Xbox Game Pass, Game Pass Ultimate now Includes EA Play! [XGP, GamePass]

[Deleted member 11852]

It likely happens less than the normal Game Sharing setup on PlayStation or Xbox, where you set your "home" console to your friends/family member so they get the benefits you pay for (games purchased in Game Share setup), and vice-versa.

Why?

 

[BRiT]

Why?

I know not everyone does game sharing, but the potential reach is smaller because there are less GamePass subscribers than total console owners of both PlayStation and Xbox. So Pool A is smaller than Pool B. Especially if you count physical sharing of games as part of the Game Sharing Pool.

Perhaps flawed assumption.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I know not everyone does game sharing, but the potential reach is smaller because there are less GamePass subscribers than total console owners of both PlayStation and Xbox. So Pool A is smaller than Pool B. Especially if you count physical sharing of games as part of the Game Sharing Pool. Perhaps flawed assumption.

Have you considered the possibility that reason there aren't more GamePass subscribers than there are, after four-and-half-years, with it being such great value as subscribers will attest - is because there is quite a lot of people already exploiting the family friendly policies to the max already?

Sometimes I feel like the only person on the planet, not sharing their Netflix, Spotify or GamePass accounts with others.

 

[BRiT]

Have you considered the possibility that reason there aren't more GamePass subscribers than there are, after four-and-half-years, with it being such great value as subscribers will attest - is because there is quite a lot of people already exploiting the family friendly policies to the max already?

Yes, as I already said "It likely happens less than the normal Game Sharing setup on PlayStation or Xbox" earlier in this thread.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yes, as I already said "It likely happens less than the normal Game Sharing setup on PlayStation or Xbox" earlier in this thread.

By virtue that the absolute number of Xbox console owners is smaller than PlayStation, sure. But what about the relative proportions game sharers, the implementation of game sharing being different on both consoles and the number of games, including day 1 releases, included in GamePass?

Correct me if it's changed but the last time I checked, PlayStation game sharing was limited to two consoles at a time and it requires the sharer to login on the second PlayStation console (or share the PSN account login). Xbox seems to work the other way around, you get others to login on your console then multiple consoles simultaneously can share games you own. You can only share a disc with one person at a time and you lose the ability to play a game when you've lent the disc to somebody.

Even allowing for more PlayStation consoles, Xbox and GamePass seems to have a vastly greater potential for sharing games. Posters on Beyond3D often post how widely their GamePass subs are used.

 

[BRiT]

Correct me if it's changed but the last time I checked, PlayStation game sharing was limited to two consoles at a time and it requires the sharer to login on the second PlayStation console (or share the PSN account login). Xbox seems to work the other way around, you get others to login on your console then multiple consoles simultaneously can share games you own. You can only share a disc with one person at a time and you lose the ability to play a game when you've lent the disc to somebody.

It's really no different than PlayStation setup. At most you'll have 2 consoles in which a game can be played if it's digitally purchased or on game pass -- 1) The Home Console and 2) The Account Owner.


Account A has Xbox Live or Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscription
Account A set's Console A as their Home Console.
Any account that is physically using Console A can play the game owned or in Game Pass.
Account A can play the game owned or in Game Pass on any console they want.
Account A can only be playing one game at a time even if using xCloud or a dozen or more users share the account -- only one Account A can be active in a game at a time.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It's really no different than PlayStation setup. At most you'll have 2 consoles in which a game can be played if it's digitally purchased or on game pass -- The Home Console and The Account Owner.

Unless I'm misunderstanding all the sharing guides, on Xbox can share your game library with multiple other Xbox consoles at a time. On PlayStation it's only one other console. The scenario where people are posting about widely-shared GamePass libraries with multiple households is not uncommon. Maybe you need to time/arrange your playing of certain games so everybody gets their go, but with so many (incl. day 1 launch) games in GamePass, that doesn't sound like much of a limitation.

What am I missing?

 

[BRiT]

Unless I'm misunderstanding all the sharing guides, on Xbox can share your game library with multiple other Xbox consoles at a time. On PlayStation it's only one other console.

I think you're misunderstanding then. You can only share it with the single Home Console or with the Main Account. If they're sharing a single account then it's no different from sharing the account on Playstation.

