Subscription Services Like Xbox Game Pass Appear To Have 'Stalled' In The US

Microsoft suits will be using this to try and justify closing studios.

Must be horrible working in this industry where you job isn't secure even if you make a successful game.

Game Pass is stalling as the Xbox brand is now toxic with terrible decisions all the time. People won't be getting an Xbox as everything will be ported on PlayStation. Xbox already has super low market share and will get worse.

Subscription services are always guaranteed to stall and fail. You can only reach so many customers, you can only charge so much before people cancel. Microsoft went all in on a business model that was always going to collapse, and it's happening before our eyes.

The move here, not that I think Microsoft is smart enough to do this, is to ensure that all of the 50 million games they have in the pipeline are actually good, full-featured games worth buying. With the number of studios that they haven't shut down yet, if they simply continue producing games of quality, they should be fine.

Is there any good news at all we could see?

@Kooky_Geezer if Microsoft has ANY brains, they don't continue porting everything. MANY people are down on them right now, they might want to stop giving us reasons to walk away lol

@Ricky-Spanish it’s still great value currently?

Doesn't matter what form the "platform" is, could be hardware or a subscription but growth requires content.

Third Party content helps but that will go and takes any "attraction" it has to go with it.

You don't see Netflix and Disney+ trying to coast long-term on old or third-party content like Microsoft seems to be trying to do now.

@Ricky-Spanish Logically they're holding back any "good stuff" for their showcase next month.

So we have to see at least 3 more big bits of bad new, bonehead moves, and tone deaf PR.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Game Pass as an strategy failed, it failed to attract new audience to the Xbox platform, it failed in giving games more exposure leading to more sales and most importantly it failed to reward or compensate the developers who made those games.

As an user it has amazing value and it allowed me to play so many games that I wouldn’t have otherwise but if that comes at the expense that most developers will not reach financial success and therefore leading to layoffs or studio closures I’d rather prefer that Game Pass didn’t exist.

@LX_FENIX Right like Netflix huh? smh

You gotta love the rageporn that always happens in news cycles. When one bad thing happens, there's always like 5 other "terrible" things that happen to all come out at the same time. And us consumers just gobble it all up. It's like when the Baltimore bridge collapsed, all of a sudden there's all these news articles about other bridges and issues with them. Hmmm, what a coincidence? Click, click, click, rage, rage...

@Ricky-Spanish Nope, cuz negativity and piling on outrage sells clicks

They're barely releasing any 1st party games. if a new AAA/AA first party game was released every 2-3 months (they have like 40 studios), then I guarantee it would go up. But we are going on like another 7 month stretch of no first party. Not to mention when one finally does release and isn't well received.

@Trmn8r they don’t store up all the bad news wait for MS/Sony to do something stupid then think let’s add to it!

You need to put the tinfoil hat away.

This is readily available data, it’s data that many of us have been aware about.

If it's a steady income, I guess that's okay?

I don't subscribe to GP regularly. Once in a while, I will pick up a three month card. 34 million subscribers is still pretty good though. That's more than twice what PS has (saw a few months back they had 14 million subscribers).

You always have to look at this type of thing with a critical mind. Is this one single person accurate. Does it reflect a broader trend, like with other things where subscriptions boomed during Covid and have shrunk since then in all types of services. The expansion of the subscription model to other areas, and fatigue about subscriptions. If this is even true. This is not just a video game trend, and it is not just a Microsoft thing.

@Dydreamr this information shows that it’s affecting both PS/MS it’s not just MS.

But there has been news out of Xbox itself where Phil didn’t receive his bonus for GP as it hadn’t hit the targets (frankly they were unacheivable)

Sounds like subscribers are biting back

@Romans12 14 mil? You are kidding right?

“As of march 2023 PS Plus had 47.4M subscribers”

In my opinion to further Game Pass' success, Microsoft should:

1. Stop prioritizing day-one games from third-party AAA developers for the service, instead only bringing in AAA games that are a year or more older.

2. Prioritize the quality of first-party games and utilize more of the IP under Microsoft's umbrella, which are of course day-one games on the service by default.

3. Prioritize bringing in a variety of indie games, with a bit more emphasis on day-one releases for these types of games on the service.

In other words, I'd like to see Game Pass support a large and healthy community of indie developers alongside well-made, first-party games that ought to fill the gap of AAA quality.

@Trmn8r Exactly like Netflix.

GP is a fantastic value for customers that has never changed, that being said I do think it was a mistake in the long haul (as it was implemented). I believe they should only add their first party exclusives a year after release, giving these AAA games a chance to first make millions in sales before going to GP.

