Many people are subscribed from pc only, there are countless Steam diehards who would die on their on sword before using MS Store, but there are also many normal guys who don’t care about these things and without strange external apps and/or tinkering with system files, I never had one problem with MS Store (yes, it’s clunky, but zero problems for me, even with the new EA Desktop). I use it for strategic games not on console, with EA I can replay Sim City 4, my favourite city builder of all time.
That said, it is the right move to improve the store, so another fraction of Steam dieharda will relent, they also need a Steam selection directly integrated on the Valve store, because there are some people who literally don’t want to buy shit if the game isn’t on Steam, they are like Sony fanboys.
It’s funny now remembering how myself and many others were underwhelmed by March because of the first batch of sports games only for the next 2 batches to be absolutely insane.
I think this month is still good. Not as many games but there were some heavy hitters in there. I reckon this month games have probably helped game pass acquire more subscribers than last month.
Do you expect people to take you serious with your use of “Steam diehards” and “Steam fanboys”? If you want a good discussion using those words won’t bring a good discussion. Your overall post also sounds very angry when you use those words.
Mobile gaming is a very established market now and far more profitable than console gaming. This is one of the reasons MS wants to essentially translate Xbox gaming INTO an equivalent to mobile gaming via game streaming. Make console and mobile gaming the same thing.
It is a fact, I mean, you can go on PCGamer or other pc centric sites/forums and under every Xbox News about pc, they complain every time about MS Store and how they demand a Steam only experience. I also said that they are a fraction of the overall userbase and there are fanboys for any brand, so I don’t know where I was “angry”…XD
Just posted my thoughts on this on twitter in response to @Shpeshal_Nick
Based on the last 3 months growth of 5 mil, if the trend continued (+1.6 mil per month) multiplied by 8 months left this year would bring us to 36.3 mil. Not accounting for what Halo will do for subs (and any other 3rd party deals or 1st party stuff)
I have just approached from a pure numbers POV and made an assumption based on last 3 months trend (which didn’t have Halo but would have been boosted by Bethesda, Outriders and MLB). Either way, it’s looking very strong and these numbers will make pitching 3rd party deals easier
I also think 40 million is a bit too optimistic, but at least 30 million is very much achievable and I would be surprised if it didn’t reach that figure now.
The important thing is that the numbers are looking very strong and if Microsoft can ensure console availability and a few more big titles around Halo for the end of this year then I think we will see huge growth around that time.
I kept saying calm down people it’s the first batch haha.
So some fun napkin math;
Xbox sells Halo Infinite $70 a pop and sells 15m copies in 24 months, that will bring in 1050m.
Xbox releases the game into Game Pass with 20m subs paying $10 for 24 months, that would bring in 4800m
People today still play Halo 5 which came out 68 months ago roughly, let’s say 5m subs continue to play Halo Infinite for 68 months and paying $10 a month that’s 3400m. For MS to make that much money selling a physical copy of the game at $60 they would need 56.6m sales over 68 months lol.
Yeah either one would be huge, but serious doubts about FIFA what with PlayStation marketing etc lol.
One thing to take notice of is the word of mouth marketing could be happening with Game Pass. I noticed people mentioning that Microsoft should be advertising the service more but word of mouth might do a lot of heavy lifting in all honesty. I mean I had heard of Netflix way before it was even a thing in the UK and I subscribed as soon as it is arrived for example.
I feel like they need to make this or COD happen for max impact only for just 1 year not every year, it’ll cost them a shit load but also it will break into the casual market massively.
PS marketing of FIFA is very bland, it is almost platform agnostic in the advertising, you even have two parallel e-sports leagues for the game. You also need to consider that these contracts are multi-year and this one began in 2018 (until 2017 the marketing was Xbox centric, with the FUT Legends stuff, a Sony-like stupid money hat, the last they ever did), when Game Pass wasn’t yet a big thing, who knows if starting this year the marketing will return to Xbox?
Don’t annual games normally get multi year marketing deals. Example I’m pretty sure Sony is on its last year with CoD. If that’s the case with FIFA I doubt there is anything about Gamepass in there especially considering that MS has a Deal with EA Play. I agree that FIFA and Madden would be big deals for subscriber numbers even though it doesn’t do much for me personally. If they manage to get a good portion of Sports games, Battlefield, Halo and Forza day 1 then that is a lot of stuff that appeals to a more casual crowd. It covers Shooters Sports and Racing.
But they are very real. I came into consoles and Xbox from the PCMR-crowd, they are a weird bunch. Almost as crazy as the PS-cultists! They hate other stores and launchers, especially Epic but the MS-store is also loathed. It’s really weird.
It’s not really weird when Valve is the only company beside CDPR with GOG who has shown they actually care and respect PC gaming.
Valve was also the only company who took the risk and invested in PC gaming early on when everyone else including Epic left because they saw every PC gamer as a pirate.
Valve then rebuilt and showed how profitable PC gaming can be when you actually care what PC gamers wants, so everyone else including Epic now wants part of the pie.
I hoped that Cyberpunk 2077 debunked the myth of “good old CDPR”. Also Valve is not moved by the kindness of their heart, like any company, so yeah, Steam cultists are as bad as console fanboys.