Maybe there's exploits in being able to flip Home Console setting multiple times or at will, but that still requires access to the main account.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I agree, but it feels like a very distant future. GamePass - like music and movies streaming service - subscriber bases are a smaller fraction compared the audience of people buying content to 'own' content, whether physically on round things or digitally so how long will this future take to arrive for everybody?

Spotify is easily the largest music subscription service and in the second half of 2021 had 170m global subscribers. That's less than a quarter of the population of Europe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have a GamePass subscription myself.

Hmmm, are you suggesting that subscriptions services as a whole lags behind media purchases? This would suggest otherwise.

• Global consumer spending on media and digital content by frequency 2025 | Statista

For 2021, global single transactions (buy to own, physical and digital) revenue was ~290 billion USD. Meanwhile global subscription based revenue was ~1.11 trillion USD.

This report also mentions that subscription based services are currently the main driver for media consumption in various forms.

Global Consumer Spending on Media Content & Tech Defies Pandemic, Surges 6.1% to $2.01T in 2020, Fueled by Streaming Audio & Video Services, Videogame Software & Hardware (prweb.com)

It's interesting to note that for 2021, spending for physical (DVD, Blu-Ray, Movie Tickets, etc.) fell 46% YoY to ~43.05 billion. Ouch. Also, I'm surprised that the EU isn't in the top 5 for consumer media spending (US, China, Japan, India and Russia). That can't possibly be correct. Japan can't possibly be spending more on media than the EU, right? So maybe they don't consider the EU a market for some weird reason? Although without the UK in the EU, perhaps that was enough to drop the EU significantly in terms of global media spend? Still seems weird, though.

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Hmmm, are you suggesting that subscriptions services as a whole lags behind media purchases? This would suggest otherwise.

Unless I'm missing something it does not differentiate recurring subscription payments and actual purchases. I.e. I subscribe to Netflix, Spotify, some Apple services, PlayStation and Xbox GamePass and recurring payments get classified as subscription even when I buy things outright they are considered recurring payments because payments are frequently - but not even predictably regular, as on 4th day of each month. This is simply because the studies don't have that data,.

It's unsurprising that revenue on many physical items - but especially media - fell in 2021, because this was across the board and is consistent the lack of access to some physical goods. I.e. lockdowns and and stores being closed and an increase in demand for streaming services along with devices that could deliver them.

I think using most of 2020 and 2021 as any kind of barometer of change is flawed for this reason. These were not normal consumer spending years and the people using these years to demonstrate irregular spikes on spending are generally peddling a narrative.

 

[see colon]

It's unsurprising that revenue on many physical items - but especially media - fell in 2021, because this was across the board and is consistent the lack of access to some physical goods.

I think toilet paper did pretty well. And it's a physical good. There just isn't a digital equivalent that's essentially the same thing. And I think that's a big part of why physical media is falling off. Digital convenience in both purchasing and consuming is a factor. It's easy to just click "buy" and have access to a new game/movie/song/service, while the physical item needs to be shipped or picked up, and that takes time. And in the end, the consumable part is essentially the same thing.

 

[Pete]

I think toilet paper did pretty well. And it's a physical good. There just isn't a digital equivalent that's essentially the same thing.

<insert NFT joke here>

 

[eastmen]

Hmmm, are you suggesting that subscriptions services as a whole lags behind media purchases? This would suggest otherwise.

• Global consumer spending on media and digital content by frequency 2025 | Statista

For 2021, global single transactions (buy to own, physical and digital) revenue was ~290 billion USD. Meanwhile global subscription based revenue was ~1.11 trillion USD.

This report also mentions that subscription based services are currently the main driver for media consumption in various forms.

Global Consumer Spending on Media Content & Tech Defies Pandemic, Surges 6.1% to $2.01T in 2020, Fueled by Streaming Audio & Video Services, Videogame Software & Hardware (prweb.com)

It's interesting to note that for 2021, spending for physical (DVD, Blu-Ray, Movie Tickets, etc.) fell 46% YoY to ~43.05 billion. Ouch. Also, I'm surprised that the EU isn't in the top 5 for consumer media spending (US, China, Japan, India and Russia). That can't possibly be correct. Japan can't possibly be spending more on media than the EU, right? So maybe they don't consider the EU a market for some weird reason? Although without the UK in the EU, perhaps that was enough to drop the EU significantly in terms of global media spend? Still seems weird, though.

