XboxEra Podcast |OT| - Better than the other one you listen to

[PoderickPayne (Travis Norris)]

Zalker was great. Have him back, anytime

[Good_Old_Collingwood]

Oh cool! Kotaku reports about Ed Fries’s scepticism about Game Pass! Oh wait, they didn’t mention Jon and Nick-

Former Xbox Vice President Worried Game Pass Could Hurt The Industry

Kinda seriously, XboxEra should invite Insipid Ghost, the host of the Xbox Expansion Pass, on the podcast.

GOC

[DARK-PARADISE]

So next week’s episode is gonna be juicy huh

[Cayde4Ever (Cayde)]

Well since you guys continually beat your head over missed community questions during news segments, I thought I would give you an idea. There are many XboxEra members who watch your show religiously, without fail, every week, and are always engaging in the comments. Why not have one of the patrons be an additional producer to help make sure questions are apart of news points and not forgotten. If I may present a potential candidate I would vote for @BRiT who I don’t think has missed an episode since I have been apart of this community from December last year. Plus lets be honest she is the most well behaved out of all of us. Just a thought for you gentlemen. Be well

[DARK-PARADISE]

I don’t know why @Shpeshal_Nick keeps bringing up the point that PS+ (or whatever it maybe called in future) will be to Xbox Game Pass what Disney+ is to Netflix. Or what is exactly meant by that, because if he means it will be bigger, then it doesn’t add up because Netflix is still the biggest and more global service overall.

Or if he means it will have the bigger IP, but then Microsoft is literally doing it more like Disney by acquiring some of the biggest gaming IPs to securely launch into Game Pass. While in a little contrast Sony is doing exactly some of what Netflix did by licencing big IP (Marvel). And paying for timed exclusivity / marketing stuff that they’ll never own and control (The Office, Friends, Seinfeld come to mind)

[ThereAreFourNaan]

@DARK-PARADISE

…I don’t know why @Shpeshal_Nick keeps bringing up the point that PS+ (or whatever it maybe called in future) will be to Xbox Game Pass what Disney+ is to Netflix. Or what is exactly meant by that, because if he means it will be bigger, then it doesn’t add up because Netflix is still the biggest and more global service overall. Or if he means it will have the bigger IP, but then Microsoft is literally doing it more like Disney by acquiring some of the biggest gaming IPs to securely launch into Game Pass. While in a little contrast Sony is doing exactly some of what Netflix did by licencing big IP (Marvel). And paying for timed exclusivity / marketing stuff that they’ll never own and control (The Office, Friends, Seinfeld come to mind)

My first assumption (Nick can correct me if I’m wrong) is that the analogy is intended to represent the idea that Gamepass has a powerful first-mover advantage (or rather, they were the first to push the product with their full weight behind it), but that PS+ has the potential to close the gap quickly, partially because Gamepass will have primed the market to the new business model, and more importantly because Sony has a very lucrative catalogue of games and studios cranking out consistently successful new titles.

It took a long time for the Film and TV industry to decide to match what Netflix was doing. They did it in stages, with companies flirting with small streaming services, running multiple streaming services, shopping their content around, and so on. It took years and years before they finally got serious. But once they did, and they finally consolidated their services into a single big-tent offering, they started growing faster. And the company with the most attractive service was Disney, which saw explosive growth with Disney+.

The analogy is definitely not perfect, for a variety of reasons, some of which you have enumerated yourself. But there is truth there. Nobody is better positioned to challenge Gamepass than Sony. Their current offering is not the “final form” that PS+ could take, but theoretically they can close the distance very quickly if they bring everything to bare.

I have no doubt that both Microsoft and Sony have paid close attention to what happened in the streaming market.

Sony has laid the groundwork to respond quickly to changes in market conditions. The infrastructure and tiering for PS+ is there, the game dev pipelines are there, new partnerships have been formed, new studios acquired. Now they can tweak variables as needed. They still have several cards they can play to make it more attractive, and the most significant one will be Day One First Party Releases.

Microsoft’s acquisitions of Bethesda followed by Activision Blizzard seems to be an acknowledgement that they want to avoid some of the pitfalls that Netflix is currently finding itself in. They have been preemptively preparing for the fragmentation of services and the eventual emergence of a serious competitor by making sure they had the necessary development resources, IP and back catalogues to stay on top. Although Sony can bring to bare an extremely attractive competitor, they can’t produce a service that is just unambiguously head and shoulders above Gamepass.

