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

[Deleted member 11852]

Funny this Xbox youtuber complain of no promotion of Xbox in a retailer shop in Belgium but the retailer employee told him "They don't promote Xbox because the marketing is turning too much around Gamepass". He stay a few hours and he saw multiple PS5 sold. This is a retailer call FNAC existing in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Switzerland and in one Middle east and some African country(Tunisia, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and Senegal).

As somebody who travels in Europe a lot, mostly France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Poland and Italy, the lack of Xbox marketing is something I have noticed. I did mention this in another thread and some folks who live in those countries also commented that Microsoft does not seem to do conventional marketing. In many European capitals, when a new Sony-published game is coming out, it's pretty hard not to see it promoted in boards, public transport or even the sides of buildings.

 

[Nesh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1626605215964069888

Funny this Xbox youtuber complain of no promotion of Xbox in a retailer shop in Belgium but the retailer employee told him "They don't promote Xbox because the marketing is turning too much around Gamepass". He stay a few hours and he saw multiple PS5 sold. This is a retailer call FNAC existing in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Switzerland and in one Middle east and some African country(Tunisia, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and Senegal).

The retailer has a point. I ve never experienced such a shrinkage of gaming departments in shops ever. During the PS360 era the expansion of games in retailers exploded, with huge sections also dedicated to used games.

Now these sections are a fifth of that due to the digital market. I ve seen people who went to XBOX that werent much into gaming due to gamepass too.

Gears of War relesses on 360 had posters and ads in shops. The last Gears games had nothing. They werent even brought in enough quantities to sell to those that wanted physical.

MS has killed the incentives for retailers

 

[BRiT]

MS has killed the incentives for retailers

It started with Valve and Steam.

 

[Nesh]

It started with Valve and Steam

They didnt have anything to do with consoles.

 

[BRiT]

They didnt have anything to do with consoles.

Their influence and push for the digital marketplace for games has been felt everywhere, especially the consoles.

 

[Nesh]

Their influence and push for the digital marketplace for games has been felt everywhere, especially the consoles.

Especially PC you mean. The push for Gamepass have done it even more. It tries to replace game purchasing with a subscription based model altogether, and MS was the first to put out a digital only console

 

[BRiT]

Especially PC you mean.

No. Especially Gamers. Gamers of all sorts. Valve and Steam ushered in the new era of digital convenience. Every other market had had to follow along or perish when consumers reject it. Sure, it's been a slog for some markets as some have resisted progress, but its what is expected.

Yes, it's also been pushed along by mobile, where physical products aren't a thing, but that too is simply taking the Valve and Steam pure digital concept and extending it to different hardware.

 

[Nesh]

No. Especially Gamers. Gamers of all sorts. Valve and Steam ushered in the new era of digital convenience. Every other market had had to follow along or perish when consumers reject it. Sure, it's been a slog for some markets as some have resisted progress, but its what is expected.

Yes, it's also been pushed along by mobile, where physical products aren't a thing, but that too is simply taking the Valve and Steam pure digital concept and extending it to different hardware.

That doesnt change the fact that MS is pushing for a subscription based service which fully replaces purchase of games with day one releases

Consoles support physical purchases (minus the digital consoles that MS has been pushing more than either Sony or Nintendo ) to this day.

PCs on the other hand started abandoning disk drives of any sorts probably even earlier than the PS360 era, when despite the introduction of digital stores on consoles, saw the biggest boom in retail.

Surely digital shops were expected to grow and cannibalize from physical sales, but you ommit the fact that MS consciously pushes gamepass as the best value proposition for XBOX experience over game purchases with the aim of converting gamers new and old to the subscription, whereas competitors support sales in general and subscriptions are handled like life cycle management of products sold. MS releases day one on gamepass telling people its cheaper to not buy but to subscribe for a fixed fee.

The push for subscriptions eliminate the need for purchases altogether and sends a message to retailers. Of course they are going to sell even less games and have less reasons to promote.

 

[BRiT]

That doesnt change the fact that MS is pushing for a subscription based service which fully replaces purchase of games with day one releases

They're not. It's not one which completely replaces purchases. It's just another option.

 

[Deleted member 2197]

That doesnt change the fact that MS is pushing for a subscription based service which fully replaces purchase of games with day one releases

True and think the writing is already on the wall. The push for subscription based Windows and Office products is a tell-tell signal of their overall purchase strategy.

 

[Nesh]

They're not. It's not one which completely replaces purchases. It's just another option.

It is an option which incenticives subscription over purchase and it is part of the strategy. I mean, what do you expect? MS to just shut of the other options?
I dont know how things are in US but in EU, when XBOX first party games were released in the past, suppliers were having big stocks for retailers to order because they were guaranteed sales.
Now they have very limited numbers and it is hard to find in retail. Third party XBOX games on the other hand are more available.
This is a direct contrast to the picture you would expect from big AAA exclusives, which traditionally sell more.

On the other hand Nintendo and Sony first and third party games are more available from suppliers. This isn't just the difference from userbase. Games like Gears of War for example were limited stock and you could find only near the launch of the game. After that there was nothing. In the past, Gears of War was plastered everywhere in retail

I have friends who work in retail and one of my friends own a small shop and he is sending me the suppliers lists of games available to place my orders. XBOX First party games are barely available in quantities even for pre-orders because they are day one on Gamepass. Third party games are on the other hand more available.

