I’m not sure if the casual movie viewer would choose Sony either. The movie subscription market is already oversaturated, the choice wouldn’t be Sony movie service vs gamepass, the choice would be Sony movie service vs Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Disney+ and a lot of other services, and Sony is way behind some of their competitors in the movie scene.
Gamepass should focus only and exclusively in the gaming market, a more profitable and less saturated market.
I would be way more open to it had Microsoft not shut down their music and books offerings.
It doesn’t look like Microsoft, as a company, is built to do this.
They are doing fine with Xbox Gamepass on the Xbox platform because Xbox is a mature brand name that’s been out there for 20 years. A brand that has some confidence and some loyalty.
Jumping in extremely late, like with game streaming with the purchase of Mixer, pulls the challenges that are nearly insurmountable. It worked for Disney because this is in their wheelhouse. Apple and Amazon got in fairly early.
Unless they go for big studios like Warner Brothers, I don’t see it happening.
It’s just not in Microsoft’s DNA to roll out such services. They have the tech, Azure, to host it but nothing beyond that.
The other possibility is Xbox focused…to buy smaller production houses like Alcon Entertainment who do a great job in sci-fi. With them they could find great directors and writers to create their own cinematic universe in the form of TV shows and movies. These could be licensed to Showtime or HBO for viewing but also made freely available for Gamepass subscribers.
I don’t know if they will buy one or not, but I trust they have a plan if they choose to go into that. They are not some small company doing it for the hell of it. IF it happens, it means then that they have something in mind and made their research beforehand.
Sony would be a seller in that scenario. The movie industry is consolidating. There will be five major streaming services left standing and Sony’s TV / film studios will be swallowed up by Disney, HBODiscoveryWarner, Netflix, Amazon, or (most likely) NBCparamountViacom. Sony is too small to compete and streaming is where the industry is headed.
Microsoft won’t be buying a studio, but they’ve made an good move with Gamepass because now Xbox is the front runner in the video game streaming space and need to follow the Netflix model to grow with heavy front end investment.
I wouldn’t mind if MS make some TV shows in partnership with the big streaming companies, maybe even a moive or two but I don’t think they should start opening up their own movie studios. I can see MS and Disney getting together and can lean on each other. MS has a ton of IP and Disney has a shit ton of IP, Disney isn’t fully into games yet with all their IP and MS isn’t into movies or tv shows at all really.
MS could give Disney some exclusive gaming IP content and Disney could give MS some exclusive TV & movie IP to make exlcusive games.
MS tried to do the general entertainment thing with Xbox One and the associated TV deals at the time.
Look how that turned out.
If they go down that route again (and I don’t think they need too), they should open up a new division / brand for it, and leave Xbox out of it and let it focus on what its customers expect - games.
That’s not true, Xbox is already making a Halo series(Paramount), a Gears of Wars Movie(Universal), a Minecraft movie(Warner Bros) and a Fallout series(Amazon). Outsourcing their franchises is working fine for Xbox at the moment.
Microsoft should stay away from this. Its a waste of time and its too late to be getting into this service without massive original content to back it like Disney did or Netflix has.
Just outsource your IP rights to people and let them handle that mess.