[DARK-PARADISE]

@ThereAreFourNaan

My first assumption (Nick can correct me if I’m wrong) is that the analogy is intended to represent the idea that Gamepass has a powerful first-mover advantage (or rather, they were the first to push the product with their full weight behind it), but that PS+ has the potential to close the gap quickly, partially because Gamepass will have primed the market to the new business model, and more importantly because Sony has a very lucrative catalogue of games and studios cranking out consistently successful new titles.

Only now saw your reply for some reason.

Yes, this makes sense as what Nick probably means. Agree with most of what you said, ownership of big IP this early on by in the " subscription war" by MS is sensibly preemptive. And Sony is also very much the ones best positioned to compete hard with MS there, despite the lack of a comparable big IP acquisition power lol.

[Searsy82]

I believe he has explained it previously, if/when Sony goes day and date with first party games, their subscriber numbers will pass Game Pass in pretty short order.

I agree in principle, but I also feel like that depends on how long Sony tries to hold out on making that move.

[DARK-PARADISE]

@Searsy82

I believe he has explained it previously, if/when Sony goes day and date with first party games, their subscriber numbers will pass Game Pass in pretty short order.

I agree in principle, but I also feel like that depends on how long Sony tries to hold out on making that move.

I think it would depend on the cross-gen period and PC, and in the future the possible mass adoption of cloud.

[Jorge_Alexander_Acos (Jorge Alexander Acosta Duarte)]

@DARK-PARADISE

…I don’t know why @Shpeshal_Nick keeps bringing up the point that PS+ (or whatever it maybe called in future) will be to Xbox Game Pass what Disney+ is to Netflix. Or what is exactly meant by that, because if he means it will be bigger, then it doesn’t add up because Netflix is still the biggest and more global service overall. Or if he means it will have the bigger IP, but then Microsoft is literally doing it more like Disney by acquiring some of the biggest gaming IPs to securely launch into Game Pass. While in a little contrast Sony is doing exactly some of what Netflix did by licencing big IP (Marvel). And paying for timed exclusivity / marketing stuff that they’ll never own and control (The Office, Friends, Seinfeld come to mind)

I dont know. I feel with ABK, xbox feels more like a combination of Disney + and Netlflix (probability of being biggest and more global service overall and big IPS)

[PoderickPayne (Travis Norris)]

I think Xbox is more like Rahmen noodles and PlayStation is ankle socks…you know what I mean?

…no?

Nah neither do I, it’s about as useless as this stupid Netflix, Disney Plus horseshit

[Shpeshal_Nick]

@DARK-PARADISE

…I don’t know why @Shpeshal_Nick keeps bringing up the point that PS+ (or whatever it maybe called in future) will be to Xbox Game Pass what Disney+ is to Netflix. Or what is exactly meant by that, because if he means it will be bigger, then it doesn’t add up because Netflix is still the biggest and more global service overall. Or if he means it will have the bigger IP, but then Microsoft is literally doing it more like Disney by acquiring some of the biggest gaming IPs to securely launch into Game Pass. While in a little contrast Sony is doing exactly some of what Netflix did by licencing big IP (Marvel). And paying for timed exclusivity / marketing stuff that they’ll never own and control (The Office, Friends, Seinfeld come to mind)

I’ve said in the past that I see Plus (when they put their first party day one) as the Disney Plus because Disney has the bigger name IP that people want to see.

I’ve compared them to PlayStation based on the alleged swathe of “bangers” Sony has that apparently absolutely everyone wants to play. Whether that plays out in reality is another matter, but ultimately, it’s taken Microsoft 5 years to hit 25 million subs.

I personally see Sony hitting that number (and more) way way faster.

Much like Netflix took a decade to hit 100, but it only took Disney a year.

[ShinMegamiTenseiX]

@Shpeshal_Nick

I’ve said in the past that I see Plus (when they put their first party day one) as the Disney Plus because Disney has the bigger name IP that people want to see.

I’ve compared them to PlayStation based on the alleged swathe of “bangers” Sony has that apparently absolutely everyone wants to play. Whether that plays out in reality is another matter, but ultimately, it’s taken Microsoft 5 years to hit 25 million subs.

I personally see Sony hitting that number (and more) way way faster.

Much like Netflix took a decade to hit 100, but it only took Disney a year.

I think nintendo is more accurate to your comparison not sony. Sony dont own a lot of their old backlog. Its only really the ps3 gen onwards they started to buy the studios and IP

If nintendo did it. Lets say for example you could play every nintendo game on a sub and it has mutliplatform support…it would reach insane numbers quickly

Sony have already given away most of their games on ps plus before and a ton of people have played them.

Its not that big of a deal. People dont give a shit about sonys backlog as much you think. They are definitely not disney. More like hbo max.

