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Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube
Eh, if there’s anything Nintendo and Sony have proven over the last year it’s that people are just fine paying for individual games if they want them. GamePass really hasn’t done much to move the needle for MS sales wise while they still get handily outsold bu their competitors who have no trouble 10-20 million units of games (or more, if you’re Nintendo).
GamePass is great if you A) have lots of time to play games and B) don’t really care what you play or C) don’t mind playing mostly older games. None of which is me - I’ve actually dropped my subscription at this point — I can afford $80 a month to get my one game on PS or Switch on release day I really want to play (and the only one I have time for anyways).
Maybe down the road when the MS exclusives and Bethesda stuff start hitting day one I’ll re-up, but for now it just doesn’t work for how I like to game.
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That's the thing with Game Pass though - it doesn't really have to be an either/or proposition between the different scenarios you're describing. They've made the value enticing enough that it makes decent sense to have GP humming along in the background with its huge library, while you still splurge on the few good games that you want to play a la carte. Example of that for me is the Mass Effect remaster in May.
I think it's starting to cause a shift in the industry (no coincidence that Sony's been starting to throw more free games at people lately). Microsoft's ultimate goal is to have subscribers outside of the confines of their own hardware, so they're slowly growing the user base until it becomes hard for platforms/developers/players to say no. I have a friend who has a PS5 and doesn't want multiple game consoles under the TV despite the fact that I've been trying to get him to play Sea of Thieves with me. Once it's up and running with Xcloud, he'll subscribe to GP, play with me from his laptop, and we'll be off to the races.
It'll definitely be interesting to see how it all evolves over time. GP seems to be where the model is heading in many ways (similar to video streaming services), especially with games being relatively expensive. Stuff like The Show and Outriders dropping in there on day one is great because it hopefully indicates that game quality won't be harmed by the growing subscription service vortex.