Gross profit from console sales, at least in the PS4/One genereation, were around 20 euros. A very low amount. And I am sure it spretty much the same now. The spending on console stocks is pretty large and the margin low. But retail software sales are shrinking on XBOX which is were shops are betting to get the profits. They have more reasons to stock and sell Playstaton and Nintendo hardware and software.


This is NOT a concidence:

https://www.pocket-lint.com/xbox-admits-game-pass-reduces-game-sales-amid-activision-buyout-furore/

 

[BRiT]

I dont know how things are in US but in EU, when XBOX first party games were released in the past, suppliers were having big stocks for retailers to order because they were guaranteed sales.

Most retail game stores inventory has mostly been systems, accessories, and other merchandise like the Card Collecting genre or Funko Pop or Amiibo like items for quit a while now. It was trending that way before Game Pass was even released 5 years ago.

 

[Nesh]

Most retail game stores inventory has mostly been systems, accessories, and other merchandise like the Card Collecting genre or Funko Pop or Amiibo like items for quit a while now. It was trending that way before Game Pass was even released 5 years ago.

You ignored the rest of my post which puts it into perspective

 

[Nisaaru]

The retailer has a point. I ve never experienced such a shrinkage of gaming departments in shops ever. During the PS360 era the expansion of games in retailers exploded, with huge sections also dedicated to used games.

Now these sections are a fifth of that due to the digital market. I ve seen people who went to XBOX that werent much into gaming due to gamepass too.

Gears of War relesses on 360 had posters and ads in shops. The last Gears games had nothing. They werent even brought in enough quantities to sell to those that wanted physical.

MS has killed the incentives for retailers

It's a dying business anyway as there is no point buying physical discs anymore outside of collector's editions. The last game I bought physical was Castle Wolfenstein New Order in 2014 and only because it wasn't available/censored.

 

[iroboto]

True and think the writing is already on the wall. The push for subscription based Windows and Office products is a tell-tell signal of their overall purchase strategy.

you can still buy office and windows.
There haven't been any gamepass exclusives, and those products aren't proper parallels.
TLDR; It's just impossible to have every single game on gamepass.
Which means there will always be a method to purchase said game whether physical or digital.

Gamepass is not going to be the primary mode for xbox. It will be the primary mode for cloud game streaming, which makes sense, but it's not going to be the primary mode for gaming until people want to stop owning games entirely.

 

[Nesh]

It's a dying business anyway as there is no point buying physical discs anymore outside of collector's editions. The last game I bought physical was Castle Wolfenstein New Order in 2014 and only because it wasn't available/censored.

Me and most of my friends buy everything physical.
But yeah it is a dying business because digital is where companies want to go.
They dont want the used market to exist, and they are eliminating a lot of middle men costs, so margins are larger since games are still sold at full retail price in digital stores.

 

[Metal_Spirit]

Me and most of my friends buy everything physical.
But yeah it is a dying business because digital is where companies want to go.
They dont want the used market to exist, and they are eliminating a lot of middle men costs, so margins are larger since games are still sold at full retail price in digital stores.

They will only go as far as we let them.
I never buy digital. Have all consoles ever produced up to 2020 from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Skipped Xbox series as the console is no longer needed for playing Xbox games (I have a PC way more powerful than the series X). Almost all digital games I own are from Live Gold or PSN Plus. Bought digital games are about a handful.
I see myself as a collector. I'm proud of having all of this in fully working state, and I do not want or buy games that are server dependant since I will not be able to keep them on a working state for the future. Xbox One games were skipped a lot because they were dependent on multiplayer, and as such, server dependant.
In my webpage, I have a lot of readers who also buy physical only.
Shure, digital is growing, and will eventually kill physical. But I highly doubt that will happen so soon since physical still represents a large part of sales.

As for the used market, it will eventually come to the digital market also. It's a buyer right that is neglected atm.

 

[fehu]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1626605215964069888

 

[fehu]

The fact that basically, the only available xbox model is the one without a disc reader, is part of the problem.

 

[Nesh]

They will only go as far as we let them.
I never buy digital. Have all consoles ever produced up to 2020 from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Skipped Xbox series as the console is no longer needed for playing Xbox games (I have a PC way more powerful than the series X). Almost all digital games I own are from Live Gold or PSN Plus. Bought digital games are about a handful.
I see myself as a collector. I'm proud of having all of this in fully working state, and I do not want or buy games that are server dependant since I will not be able to keep them on a working state for the future. Xbox One games were skipped a lot because they were dependent on multiplayer, and as such, server dependant.
In my webpage, I have a lot of readers who also buy physical only.
Shure, digital is growing, and will eventually kill physical. But I highly doubt that will happen so soon since physical still represents a large part of sales.

As for the used market, it will eventually come to the digital market also. It's a buyer right that is neglected atm.

You are reminding me one of my friends. He was very annoyed that Halo Infinite's disk only acts as a signature to download the game digitally to allow to play the campaign.
In general most of my friends we like owning the good games on disk. Digitally we usually buy only games that are no other way available, or games that werent much of a priority but got super cheap in store