Behind Xbox's Big Layoffs, a Streaming Strategy That Failed

> When Xbox launched its Game Pass subscription service in 2017, executives set a goal of reaching 77 million subscribers by fiscal year 2026, which ended last month, according to a document published during a lawsuit contesting Microsoft’s 2023 purchase of Activision Blizzard. Today, the platform has just 30 million subscribers, according to a person familiar with the matter, 4 million fewer than it did when the company last publicly shared data in 2024. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on the subscriber numbers.

> Employees had been growing concerned that the number of Game Pass subscribers had peaked, according to two former employees. Later, millions of customers canceled their subscriptions after Game Pass announced last October it was raising prices by 50%.

> Underlying Game Pass’s problem was a central flaw, according to the people. While consumers might be willing to pay a monthly fee to Netflix Inc. to stream thousands of TV shows and movies, most gamers don’t take the same approach, preferring to stick with a handful of favorite games they play on repeat. Research from Circana shows that the majority of US gamers buy two games at most per year and a third of the market doesn’t even purchase one.

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Resetting Xbox

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48804993