Console Subscription Service Growth Is Nonexistent

If so, that'll mean more people will get to play it once it comes to Xbox, the cloud, and Game Pass..

Sounds like a good thing for a live service game..

2nd party isn't valid Btw. 2nd party is made up term by gaming community and journalism. It isn't valid. As you don't see term "2nd party partners" in financial reports by companies, only 1st party or 3rd party partners.

Anyway, my original post was referred to this post of yours

meanwhile, PlayStation (without a Day One service) isn't providing any major 1st party titles this year, is relyng on remakes/remasters, and is making a hard pivot to live service games.. and currently,

Helldivers 2 is 1st party title as i said.

you should refer your response to Sony..

PlayStation won’t release any major first-party games before March 2025

An increase in price for Game Pass in the future wouldn’t surprise me. Obviously would rather pay less but as long as I still see value in the service for me then I’ll keep on subscribing.

yeah, if Xbox wants to raise the price until people start unsubscribing that's on them.. it's the tightrope that any service has to balance on..

right now, i still feel good about it.. we'll see how that shifts in the upcoming months and years..

@Antwan3K: Yeah for sure. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it either. Will keep subscribing as long as it’s worth it for me.

Are you trying to tell me that you can unsub from Game Pass if you don't see value in the service anymore? That is crazy.😏

Once again, MS is ahead of other services at this point. Subscription services are a long game...

I know right?.. It's almost as if it's an optional service..

I don’t want subscription services. I want games consoles like they used to be. The ps2 was the last great console.

"Wow, didn't see this coming"

...said no one.

Companies need to learn and/or be happy with just being profitable. This obsession with infinite growth off of finite resources is concerning, to say the least.

Ya I can't stand the double-dipping; you want to charge me for streaming? Fine. You want to give me free product with ads? Fine. You don't get to do both, though.

These people killed TV and cable off and now that it is gone, they can do what they want.

Don't get me wrong; I'm fine with streaming in terms of content, availability, quality, and so forth. It's the business aspect I dislike.

Good to hear that people aren't taking up the service. Hopefully it falls in a heap and MS fire Phil, and it forces MS to actually compete again.

I hope not because 2005 MS/Xbox scares me. I don't want to go back to to the green side for the simple fact that they were much better than the blue side at literally everything. Phil, please stay in charge for the next 30 years. Thank you.

It could be worse, and Xbox goes away and then you're left with Sony, and we all know what happens when Sony gets arrogant.

Maybe Phil should go work for Sony as I hear they're looking for Jimbo's replacement.

If Xbox goes away and Nintendo doesn't become Sony's competition, this is the year i will officially transition to pc only. Sony with no competition is...............

Well, we both know Xbox needs PS and PS needs Xbox to keep each other in check, and nobody needs Nintendo, well not with their overpriced Fisher Price gaming device lol.

Incredibly true. The truest thing you've ever said.

That's because console gaming is simply not growing, especially among the hardcore gaming crowd. It is what it is.

Though I do have to poke fun. Sony and Microsoft fans have been 'predicting' (see: wishing) that Nintendo would be going third party for several generations. Yet, Microsoft and Sony are putting their games on PC. It's just funny.

@luxuryheart: Nintendo will follow, they just don't have a reason to now. The convergence is inevitable.

In the end, Nintendo and PC gaming is the way to go for this and next generation

@FireEmblem_Man: totally agrree

essentially, at this point, PC includes both Xbox and PlayStation.. so basically you're saying "all gaming is the way to go for this and next generation"..

and on that i can agree..

Next-gen, i'll likely go ahead and build a proper gaming PC and potentially get an Xbox console (hopefully the handheld rumors are true) as a companion device due to Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Play Anywhere..

i'll see what Nintendo does with the Switch 2 but I doubt i'll pick one up..

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/warner-bros-discoverys-max-now-has-nearly-100-million-subscribers-streaming-profit-up/1100-6523299/

Warner Bros Discovery's Max Now Has Nearly 100 Million Subscribers, Streaming Profit Up

Despite recent announcements over price increases and an ever-shrinking library, for now, Warner Bros. Discovery is on the up and up.

Warner Bros. Discovery has reported results for the quarter that ended March 31 with Q1 total revenues totaling $9.95 billion. Global streaming subscribers were at 99.6 million at the end of Q1, up 2 million in Q4.

The company is the combination of Discovery, Inc. and AT&T's former WarnerMedia wing, and is just over two years old. The merging created a colossal pile of debt having WBD pay down $1.1 billion of it in Q1 2024 with $43.2 billion remaining. It also created some controversy in how some programming was being marketed towards which demos.

“We are pleased with our progress in the first quarter as evidenced by strong results in important KPIs. We delivered meaningful growth in our streaming business with a nice acceleration in ad sales, generating nearly $90 million in positive EBITDA for the quarter," David Zaslav, President and CEO of WBD said in a statement.

This is totally fine with me, if the subscription model isn't working out then neither will cloud gaming and cloud gaming can't exist without the subscription model. Nobody is gonna pay $70 to play a 720p video with delay. They kept telling me cloud gaming is the future, but thank god that will never be the case. Also they need to stop trying to destroy physical media.

@SecretPolice: Those numbers do not translate into profit. The money both MS and Sony are paying to publishers to have their games on their respective services doesnt come cheap. And if people are buying these subscriptions on deep discounts that we see often then less profit even. I dont know if this model will be sustainable in the long run

Devs/publishers used to pay console manufacturers to have their games on their consoles. Now we see console manufacturers paying to have their games on their services

Because there are no games worth subbing for. Make better games. Oh, they no longer know how.

