I’m glad their subscription service failed. It is Microsoft’s attempt to capture the market and become the sole gatekeeper by undermining stores like Valve. If it succeeds MS will have all the leverage to decide how much a developer gets paid and which games will get released instead of letting the market decide.

Basically the Silicon Valley playbook, lure in creators with bags of money and entice customers with low subscription rates. Once customers are used to the service increase the subscription rates and lower the fees and royalties the creators gets. It’s what Uber and Netflix have done.