre-paid Live to 3 Years of pre-paid GamePass Ultimate conversion the value ratio is even more absurd than that for me since I paid $181 for it. That's one full-priced game played a year on GamePass for either Xbox or PC and I break even in $$$ spent.

 

[disco_]

Have to admit I was expecting most to follow suit.
Wonder how long it will take for significant amount to increase prices.

Although I did mean after games start to go up, I think most people would still see it as good deal even if they increased it now. (even though I don't think they should yet)

Are we sure this isn't just to get themselves some good publicity given the things that came to light the past couple of weeks?

 

[Rangers]

just a heads up in the FY2020 Fourth Quarter Financial results they highlighted 100m xbox live players. I doubt they are going to get rid of the service. Also xbox conetent and services increased 65% yoy. Surface is also up 28% and M365 is up 3m to 42.7m users

142b quarter up 14% and 53b in operating income

I dont think they will.

But imagine shooting for 500 million users with a free service!

Maybe it could be ad supported. Ads on the dashboard.

 

[BRiT]

Maybe it could be ad supported. Ads on the dashboard.

That's not the direction they're going, not based on current insiders dashboard and surveys they've been focusing on. They're keyed on making it seem as ad-free as possible.

 

[Rangers]

Yeah, but that whole thing is based on the "if you pay for it it shouldn't have ads" ideal.

But it doesn't sound likely based on your comment.

 

[dobwal]

?

The Dashboard does display ads. It’s just limited to the Xbox Store. There is a WB sale going on right now from movies to games.

Now when they start trying to sell me on car insurance or an Ashley Madison account, I’ll definitely express my dismay here on B3D.

LOL

 

[eastmen]

Yeah, but that whole thing is based on the "if you pay for it it shouldn't have ads" ideal.

But it doesn't sound likely based on your comment.

we just had a major network launch peacock which has adds on it for free , more content than the free tier with ads for $5 or all the content plus no ads for $10.

 

[arhra]

just a heads up in the FY2020 Fourth Quarter Financial results they highlighted 100m xbox live players. I doubt they are going to get rid of the service. Also xbox conetent and services increased 65% yoy. Surface is also up 28% and M365 is up 3m to 42.7m users

142b quarter up 14% and 53b in operating income

The 100m figure is active users, not paid subscriptions. It includes everyone from a Gamepass Ultimate subscriber on console, to someone who bought Minecraft for their phone years ago and logs on to play once every few weeks or so.

 

[Entropy]

The 100m figure is active users, not paid subscriptions. It includes everyone from a Gamepass Ultimate subscriber on console, to someone who bought Minecraft for their phone years ago and logs on to play once every few weeks or so.

I wonder just how many are are Minecraft players.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I see the value calculation for GamePass to be if you get one AAA game every 6 months that you play via GamePass you break even and anything beyond that is a win in $$$ spent.

Absolutely, but again this only works if you are less fussed about what you want to play and when you play it. Not all AAA games go to GamePass and games don't stay in GamePass forever (obviously). For certain games, typically openworld RPG/action games, I'll get swept up in the marketing and want to play those on launch. I'll plan to make time around launch to play those few games.

I've always maintained that GamePass is good value if you're neither a busy nor picky sod like me. As of the end of April, there were 10m GamePass subscribers so against the estimated 50m Xbox One sales the service's adoption rate is at most ~20% of so it's clearly not appealing to the majority for whatever reason.

 

[cheapchips]

The 100m figure is active users, not paid subscriptions. It includes everyone from a Gamepass Ultimate subscriber on console, to someone who bought Minecraft for their phone years ago and logs on to play once every few weeks or so.

It specifically says Xbox Live users. Minecraft players are on various platforms, not just Live.

 

[Arwin]

But you have to have a live account now. My son plays on PS4 but after the update to the new engine he had to link his PSN account to an Xbox Live account.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

But you have to have a live account now. My son plays on PS4 but after the update to the new engine he had to link his PSN account to an Xbox Live account.

https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360037725571-Minecraft-for-PlayStation-TM-4-FAQ

The above suggests it's required for playing with other Minecraft players using non-PS4 platforms, which is most Minecraft players!

 

[mrcorbo]

Absolutely, but again this only works if you are less fussed about what you want to play and when you play it. Not all AAA games go to GamePass and games don't stay in GamePass forever (obviously). For certain games, typically openworld RPG/action games, I'll get swept up in the marketing and want to play those on launch. I'll plan to make time around launch to play those few games.

