Exactly, until then we won’t see big increase. Spikes for Halo forza but early next year it will slow down again unless they get a shit ton more 3rd party stuff.
I’ve unsubscribed since I’m playing games I’ve bought like Arise, Lost Judgment and Metroid Dread in the past month. I don’t plan on playing anything on it until Forza and then Halo…probably nothing after that for a while. Unless they pull off something crazy like a FF7 remake in December.
On one hand, yeah. On the other the current state of the Windows Store or Xbox Launcher is rather embarassing for the biggest software company in the world, don’t you think? I personally had only little technical issues with it on my laptop but some of my friends were not that lucky. I hope the changes coming with Win11 will fix all of this but I’m not very optimistic 
@DeoGame Just to add: Xbox have way more detailed data available for their decision making. They see how every game correlates to new or lapsed subscribers with millions of data points. So a case study from them would be completely different.
Oh yeah, definitely. I’d usually be privy to raw data when doing this. Mostly just a fun way to tell folks to calm down and wait for Forza/Halo.
Halo is going to sell hardware, as will Forza Horizon 5 which in turn will see subs increase.
Well moving hardware isn’t really their issue right now.
They need some sort of streaming only plan for smart TVs/Fire TV sticks and the like/smartphone. Maybe the same price as Game Pass console or PC, maybe an even cheaper plan. People who only plan to use streaming shouldn’t have to pay for Ultimate to be honest and I’m sure that there is growth to be made there if the price is right.
While it’s understandable that Game Pass didn’t reach it forecasted growth for the fiscal year, it’s hard not to think that Xbox’s current plan of releasing a game quarterly isn’t going to lead to mass adoption and retention. At the very minimum, they’re going to have to have big releases bi-monthly if they really want Game Pass to become mainstream.
If Microsoft truly wants to target 2 billion gamers, Microsoft is going to want to lock down the biggest gaming IP’s out there. Buying Take Two would be an incredibly wise long term investment. GTA, Red Dead, Max Payne, Bio Shock, Borderlands being the obvious ones, but it’s their 2K sports brands that could really be huge in a Game Pass. NBA 2K is huge, but they also have an amazing football game engine, great hockey game engine, WWE, and PGA Tour. Having annualized sports games day 1 in a subscription would drive a lot of casuals to the service.
Those numbers are kind of where I thought the growth would be from last year. I always felt 25 million subscribers by the end of the year would be a good showing and 50 million around 2025. I don’t think that Microsoft will be worried about the growth, there was a ridiculous growth in entertainment services thanks to the pandemic that inflated the growth in the previous fiscal year to this one and there haven’t been any big first party releases in the time frame. I also compare the growth to Netflix and at similar numbers and the growth in Netflix was actually a little lower. Saying that they do need to get the PC side sorted, getting the Microsoft store into something people are happy to use and they need it on as many devices that can stream xCloud while offering a free month or three with a purchase of a new device.
It might be a bit sadistic of me but when I saw the numbers , I was a bit happy . This basically means that MS is close to a saturation point with the core xbox fans . Now to bring the more casual audience , they need investments that cater to that audience. This means more big acquisitions which will make me a happy boy .
speaking the language of the gods.
I think everyone is missing the point. The barrier to growth won’t be games. The barrier will have been far slower than expected hardware production. This has impacted console and PC the two primary markets for gamepass. And in the reporting period no new avenues opened as far as I remember so growth is explicitly tied to entry point.
Yep, moreover they are still an almost irrelevant presence outside anglosphere, that’s another huge weakness they are not mending significantly. I think they are trying more for Japan than EU, which is mind-boggling imo.
IDK if this news is good or bad honestly, ultimately Xbox is growing and that’s ok, but I think before greenlighting other huge moves MS might want to see Zenimax impact on GP numbers. Who knows, maybe having Deathloop would have moved the needle 1-2% up, we’ll never know.
Yup, only hardcore games and confusing blue skies gaming/family gaming with retro looks or an age rating will do that to you.
I joke, but only a bit. I still find it odd that I was banned for stating this during e3. I do believe that Gamepass and Xbox have a major problem in this field. And all the screaming to buy “Square enix west” is not going to solve that. It’ll make it worse.
MS needs to invest into these types of games beyond just Xbox global publishing. They need to make the service wider as an audience. Not just the first person shooter and third person epic adventure gamer.
Again, I say some of this in jest… And studios like Obsidian and Double fine have been delivering. And really 37% is a lot.
how will this make it “worse” ?
The studios they would be buying would mostly be more first person shooter or third person epic adventure. And they are pretty saturated with them as they are. When it doesn’t increase the bottom line, they will close em.
But like mentioned 37% is a huge increase, so to that I was joking. I just do think MS needs to get some of that Nintendo flair involved to pull in the families that wish couch multiplayer. That is were a lot of the money is of you truly wish to explode the amount of subscribers.
I’ll reply more in depth when I get access to a keyboard. Telephone screens and me don’t mix well in typing 
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I actually think the third person stuff is a real gap. And having major IP like Tomb Raider would draw in more casuals. Also, if budgeted for I see little reason they would close. Game Pass is making between 2 and 3 billion a year as is.
That said, you are correct in identifying that Square Enix West may not have the same ROI as a Sega, Smilegate, Team17, etc. But ultimately this is a seller’s market, not a buyer’s. You get what’s available.
So what I wonder is, what’s next?
Will they get on target once FH5 and Halo release? Will Xbox need to offer more money to publishers to make get them on board for day one (or real close to day one)releases for bigger games?
yeah, but I really really doubt we’ll see non-GaaS third party AAA games launch on Gamepass for a good while. I really thought at least one of the two among Scarlet Nexus or Tales of Arise would launch onto GP given what we’d been hearing, and neither of em came to be. 
Just thinking, Tales of Arise on Gamepass would have been absolutely amazing not just from the fact of a full blown AAA JRPG launching onto the service day 1, but one that’s become the highest rated in the whole franchise and one of the highest rated games of the year.
more investment ofc . Its not like they will cut off investment like xbox one gen and say fuck it . 
isnt Scarlet nexus on gamepass ?