SouravSatvaya@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Looks like Microsoft is now entirely focusing on selling games rather than selling Xbox. I read somewhere that eventually they’ll bring the Game Pass to Play Station and Nintendo. It’s no surprise if they do so because last year they earned more money on Game Pass than selling hardware.
Admittedly, that's helped by them doing terribly at selling hardware.
But also, screw gamepass and the subscription model overall. If we're gonna crap on Ubisoft for their recent foot-in-mouth episode let's be consistent and call all of it out. I'm cool with this as long as I can keep buying these in boxes.
I honestly don’t hate game pass, it’s great for trying games id never even consider buying and if I really like the game and it’s off of game pass I would purchase it. Or if you have a group of friends that like to hop between co-op games you can do that too.
Like the Yakuza game series they have all of them currently on game pass, but the new one won’t be and I’ll definitely be buying the game.
It’s good now, but so was Netflix before everyone decided they needed their own streaming platform.
Sure, it has its uses. So do the subscriptions from Ubisoft or EA, though.
All I'm saying is that the digital distribution outlets that people like and have a good reputation (Game Pass, Steam) still have all the downsides that people love to get mad about in the alternatives they dislike. That doesn't mean you should refuse to use the ones you like, but you should probably keep an eye on the effects it has on the art form and the industry.
I do see that since it’s Ubisoft, they could still push for games on the subscription service but in reality I could see the games being loaded up with micro transactions.
Or it could turn into a convoluted game demo service, where you can play a portion of a game then they hit you with a pay wall, and since you’ve already played X% of a game they could view it as more likely to buy.
They’re horrible at making games too. Their biggest games have been IP conceived and developed externally and once they took them over they’ve run them into the ground of mediocrity. In over twenty years I don’t think any developer or franchise has benefited from Microsoft owning them.
I'm not sure who "they" is in this scenario. If it's Microsoft Games Studios... well, yeah, they're a publisher. You just described what a publisher is.
I think if we're talking about their recent publishing strategy they've certainly been on a bit of a rut. There's still some interesting stuff happening with their IP. They got Relic to make a surprsiingly faithful Age of Empires, people do like Microsoft Flight Sim, that type of thing. But still, yeah, they've made a lot of purchases and we haven't seen new games coming out from most of those to justify those purchases, which does speak to a bit of a struggle to find a direction. That Hellblade sequel looks intriguing, but for a publisher with a lot of fully owned studios that has been fighting claims of monopolistic practices for their high profile acquisitions their output from that stable hasn't picked up pace yet.
I get it, games take forever to make now. That Hellblade game has been marketed for as long as the Xbox Series has, and that came out in 2020. Still, that itself is a problem. If the big oil tanker is hard to steer you have to plan your turns before you get to the icebergs. I do genuinely hope they get it together, though. That's a lot of talent, IP and potential to let run on idle for too long. Or worse, to fail in the context of a major corporation and stop getting support.
They got Relic to make a surprsiingly faithful Age of Empires, people do like Microsoft Flight Sim, that type of thing.
“Their biggest games have been IP conceived and developed externally” so not really a counter argument to phillaholic when you mention two games outsourced to external developers.
But also, screw gamepass and the subscription model overall.
If GamePass meant “you just get everything”, I see a case for that but GamePass isn’t that. It’s “Here are a few Microsoft 1st party games scoring 7/10 other games cycle in and out like Netflix and you get no DLC so when you buy DLC and the game cycles out, you’re out of luck”
I'm not sure if you read my comment backwards or you're just agreeing with it?
Anyway, yeah, I think hte big problem gaming subs have is that unless you have first party ownership over every game in existence you can't do the Netflix thing of pretending to be selling the only expense you're ever gonna need. The way games work you engage with them too long and they cycle around too fast, so even if there is a big pool of games they offer it's just a big fat pit of FOMO and feeling bad for seeing that game you're mildly interested in come and go without actually having played it. I already have a stressful backlog without adding the pain point of monetizing my not getting around to all the games I'd like to play.
They’d love to have GamePass on Switch and PS5 already, Nintendo and Sony are the roadblock because they don’t want to lose the share of cash and hours of playtime on their own platforms.
Then there comes the EU rules. I think if Sony or Nintendo try to block the Game Pass on their platforms. MS will seek the EU’s help.
Microsoft has been betting on content delivery for a while now. They don’t care how you play their games, they just want you playing them.
I wonder if Sony would allow gamepass in their ecosystem. That said, if this is true then we are likely to see Microsoft leave the console hardware market.
Hardware is a race to the bottom, and MS is ultimately a software company first.
Especially since in the near future streaming games will be a thing. Amazon is already working on it.
It's been tried multiple times and it just doesn't work. Physics (the speed of light) ultimately dictates latency. Streaming only works for a rather small subset of games that doesn't rely on reaction time or latency at all. And then only works for people who play those games a lot (you're not going to sub to a streaming game service if the majority of the games you want to play don't work on it). There's a reason Google Stadia died.
verysoft@kbin.social 5 months ago
The only reason anyone wants to sell consoles is to get you locked in that ecosystem and sell you games. They don't make a profit on the hardware, Xbox game pass is their headstart into purely game sales, well a subscription and cloud service that everyone is trying to jump on right now.