Sony Teases A PlayStation Response To Xbox Game Pass

@ValedictorianXD:

With all that money you think they’d have done better. The problem is that vast majority of console gamers prefer better games and that’s why we are looking at the situation we have now.

Take a quick look at game sales on wiki and you’ll see why MS is changing tactics and why Sony is not really that motivated to do it.

1-10 best selling games (in copies):

XB1: 8.72-5 million. PS4: 20-10 million

Best owned Single game:

XB1 (Minecraft) - 5.43 *not exclusive

XB1 (Halo Guardians) - 5 million

PS4 (Uncharted 4) - 16 million

Number of exclusives in the top 10:

XB1: 1

PS4: 5/6 *tie

Number of exclusives in the top 20:

XB1: 4

PS4: 13

They need more customers, Gamepass provided that Avenue. They are leaning on PC, mobile, other Nintendo and Sony having customers because they likely won’t match Sony or Nintendo individual sales numbers ever again.

While they have deep pockets to fill failing number and invest into pushing their GP ecosystem, we will see how far it takes them - as I pointed out, gamers want the best games and MS currently does not have that.

@ValedictorianXD: Microsoft says 70% of of Series X/S buyers have Game Pass. If this rate continues, and assuming $10 a month (my best guess of what people are actually paying on average with sales and discounts) they will make $1 billion a year for every 12 million systems sold. I have no idea what it costs them to operate the entire program, but I have to imagine it's in the hundreds of millions, and far less than a billion, and every extra 12 million systems out the door is another billion dollars in yearly revenue. At 48 million console sold (which I would have to think would be a disappointingly low sales number that's $4 billion a year, and if they can reach the 85 million units they sold with Xbox 360, that's $7 billion a year off Game Pass. And that is just console game pass, not including PC or mobile subscribers. They are going to print money this generation off of Game Pass.

@laurenriley3332: Er...no. That's...not right at all.

MS did what they did because they don't believe console gaming is a growing market. As Spencer himself said, "everyone who wants an Xbox gets an Xbox, and that's it" or something like that. The market isn't expanding or evolving. Meanwhile, service based games like Fortnite are going crazy, so MS decided to focus on services. It's the best move for them because they're already dominant in the software market which better leverages their brand. Essentially, every computer with Windows is an Xbox, so by going services they've just gained billions of customers.

@laurenriley3332: there's absolutely nothing in there that makes sense. Even if I wanted to play a game at launch and then come back to it in two years and it's not on game pass anymore, it already costs like $20 on sale. Even if I feel I'm "paying twice" for the game, it is still almost nothing compared to buying it for $70 right away. And what kind of bullshit is "a gamepass user is not going too picky about the games that are offered on the service, they feel happy just that they are able to play games"? That's as dumb as saying whoever pays Netflix is happy with watching old tv shows. The average xbox player makes $75k a year, which is above the American average. They literally have the world of gaming open for them, with all first party games available from launch plus whatever EA has on the table plus oddball additions like that Tetris game...

@laurenriley3332: Sorry but that's complete rubbish. First of all, disposable income has nothing to do with what console people buy. Second, Sony has become the home of 1st person shooters. They're literally the home of COD with early maps and exclusive DLC like game modes. They have a very expensive deal with the largest 1st person shooter franchise in history but they're all about single player games. Right. Sony cannot survive on 1 exclusive a generation from 5 studios. They have to adapt and grow towards long term goals or Microsoft and even Amazon and Google will leave them behind. Services are the future and that requires massive server farms that Microsoft, Google and Amazon are investing heavily in. Sure Sony could basically survive on being the console for RPG's but gaming is becoming synonymous with socialization. People want to enjoy games together. Hard to do that with a single player game like The Last of Us. I've always felt that when using a PlayStation console, social gaming was an afterthought. Its only part of last gen and the beginning of this gen that they are taking social gaming more seriously which is a good thing and you want them to stick mainly to single player RPG's. That is not a long term strategy. You can keep spending your $70 on single player games while Sony comes up with a plan to compete with Game Pass where, not only can you play AAA games on launch day, but you can play games you normally wouldn't have tried and find out that little known game is actually a blast. Sony can do both.

@laurenriley3332:

I don't think I've read such conceited shit in all my life. Xbox owners are poor, and can't be choosey as to what they play.

@laurenriley3332: Personally, I feel like Sony should have a similar offer, especially as Microsoft sweeps up companies left and right and offers them on the service. Sony might have the stronger catalog but that won't last long if Microsoft is more than willing to put down the coin for some strong devs. Microsoft is trying to buy their win in this console war and they likely will if left unchecked.

@white_wind: You can play offline upwards of 1 month on Xbox, even pc gamepass including gold, but once you hard reset you must establish a connection.

It can be with your phone's hotspot, or anything thing, and if the gamepass game is 1 day away from expiring you can play it upwards of 30 days but must not connect to the internet.

You will redeem the achievements once connected, something not even GameSpot staff are aware of.

@white_wind: Actually, GamePass' library is pretty retentive. Games don't leave all that often. Not sure about PS Now, but its library is thrice the size, so I assume it's similar.

@white_wind: They make money off of subs. People who don't have Game Pass still buy the games on Xbox and other platforms. They make money off of microtransactions. They make money off of people who have Gamepass and still want to buy the games at a small discount. They make money and at the end of the day that matters most.

@white_wind: Bethesda is first party now, so yes. All First Party games are free to game pass members.

@white_wind: They make 100 000 000 per month or more off of subscriptions. I don't know how much they pay to put a game on gamepass, but I'm sure that leaves plenty to make big budget games. Let's not forget that non subscribers still purchase those games, or some make a nice return after they leave the service, even if they're reduced in price by then. That said, I doubt we'll see very many 1st party games as lavishly produced as Sony's end up on gamepass. That's fine by me.

@Mkeegs79: lol yeah have fun with knack 2

@cugabuh: XSX expects the same thing, dude, and Nintendo isn't any better. And don't give me "Xbox exclusives on GamePass". I've played most of them, and, aside from Ori, they've all been some variant of disappointing. And nearly every new game added to GamePass, even the singleplayer games, are installing registry level anti-cheat (read: root kit) software, some of which aren't even monitored by MS (the anti-cheat included in Halo MCC is a third party software that has already been shown to take screenshots of your browsing activity, and post it to publicly accessible servers, even after you close Halo).

@cugabuh: what they’re saying is they don’t believe releasing them date and day on a subscription service. To be fair most if not all of Sony’s 1st party IP are so lavishly produced I do t think MS will ever follow suit and settle more on something like AA 1/2 for most titles and maybe 1-2 AAA titles every other year the likes produced by Sony first party. Or maybe never. I love how gamepass fills the gap between Sony’s first party lineup for me.

@cugabuh: There are $70 games on Xbox too... seriously?

@Lordcrabfood: gamepass is brilliant, Xbox has been stepping it up after the awful Xbox One I believe I will get the newer Xbox.

@cugabuh: thats what happens when you have an American run your shit