It only doesn't work if you are fussed in very specific ways about what you play and when you play it. Like if you have zero or little interest in Microsoft Studios titles such that you won't play one title over a 6 month period or two or more in a year (two full retail purchases being equivalent to 1 full year of GamePass) or you play a single game for over 6 months and you play nothing else in that time, so the sub ends up costing you more than if you bought that one game outright.

 

[eastmen]

It only doesn't work if you are fussed in very specific ways about what you play and when you play it. Like if you have zero or little interest in Microsoft Studios titles such that you won't play one title over a 6 month period or two or more in a year (two full retail purchases being equivalent to 1 full year of GamePass) or you play a single game for over 6 months and you play nothing else in that time, so the sub ends up costing you more than if you bought that one game outright.

You could also buy it on sale and stock up or use microsoft rewards and get it free. The other harder to quantify issue is third party stuff. We don't really know what will show up or when. So you could get a nice surprise for sure. Later this year game pass will get destiny 2 for example. I remember metro came to game pass really quickly also which was a nice perk. As I said while it will take a while microsoft wants to grow into being able to release a game pass game every couple of months from first parties

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It only doesn't work if you are fussed in very specific ways about what you play and when you play it. Like if you have zero or little interest in Microsoft Studios titles such that you won't play one title over a 6 month period or two or more in a year (two full retail purchases being equivalent to 1 full year of GamePass) or you play a single game for over 6 months and you play nothing else in that time, so the sub ends up costing you more than if you bought that one game outright.

Apart from me being interested in Microsoft Game Studios titles, particularly Halo, you're describing me and I'd hazard a lot of more mature gamers with families and/or non-videogame interests, i.e. where when we have some downtime videogames is not the default go-to activity. This year my significant console gaming time will be The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima and probably Cyberpunk 2077 - although I may get that on PC.

I think we agree the critical factors of the appeal of GamePass is for people who game often and are flexible on what games they play and when. Which is just fine. But how big a segment of gaming is that? GamePass launched in June 2017 and as of April this year had amassed 10m subscribers, most of whom I would imagine are Xbox owners, against an estimated 50m Xbox One sales. So why isn't GamePass appealing to a lager segment of the user-base?

I'll definitely play Halo Infinite on PC later this year for that £1 introductory month GamePass subscription. That's too good to pass up on.

 

[mrcorbo]

Apart from me being interested in Microsoft Game Studios titles, particularly Halo, you're describing me and I'd hazard a lot of more mature gamers with families and/or non-videogame interests, i.e. where when we have some downtime videogames is not the default go-to activity. This year my significant console gaming time will be The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima and probably Cyberpunk 2077 - although I may get that on PC.

I think we agree the critical factors of the appeal of GamePass is for people who game often and are flexible on what games they play and when. Which is just fine. But how big a segment of gaming is that? GamePass launched in June 2017 and as of April this year had amassed 10m subscribers, most of whom I would imagine are Xbox owners, against an estimated 50m Xbox One sales. So why isn't GamePass appealing to a lager segment of the user-base?

I'll definitely play Halo Infinite on PC later this year for that £1 introductory month GamePass subscription. That's too good to pass up on.

I don't, actually. It's most appealing to those people, undoubtedly, but I'm really struggling to find a situation where it wouldn't end up saving almost anyone some amount of money at some point, which is 100% the appeal for me. The only thing keeping it from being more popular is lack of content, IMHO, hence the shopping spree of studio acquisitions MS went on.

Now, if you are going to primarily play 3 games in a year and two of them are Sony 1st party I can see why GamePass may not be your thing.

 

[BRiT]

Now imagine Sony had their own Sony Cinematic GamePass with their first Party titles and ability to stream the to PC and Android devices. Would consumers hate that as much and proclaim they don't want a part of that future?

 

[PSman1700]

Now imagine Sony had their own Sony Cinematic GamePass with their first Party titles and ability to stream the to PC and Android devices. Would consumers hate that as much and proclaim they don't want a part of that future?

Sony going to PC with more of their games is already happening. I like that trend, there's no reason for anyone to be against that. Only patriots, ofcourse.

 

[mrcorbo]

Now imagine Sony had their own Sony Cinematic GamePass with their first Party titles and ability to stream the to PC and Android devices. Would consumers hate that as much and proclaim they don't want a part of that future?

I think some would, for sure. The model is a change from the status quo that brings along some trade-offs. Those tradeoffs work for me, but I think some have genuine issues with them that I can understand. I'm firmly of the belief that this *is* where things are headed, though, and the various platforms will get most people to come around either willingly or begrudgingly.

Edit: Just want to add, as I've stated earlier, that having options is my preference, so a market where both models can survive and thrive is my ideal outcome.