Regards,
SB

Blu-ray as a format in 2021/22 makes little sense. The players are extremely large and don't fit into the new life style aesthetic. They should really make a new format based on sd cards. Not micro as they are two small but regular sd cards. They have faster read speeds so you can have a higher bit rate for video and a player can be extremely small , not much bigger than a fire stick

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Blu-ray as a format in 2021/22 makes little sense. The players are extremely large and don't fit into the new life style aesthetic. They should really make a new format based on sd cards. Not micro as they are two small but regular sd cards. They have faster read speeds so you can have a higher bit rate for video and a player can be extremely small , not much bigger than a fire stick

The problem is cost. A 128 GB SD card is basically the same price as a new BRD movie release while a 64 GB SD card is roughly half the price of a BRD movie release.

Now, that isn't the cost to manufacture one, so let's say a production house producing movie releases for the commercial market pays just 30-50% of retail of something like an SD card. That's still going to be around 10-15 USD (128 GB) or 4-7 USD (64 GB) just for the media. Blu Ray disks for movies are under 1 USD per disc.

Considering that physical media is a rapidly shrinking market WRT movies and TV, moving to a more expensive distribution format would likely greatly accelerate the death of the physical media market. I mean it's possible that it could continue to limp along like the Laser Disc market did compared to VHS by selling higher quality and higher priced movie releases purely to Movie Enthusiasts with lots of money. But it's certainly not something that will re-invigorate the physical media market as a whole.

IMO, the only thing that would see a resurgence in physical media would be the death of the internet and loss of easy access to high bandwidth internet in wealthy countries. Something that's likely only going to happen if something triggers a 3rd World War.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

The problem is cost. A 128 GB SD card is basically the same price as a new BRD movie release while a 64 GB SD card is roughly half the price of a BRD movie release.

Now, that isn't the cost to manufacture one, so let's say a production house producing movie releases for the commercial market pays just 30-50% of retail of something like an SD card. That's still going to be around 10-15 USD (128 GB) or 4-7 USD (64 GB) just for the media. Blu Ray disks for movies are under 1 USD per disc.

Considering that physical media is a rapidly shrinking market WRT movies and TV, moving to a more expensive distribution format would likely greatly accelerate the death of the physical media market. I mean it's possible that it could continue to limp along like the Laser Disc market did compared to VHS by selling higher quality and higher priced movie releases purely to Movie Enthusiasts with lots of money. But it's certainly not something that will re-invigorate the physical media market as a whole.

IMO, the only thing that would see a resurgence in physical media would be the death of the internet and loss of easy access to high bandwidth internet in wealthy countries. Something that's likely only going to happen if something triggers a 3rd World War.

Regards,
SB

Customers will pay for quality or perceived quality. Just look at the record industry resurrecting itself.

An sd or other flash type movie distribution could bring many advantages over optical.

Bluray discs at 16x have a transfer rate of 72MB/s while SDUC cards can transfer up to 985MB/s.
Bluray discs hold 128GB while SDUC cards can go up to 128TB
Bluray discs are fragile even with their coating. SD cards do not scratch
Bluray discs are large while sd of course is small.
Bluray discs are loud while sd of course makes no sound.

So there are a lot of wins there. We have a lot of people no longer interested in going to a movie thearter and may be willing to pump that money into higher quality movies. My wife and I would go to a movie and drop $40 on tickets and another $20 on snacks. That $60 could go to better quality movies at home. I know I'd be on board with highquality video. A lot of the streaming services have lower quality video

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Customers will pay for quality or perceived quality. Just look at the record industry resurrecting itself.

An sd or other flash type movie distribution could bring many advantages over optical.

Bluray discs at 16x have a transfer rate of 72MB/s while SDUC cards can transfer up to 985MB/s.
Bluray discs hold 128GB while SDUC cards can go up to 128TB
Bluray discs are fragile even with their coating. SD cards do not scratch
Bluray discs are large while sd of course is small.
Bluray discs are loud while sd of course makes no sound.

So there are a lot of wins there. We have a lot of people no longer interested in going to a movie thearter and may be willing to pump that money into higher quality movies. My wife and I would go to a movie and drop $40 on tickets and another $20 on snacks. That $60 could go to better quality movies at home. I know I'd be on board with highquality video. A lot of the streaming services have lower quality video

Hell, even movie ticket sales (ticket sales and not ticket revenue) were in decline before the coronavirus hit. And the pandemic has basically decimated world wide ticket sales. it's another market that's slowly moving towards irrelevance. I suspect that you might have been one of the movie goers that enjoyed or would have enjoyed Laser Disc movie releases.