Are you a shareholder? If so, then cutting these studios has certainly created a lot of 'value'

Maybe you should have read the context before responding.🤔

Oh I know. Tell me, why did MS cut the studios and why are they now considering increasing the price of Game Pass? It should be easy, given the insider insight that we've gotten from 'twitter users'

Also again, are you a shareholder?

None of what you stated relates to my comment. 🤷🏽‍♂️

it's nice being able to just sit down, put your feet up, scroll through a load of games and pick one you fancy. i've not found anything on there that's set my world on fire but it's filled a gap whilst it's all quiet on the western front in sony land. i'd say my play time is split pretty equally between series x, ps5 and pc these days, whereas last gen it was 90% ps4.

base game pass is bare though, you need ultimate or it's slim fckin pickings

outside of EA Play, what games are we getting via Ultimate that aren't available via the lower tier?..

serious question, curious if i missed some change in the service..

@Antwan3K: off the top of my head, after ea and ubisoft, i cant say exactly but i downgraded to standard (because, ignorantly, i assumed it was just a multiplayer / play on pc thing) and when i filtered by what was available there was barely anything left. seriously lol. i resubbed to ultimate

I don't even want to add free apps to my phone, much less paying to subscribe to soulless trash modern media.

I prefer the old model: They make a good product, I pay for that product, then they **** off.

As Xbots are stupid - it says MAJOR. There are NON-Major games. Helldivers game wasn't big until 2nd one came out in Feb

Who to believe, mega corp. WB our some SW posser, ehm, I mean poster?

It's a real head scratcher I tellz ya. lolol :P

@SecretPolice: well, mega corps DO lie to please investors. I gain nothing with posting my pov on a internet forum.

Saying this, I would rather believe a internet forum poster fact based opinion than a PR bs mega corp statement

yeah, i think "Game Pass Core" only has like 25 games.. but if you get "Console Game Pass" or "PC Game Pass", i believe the list of games is basically the same as Ultimate..

if i'm not mistaken, the main benefits of ultimate are access to Game Pass on both console and PC, EA Play access, and the inclusion of Xbox Live Gold (now called "Game Pass Core")..

and look at my quote you responded to.. I simply stated exactly what PlayStation said they are doing..

maybe try reading before furiously typing on your keyboard..

This is coming from the person who made a thread titled "IGN's article proves how Xbox & Xbots & its paid shills are so damn stupid. You made toxic environment by yourself"

When you are blissfully unaware.

@Archangel3371: You do list a valid reason on this.

Not having the money to pay a day one price is fair but it still does not change the idea that you would want to. I would still want FF7 Rebirth on day one and would have been prepared to pay £70 even if I did not have the money at the time but nothing would make me pay any money for Forspoken and I am ambivalent at best for FF16 and Forbidden West.

Sure you have the day one feeling for a game on GP on day one but looking at the price on their site for day one games is £155/year. That means I can buy two games I like on day one for that cost and it means I do not have to feel I have to play the dross and filler or games I am not bothered about to make my subscription seem worthwhile.

And you know very well that there are NON major games too. As Helldivers is a non major franchise. After all, there was a thread about it few months ago, and people knew with common sense there that Sony will launch a games from non major franchises.

And Helldivers 2 was launched.

@Pedro said:

@loudheadphones said:

As Xbots are stupid - it says MAJOR. There are NON-Major games. Helldivers game wasn't big until 2nd one came out in Feb

This is coming from the person who made a thread titled "IGN's article proves how Xbox & Xbots & its paid shills are so damn stupid. You made toxic environment by yourself"

When you are blissfully unaware.

Yes, that thread perfectly describes you

@loudheadphones: Blissfully unaware.😂

I don't think the subscription services go that well together with the focus on GaaS. Service game are built to keep your attention for a year +. Let's say someone buys FIFA and plays that exclusively for a year. Then why would that person also pay for a subscription service? Makes no sense.

The gaming industry focuses on making games that are good for the company making it, but bad for the rest of the rest of the industry because they take too much time from the player (the goal is to keep the player hooked for as many hours as possible). I bet the $/h is super low for gaming, at least for the none-whales.

It's a bit like the prisoners dilemma. For each company it is better to make these service games. But it would be better for everyone if no one made them.

/END armchair analysis 😅🤓!

@Sushiglutton: The issue is that gamers have favored service games thus the desire for companies to want piece of that pie. If service games performed poorly they would not be chased by devs.

Yeah, I agree with that. It's no ones fault per se. It's "the invisible hand" in operation, I guess. I mean gamers want to get the maximum playing time for their money. So the companies try to supply that.

It's a downward spiral where companies are fighting increasingly desperately for peoples shrinking time.

@jcafcwbb: Well anyone could want to pay the money for a game on day one but if they can’t afford to then it doesn’t really matter. That’s why rental services and sales exist. They give more people a means to play video games. Same thing for other entertainment such as movies etc.

It’s not a “one size fits all” thing. What games you want to pay day one price for is good for you but there’s a whole gamut of other people out there who enjoy a whole variety of other games out there. They’ll have a whole range of price points that they can afford or simply just feel comfortable with playing those games at. Gaming value is a subjective value based entertainment medium. Always has been, always will be. What’s good for you isn’t what’s good for someone else.

I am not interested in paying to game online....and so I don't any longer. That money is rerouted into game purchases every year now. Yippee!

Gamepass type services are serving lots of people well... I have no problem with it as long as we can still buy games outright. I don't game enough to necessitate Gamepass.

He just copy pastes others tweets, forum posts, reddit posts, articles, etc. as his own. Sometimes cobbles multiple together, which results in a scramble of nonsense ideas. Been doing it for years. This is why he doesn't continue the convo if you dig into what he says.

In this case, just one source.