@Trmn8r Very true on this site anyways

A gaming subscription service is fine but if it's your primary focus of essentially selling new games to customers then it's going to cause issues down the line unless your subscribers goes up at a steady pace. Sony new this and refused to adopt the model of putting all first party games on at launch. I'm not saying they are bad value especially for offering a range of games you may not have purchased to or missed from years gone by. However, if you as a publisher are relying on it to get all of your latest games being played then you will start needing a drastic increase in subscriptions to make up for even more games being added day one to make up for the potential loss in sales. If it's a game that you have already made all or most of the development costs back from game sales then it's not as much of a risk.

@Dr_ENT PS Plus is not PS Premium. Plus is the equivalent of Xbox Live, PS Premium is the equivalent of Game Pass.

If only they had a studio that made super fun high quality first party games, something like Hi-Fi Rush; that game was phenomenal and would be a reason to sign up.

@Trmn8r that's very silly sir that you think that's what's happening. Like PsBoxSwitchOwner told you these Journalist don't have a pile of bad news for Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo in a desk and are just waiting for the moment one of them slips up so they can pile on like a Royal Rumble 🤦

i did the 3 year gp thing 2 years ago and i will say im not that impressed. 1 year left and i don't think i'll continue. sure gp had some good stuff i liked but it would have been cheaper for me to just buy the games.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner @Tecinthehead Never said they store it up lol! More like they fish for it after and blow up everything.

I agree, @rustyduck. I had the maximum I was allowed at one point (which I think was 3 years), but in all honesty, I rarely play any game that enters the service as I tend to buy what I want. My only problem is that I often play Gears 5 with my mate, and so I need Game Pass in some form or other, and I have a gaming PC, so though I never actually play a GP game on my PC, having Ultimate at least gives me the option of gaming on my PC. In all honesty, I could probably get away with Core, but I have a couple of years before my Ultimate runs out...

With Microsoft’s output and studio closures, plus the rising cost of GamePass (and the nerf to “upgrading through gold”), I’m definitely not renewing my subscription once it runs out.

That said, my subscription won’t expire until December of 2025 since I cheesed the system with that 3 years for $160 “deal” lol.

I’m curious about those commenting saying they are not going to renew their GP subscription, what do you do then when you want to play online? That’s one of the main reasons I’ve been subscribing to GPU every month for years, obviously also for the games that get added, I only pay £9 a month from CDkeys. I couldn’t imagine not having it.

@IOI I don't think Game Pass is the reason for the closures to be fair. Indies seem to basically depend on GP, and indeed with all the "big" games out there how many people would really buy many indies outside the services? But for the bigger games. Redfall didn't fail because it was on Game Pass, it failed because even on Game Pass it still wasn't worth actually playing and rumor was they were currently doing a Marvel game and pretty much every studio in the industry that was working on a Disney license short of really big ones like Jedi Survivor and Indiana Jones has just killed the license and cancelled the game and killed the studio. Tango? IDK, it was a GP success, it was a sales success, that one defies explanation. Why would a publisher randomly kill the only studio that actually made a hit for them?! Bizarre.

I do agree that GP as a strategy failed. GP, cheap hardware (XSS), cloud, mobile controls all this stuff was meant to grow the market, by cutting the barrier to entry and all of it failed. Kind of inexplicably IMO. If cost isn't the barrier to entry it means the problem is most people really just aren't going to be interested in video games. Ever. And the few who are already chose their favorite products. Then we're back to "might as well charge pie in the sky for everything because it's a small niche hobbyist audience made of rich people willing to pay anything" like hifi audio.

In some ways all the studio closures really are the needed reality with many more needed. What the real size of the market really needs is a LOT less games available. The market now needs but a handful of games here and there, and then those hold high prices. But it means the whole industry needs to be maybe about 70% smaller.

I can't join the rage and drama bandwagon because I have a massive backlog of games to play on my Series X....When Xbox runs out of games for me to play, I'll just move on to another console.

@MaccaMUFC if you like playing online games i guess some form of gp is required now. no idea what plan does what, its a mess just like everything xbox lol. xbox, xbox 360, xbox one, xbox one s, xbox one x, xbox series x, xbox series s. whats wrong with these people?

@MaccaMUFC yes exactly, I have the game pass 90% for online, I play Call of Duty every week, twice a week, I do not have the game pass for the games, it costs nothing, the game pass is 15 euros here in the Netherlands

Microsoft has some amazing games. I do think that the game pass is a fantastic deal for gamers but terrible for developers including Microsoft. Game pass can't grow with membership indefinitely. I said that from day one. In addition to reaching the maximum membership, the existing game pass members now have a tendency to wait for a game to show up some day on game pass and are unlikely to purchase games. I own all 3 consoles and each console has its positives and negatives. On Switch, I end up buying more 1st party games for premium price than I do on PS or Xbox because I know that there is no PS Plus or game pass equivalent.