Regardless, the mass market is unlikely to ever again embrace physical media releases for film and TV. So, why not jettison the remaining mass market and instead focus on the high end movie and TV enthusiasts? In that sense, it would make sense to release a niche physical movie format at a higher price which would likely also come with higher profit margins as high end enthusiasts are more willing to pay a lot more money for a better experience.

Overall sales will obviously drop, but the market itself might be able to survive on the backs of film and TV buffs willing to pay a premium for better than streaming quality video.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

Hell, even movie ticket sales (ticket sales and not ticket revenue) were in decline before the coronavirus hit. And the pandemic has basically decimated world wide ticket sales. it's another market that's slowly moving towards irrelevance. I suspect that you might have been one of the movie goers that enjoyed or would have enjoyed Laser Disc movie releases.

Regardless, the mass market is unlikely to ever again embrace physical media releases for film and TV. So, why not jettison the remaining mass market and instead focus on the high end movie and TV enthusiasts? In that sense, it would make sense to release a niche physical movie format at a higher price which would likely also come with higher profit margins as high end enthusiasts are more willing to pay a lot more money for a better experience.

Overall sales will obviously drop, but the market itself might be able to survive on the backs of film and TV buffs willing to pay a premium for better than streaming quality video.

Regards,
SB

I had super vhs and laser disc and then dvd and hd dvd and bluray / ultra bluray.

There are many people who enjoy higher quality video. I think with 8k we need a new physical media because streaming is lacking for 4k let alone 8k.

As you say you create a high end product for the group still buying.

https://www.axios.com/vinyl-sales-growth-music-industry-5b54cf4f-d46f-4e5a-9f9a-6bef05a2935d.html

Vinyl records continue to surge. In the first 6 months of 2021 sales were up 108% over the same period in 2020

• "I’m using streaming basically 24/7, but having records has been a way of making my favorite music tactile," says Gigi Lone, an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto. "You can't really collect something on Spotify. This is just owning something that is dear to you."
• "There's definitely a hipness to it," says Chip Heuisler, who owns Tunes, a record store in Hoboken, New Jersey. "There is something about the tangible experience of taking the record out of its sleeve and putting it on the turntable. And, with older records, sometimes hearing a bit of that pop and crackle adds to the experience."

I think a lot of this exists with movies also. I've owned the original star wars , lord of the rings , evil dead and some other movies on every platform I've owned. They are movies I want to watch in the highest quality possible and I don't mind paying money for them. I bought the new lord of the rings hobbit bundle for $200 over the holiday. (also Hoboken can drop off into the Hudson river ..I hate that place)

Vinyl prices are also higher than CD prices


I also find laser disc discussion funny since I know a lot of people collect them for the same reason they have vinyl. They love the artwork and like to display them.

So maybe a record sized higher density bluray would be the next format.

 

[BRiT]

HitMan Trilogy hitting on January 20th.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1481630461516464131

 

[BRiT]

https://wccftech.com/leaked-january...tman-trilogy-rainbow-six-extraction-and-more/

Death's Door is a great game, rightfully GoTY material from 2021.

• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc coming to Xbox Cloud, Xbox consoles and PC.
• Death’s Door coming to Xbox Cloud, Xbox consoles and PC.
• Hitman Trilogy coming to Xbox Cloud, Xbox consoles and PC.
• Nobody Saves the World coming to Xbox Cloud, Xbox consoles and PC.
• Pupperazzi coming to Xbox Cloud, Xbox consoles and PC.
• Rainbow Six Extraction coming to Xbox Cloud, Xbox consoles and PC.
• Windjammers 2 coming to Xbox Cloud, Xbox consoles and PC.
• Taiko No Tatsujin coming to Xbox consoles and PC.
• Rainbow Six Siege Deluxe Edition coming to PC.

 

[cheapchips]

It might get lost among tomorrow's releases, but Nobody Saves the World is bags of fun. Very silly arpg with a novel character switching and questing mechanic.

Know that Game Pass is at 25m, I'm wondering who these subscribers are. Have they exhausted the xbox base of willing subscribers yet? Where's the point where growth has to be coming from PC and xCloud?