Ms has taken that long to hit those numbers because they dont have the hardware numbers. Plain and simple.

[DARK-PARADISE]

@ShinMegamiTenseiX

Ms has taken that long to hit those numbers because they dont have the hardware numbers. Plain and simple

Exactly agree on this. I think cross-gen gives Sony a significant hardware base advantage because the PS4 just sold crazy, and maybe that’s why they want to to continue the cross-gen period. While Xbox GP is also on PC, it’s really almost not lol, the PC app is hated and, well, it’s not Steam. That’s why I think it’ll depend on how the cross-gen period is handled, how they better introduce It for PC, and the mass adoption of cloud gaming or lack thereof. Basically the amount of devices the subscriptions can be easily and conveniently be accessed from.

[Opatschi]

@Shpeshal_Nick

I’ve said in the past that I see Plus (when they put their first party day one) as the Disney Plus because Disney has the bigger name IP that people want to see.

I’ve compared them to PlayStation based on the alleged swathe of “bangers” Sony has that apparently absolutely everyone wants to play. Whether that plays out in reality is another matter, but ultimately, it’s taken Microsoft 5 years to hit 25 million subs.

I personally see Sony hitting that number (and more) way way faster.

Much like Netflix took a decade to hit 100, but it only took Disney a year.

With activision and Bethesda Xbox has the biggest IP for shooters and RPGs on the market The thing is Gamepass will skyrocket with the next Cod and or Starfield/ TES. This has not happened yet.

[nrXic]

@Opatschi

With activision and Bethesda Xbox has the biggest IP for shooters and RPGs on the market The thing is Gamepass will skyrocket with the next Cod and or Starfield/ TES. This has not happened yet.

Those numbers will see their biggest growth on PC and I truly hope this “E3” MS unveils a new GP app and whatever else people have issues with when it comes to purchasing or downloading games on PC.

[Shpeshal_Nick]

@ShinMegamiTenseiX

I think nintendo is more accurate to your comparison not sony. Sony dont own a lot of their old backlog. Its only really the ps3 gen onwards they started to buy the studios and IP

If nintendo did it. Lets say for example you could play every nintendo game on a sub and it has mutliplatform support…it would reach insane numbers quickly

Sony have already given away most of their games on ps plus before and a ton of people have played them.

Its not that big of a deal. People dont give a shit about sonys backlog as much you think. They are definitely not disney. More like hbo max.

Ms has taken that long to hit those numbers because they dont have the hardware numbers. Plain and simple.

I don’t think people give a shit about Sony’s backlog. It’s about their current stuff. I’m saying if they went day and date.

Not their backlog

[ShinMegamiTenseiX]

@Shpeshal_Nick

I don’t think people give a shit about Sony’s backlog. It’s about their current stuff. I’m saying if they went day and date.

Not their backlog

It would still need a backlog

Disney didnt get 80m because you coudl watch black widow day and date. In fact disney dont do day and date except their tv shows which are hit and miss. Its their historic backlog. Now movies is different to games as people stull watch old movies wheras very few people go back to old games but still.

You still need a backlog. Nintendos is iconic and more dense.

Yes theyd rack up subs if they put god of war spiderman and last of us on the sub day 1 but thats not enough to get that many subs fast. Ps plus has been around for decade and its required for online and even that barely has half the ps4 install base numbers.

[DunwichCat]

@Shpeshal_Nick

I’ve said in the past that I see Plus (when they put their first party day one) as the Disney Plus because Disney has the bigger name IP that people want to see.

I’ve compared them to PlayStation based on the alleged swathe of “bangers” Sony has that apparently absolutely everyone wants to play. Whether that plays out in reality is another matter, but ultimately, it’s taken Microsoft 5 years to hit 25 million subs.

I personally see Sony hitting that number (and more) way way faster.

Much like Netflix took a decade to hit 100, but it only took Disney a year.

This makes perfect sense to me and agree.

Xbox really need to up their game if they want to not turn into Amazon Prime. People tend to pause Prime for long periods until 1-2 shows drop. Yes, Indies are good but you can easily play them on phone or old PC too. They are the equivalent to Prime having Friends replays and Netflix having Stranger Things.

[Opatschi]

@DunwichCat

This makes perfect sense to me and agree.

Xbox really need to up their game if they want to not turn into Amazon Prime. People tend to pause Prime for long periods until 1-2 shows drop. Yes, Indies are good but you can easily play them on phone or old PC too. They are the equivalent to Prime having Friends replays and Netflix having Stranger Things.

Call of Duty… Starfield will be the biggest possible games you can have