Considering that software sales have also stagnated year over year people really shouldn’t see this as an indictment of subscription services. Entertainment generally is suffering as a result of corporate price gouging.

My sub is up in August & I won't be renewing. I have such a backlog I'm working through so I don't need it & also people are struggling with rising prices in their household bills.
In three years of having Xbox GP, I've not really used it. Little bit of Aliens Fireteam mp & now Jurassic World Evolution 2 which my other half is using.

Who knew that subscriptions would have a limited ceiling 🤔

People only have a finite amount of time and there are so many games that people will also want to play that aren't on them

As expected. It's not worth it. Especially with lengthy RPGs, makes more sense buying these games.

@carlos82 Yeah, selling consoles is their best chance on increasing likely adopters, and sales have slowed down.

Definitely not going to go up if they raise the prices so oh well 🤷

So they have 34 million GP subscribers against sales of around 21 million Series X and S consoles, and they're worried they're not getting more subscribers on a console focused service?

This whole "line goes up" brain rot is staggering sometimes. They could have sold a GP subscription for every person on earth, and not be happy everyone didn't buy two.

Maybe shutting down four or five more studios will fix it?

Well....Game Pass is absolutely overpriced for what it offers. Plus forcing and shoving Game Pass down our throats by eliminating Xbox Live only made further resentment. I love and been with Xbox since day one. But all the decisions they've made over last year, really has me questioning my gaming future.

If not for the Xbox controller, I may have moved on already. The Playstation controller is just so unbelievably uncomfortable and extremely clunky.

@somnambulance Oh my! Don't say that too loud here. There are numerous game pass fanboys that enjoy playing those 8 bit game boy quality indies.

And why not? That's exactly why I spent $500 for a console and then continously spend $17 a month for - - inferior games that pretend to be top tier blockbusters.

@LX_FENIX I said and predicted this years ago. The model NEVER was a sustainable business plan at a reasonable price.

In my opinion, the ONLY reason it got the green light was being cloud based. Nadella is ABSOLUTELY obsessed with the anything cloud and to an extent subscriptions.

@abe_hikura But....you don't see Microsoft shoving overly and unnecessarily bloated woke content down our throats like Disney and Netflix. So there is at least that going for Microsoft.

@Dydreamr Subscription fatigue is a real thing. I reached that point years ago. Sad corporations not figured it out yet.

@101Force Agree. The only reason people will ever care about game pass is offer lot more AAA games. Nothing wrong with them being a year old. Especially since I'm not able to play many games at launch due to playing other games regularly like elder scrolls online, fallout 76, etc. Being able to play less new games that I'd wanted to play would be MASSIVE selling point to me. As long as the price point not being ridiculous.

That's the key also. Price point. $17 even pushing my decision to cut it out keep it.

@GuyinPA75 I think you're right about that. I remember when he took over and he was all about cloud everything. I'm sure that was a big reason it got approved but that was also at the time when everyone was launching their streaming services thinking it was the future of everything.

And we see it now they're all falling apart at the same time. Gamepass, Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, Max, etc, all struggling, all in debt.

They want to keep raising prices while offering a crappier service and then are surprised that their numbers aren't going up. I am surprised that it is not going down tbh. I don't think MS understands that selling Tango may be one of those decisions that are a breaking point in a company (or a subdivision in this case). Everything seems to be going downhill from now on.
I was so hopeful for gamepass when I got my series X, but I am not amused with xbox right now, and will take my dollars elsewhere.

@LX_FENIX I will forever hold animosity and complete detest for Nadella. Mainly due to how he handled Windows Phone. The Lumina 950 was the ABSOLUTE best phone I EVER had.

The Windows Phone UI and honestly everything about it was amazing. Even the camera hands down best camera. Only thing that hurt it were the Microsoft haters in the media (the same people that would praise Apple if they released a literal turd that reeked just as long as had Apple logo on it) and the lack of apps.

Microsoft unfortunately has reputation of releasing a superior product but too late to the dance though. Another example, Zune. That was leaps better and more potential than iPod.

Now to my utmost sadness they are running Xbox into the ground. If Nadella is behind that, it would not surprise me at all.

@GuyinPA75 I miss my Windows phones every day so I'm completely with you there. And you're absolutely right, which makes the Xbox situation worse since that was the time they were ahead of the game and were the innovators. Sadly, we're where we are now