• TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    And what about when Microsoft ups the price on their subscription, which is clearly their strategy as gamepass doesn’t appear to be profitable?

    At least if you’d spent that 120€ on 2-3 games you’d be able to keep them forever.

    That 120€ subscription could easily become 200€, 250€, or more. Something people may feel compelled to pay for if MS continues buying up the industry and decides to make games exclusive, which is something they’re already doing to some extent.

    Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think giving MS a disproportionate amount of power over the market is a good thing.

    • ChronosWing@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      We can “what if” all day long, the fact remains that at the moment it is a very good deal. Last numbers anyone had as far as money goes is that MS was banking 50+mil a month on gamepass subs alone and that was last year. That number should be much higher now considering the amounts of high profile releases on the platform as of late.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s not a crazy what if, it’s a tried and tested, proven business strategy.

        Currently Microsoft is losing money on gamepass. That’s why they lump it in with other services in their financials, so you can’t see the losses. The pricing as it stands is nowhere near sustainable

        I never said it’s not currently a good deal. Those are words that you’re trying to shove into my mouth.

        It’s a good deal now because they’re having the price low while they capture the market.

        • Pantoffel@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Yes, I totally agree with what you said.

          They currently try to buy out the digital gaming space of the internet, sell it for cheap and later on up the price. That’s what big corporations usually do nowadays. Same with X, Google, Amazon, Netflix, etc. It’s a big issues that we as consumers and later on citizens of our planet face.

          However, currently it is a sweet deal for me. And the argument that I’d own the game otherwise doesn’t count for me as I would most probably never replay it. So what’s the use of owning it if it’s just collecting dust in the shelf?

          The argument of whose property the item is is different for me for movies, series, and audiobooks. I’m surprised that this scheme was not yet applied for books / e-books. Or am I wrong?

          • ChronosWing@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            It is applied to ebooks. Tons of subscription services for ebooks, the biggest being Amazon Prime and Scribd.

        • ChronosWing@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          The point is it hasn’t happened, you are just being pessimistic because “Microsoft Bad”. You have no clue if gamepass is losing money, none whatsoever. Your pessimism wants it to go bad so you make up bullshit to support your opinion.

          • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            There’s a reason why MS has never said gamepass is profitable and they hide its finances. Because it isn’t profitable.

            And if you genuinely don’t think MS will increase the prices then you genuinely cannot be helped. It’s how every digital subscription service is run.

            • ChronosWing@lemmy.zip
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              1 year ago

              Once again you are making assumptions. And I never said they wouldn’t raise prices, you keep putting words in my mouth. The type of price increase you seem to think will happen is definitely beyond the realm of reality, at least at this time. There’s no way they are going to double the subscription cost and expect to keep their current subscription numbers.

      • idk@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s not “what if”, it’s “when”. Is it a good deal currently? Yeah, it always is at this point. Will it become untenably worse once it becomes more popular and corners the market? Yes, it always does in the end.