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Comment by abluecloud | Hacker News Reader

microsoft are seeing that the money is going to be made in a subscription model for games. by purchasing the studios it makes it much easier for them to bundle games (possibly with exclusivity) with their gamepass.

i know i'm more likely to subscribe to gamepass (and keep it running for years) vs. the 1/2 games i buy a year.

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Honestly, their investment into game pass and cloud streaming is currently making me choose an Android phone over the new iPhone.

I feel like actual AAA gaming has never been more accessible than it is now.

I'm in the same boat. My current phone is a work-supplied iPhone, but next time I have to buy my own cell phone it will be an Android device for this reason.

I've only ever owned iPhone smartphones, but unless Apple changes their approach to game streaming services like xCloud or Stadia, I won't continue to be a customer.

I still have some trouble around the idea that hardcore consumers will want a bundle that has maybe 2-5 games they would have bought otherwise + 95 more they dont really care about.

Aren't consumers just going to buy what they want anyway? Plus the Sony world just has so many more games worth playing

If you look at the games shown for the next gen, it's MS is not far away. They have acquired some serious studios and reviving Fable, Halo Infinite hopefully lands, Hellblade 2 looks truly next gen and there's Obsidian, The Initiative and rumoured unannounced "AAAA" game

Doesn't the success of Netflix help convince you?

That's the model Microsoft are going for with Game Pass, just pay us a fixed monthly fee and play any of the hundreds of games we have available on Android/PC/XBox.

Not really. The alternative before Netflix was more expensive cable/satellite tv. Netflix was both better and cheaper.

As a gamer I probably only spend ~£150 a year on a few really good big games and the odd cheap sale game. And I prefer not to spend so much because it feels wasteful, moreso than Netflix for reasons I can't figure.

Paying £15-20 a month is more money for something I feel I should be spending less on.

I wonder if they are moving to a subscription model because players hate the Windows store and basically refuse to use it instead of Steam when purchasing games. Having failed at running a store I wonder if they've decided plan b is running a rental service.

Well if nothing else, it makes people use their new React Native Xbox app, which is quite possibly the worst windows application Microsoft has ever produced (and they've produced a lot of very bad ones).

I think the Microsoft store is pretty good actually. I got 6 months of game pass for PC and didn't encounter any problems.

When it works it's fine but sometimes the window store breaks and you basically have to reinstall Windows- in whole or in part- to get it running again. It also is designed to prevent modding and doesn't work with Steam Link for remote play even though normal non-steam games work with Steam Link just fine.

GloSC[1] will get you steam controller mapping / streaming for UWP apps (and more, but I've never had an issue ie adding UPlay games as non-steam games). Here's Minecraft Dungeons running on iOS via Steam Remote Play that I just recorded[2].

Also, Windows Store / GamePass doesn't stop modding, as Crusader King 3 proves.

[1]: https://alia5.github.io/GloSC/

[2]: https://imgur.com/a/Zwz9yvV

Thanks. I tried to get a hardware Steam Link working with Gamepass games and failed, I either tried with that App or some other one I forget but ultimately I got it working by installing Moonlight on the Steam Link instead and essentially using it like a remote desktop.

I've read reports of Windows Store overwriting mod files, either this is a game by game problem or maybe it's solved. I do know a year or two ago the Window Store refused to open on a Windows PC of mine so it's a real problem and there's no way to easily reinstall the windows store if it occurs.

Whether Microsoft has solved these issues by now I don't know. I think I eventually got the windows store back with a Windows update.

The total market for AAA games right now is probably in the region of 250 to 300 million people if you look at the install base of xbox, playstation and pc.

With gamepass being on pc, xbox and cloud they could potentially capture a substantial part of that market and even expand it due to the low barrier of entry of xcloud or their rent to own scheme. They have 15 million subscribers now which is about 2 billion in revenue depending on the composition of their subscribers. They grew 50% in just 6 months. The potential for gamepass is therefore vast compared to traditional boxed products. If they capture 50% of the current market, thats 20 billion. That would be similar to netflix in size.

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