The end of this year will be great but overally for microsoft with a lot of studios since 2018, the year is a disappointment hence game pass subs will slowly grow....halo and forza will help but something new will help more so will see when starfield, stalker, redfall,avowed launch

Just keep in mind the Netflix turned his first profit in 2021. Subscription numbers alone don't mean profit. Especially right now Microsoft has to subsidize so many other publishers for putting their games Day One on game pass. Is an amazing service for gamers there's no doubt about it but business-wise I don't think it makes sense for the service to be $10 a month or let me rephrase it it cannot be profitable at $10 a month

And I know I'm going to get a lot of hate but with the amount of studios that Microsoft owns, once it starts to deliver on regular basis and we get consistent quality of exclusives, I think the service could be $25 to $30 a month and still be well worth it because of the amount of content that could be on the service. At $10 a month it's simply a bargain and nothing short of an amazing deal for gamers. I tried it for 4 months and my issues was I just did not have the time to play so many games with family and work. Now if I had a service like this when I was in Middle School or high School man it would have been so awesome to be able to play so many great games

what happened to 30 million subscriber's, are do they only spread that fake news internally

Xbox fans will say Gamepass is the greatest thing to ever happen to gaming, and everyone else that respects gaming will be like so f-ing what. Just another day on n4g.

It’s a great service especially for someone like me who buys a bunch of games. Gamepass is my demo service lol. Mines about to die in a few days but I’m in no rush to reup it. I have far cry 6, Alan wake and back 4 blood on ps5.

You can’t assume that people letting their subscription run out are doing so because they don’t like the service. Maybe they are busy. I will buy it again when I don’t have 400 games to play already. And Jurassic world evo 2 next month damn.

Always remember that if Microsoft ain't giving numbers its safe to assume they are bad or well below expectation.

I really love Gamepass for what it offers but there's tons of reason outside of Microsoft that will have an impact on Gamepass subscribers.

For one, we have been playing the same kinds of games for the past 15 years and a lot of people have a huge backlog of games that can be played. Also, the offering outside of Gamepass has been great too, PS+ has constantly provided great games same with Epic Games.
And that is not taking into account the majority of great free-to-play games.
We can discuss the effect of streaming services like Netfix, Hbo Max, and Disney that also affect how ppl are spending money.
Less but not least we are on the out of the pandemic and PPL want to start socializing again shortening the time spent in front of the screen.

In the end, the good news is that Gamepass is doing well and the heavy hitters are coming so that should please Gamepass users and will put pressure on PS now to upgrade their games.

Look I don’t like the game pass model but the 48% growth goal was likely set last year without accounting for Halo’s delay.

However it’s yet another case where Xbox supposed transparency is debunked. They are ‘transparent’ only with positive marketing.

Halo and Forza will drive subscriptions.

So let me get this straight, N4G. When PS Plus subs went down for the first time it was the pandemic effect, people getting back to work and socialising (i.e., getting busy). But with Game Pass it's all doom and gloom and the service is done for even though it still grew Y-on-Y.

Okay.

Microsoft has nothing to worry about, once it starts releasing all of its amazing first party lineup it has coming up over the next few years the subscriptions will grow by good size numbers. What people are missing out on right now are all the little gyms that we didn't expect to get on game pass but have a chance to try out enjoy about paying full price for the game so it's been a great purchase for me and I will keep my subscription going

I'm sure we'll get an update from Xbox's 20 Year Anniversary Event.

That said, even as someone who "wants" Game Pass to be as good as the value proposition initially sounds - I just still don't believe it to be there. The Microsoft exclusives are the big pull, but I still tend to use GamePass as a rental service as for the most part, all the bigger releases that aren't MS exclusives have been pretty lackluster - and even then - any games I really do like I end up purchasing out right anyway and cancelling GamePass after initial sign up because it tends to be it only has one or two games I care to play.

There is definitely alot of value, but value is relative, and for those who want to be playing the newest stuff all the time - Microsoft Exclusives arne't releasing fast enough to maintain interest and the non MS AA-AAA games are far more often than not lately fail to be worth anything more than a try it once and drop it type game.

That said, this holiday season is looking pretty good for GamePass prospects given you have Forza 5, Halo Infinite, and on top of that getting EA pass with it throws Battlefiled 2042 into the mix. All of which are games I want to play for quite a bit (I realize Halo MP is f2p) but even with just forza/bf i'd considered a slightly longer-term committmennt say 3 months. But.....then again, given there will be battlefield discounts for sure within that 3 month time probably cheaper to just buy it on discount and buy forza outright so w/e ms loses again then.

Sub services are cheap and people treat them that way. They are temporary.

Jeff Grubb -

"Xbox Game Pass grew 38% during FY21 despite
a dearth of Halo-like games. Microsoft's target was 48%. To hit targets and beyond, (((Game Pass is going to need those first-party exclusives as soon as possible. Nothing else will cut it")))

A better measure of their success is how many people pay full price for Game Pass

The service is still garbage for PC. Since GamePass launched I probably found a total of 3 games that ever interested me. I still prefer PlayStation games over Xbox games so surprisingly, PSN Now for me is still the better deal

Oh dear, suppose they best lower the price to get more people in :p

Its just filler. It’s Netflix

Starfish will be garbage because Bethesda is its own worst enemy.

I unsubscribed when they wouldn’t allow a $60 Xbox live gift card be credited as a full year of Xbox Live. They kept telling me they were doing me a favor forcing me to convert it to 6 months of Game Pass.

Stop making people upgrade, some of us aren’t children and know how to shop somewhere else.

2 million growth in 10 months, no wonder Xbox hasn't given a solid number for 3 quarters in a row.

After this year not that surprising, even if you can get it almost for nothing. The real question is when they are force to stop giving it away and keep the low prices.

I mean its fine, I will sub on a month they get a game I want to play but I am not going to just sub for no reason. I payed for a month to play Psychonauts 2 and if they strike my gaming itch again I might sub again in the future. I just don't see myself subbing and then being all, "fingers crossed the new tales game comes to gamepass!" I buy or rent the games I want to play when I want to play them and if gamepass is the best option for any game I want to play then I'll use it. My best friend on the other hand is a gamepass faithful now refusing to play games elsewhere and using the whole maybe if it ever comes to gamepass i'll play it. So to each their own and stuff.

While there have been good games that may keep some people subscribed, there hasn't been big exclusive or titles to get a large influx of people. Forza and Halo will do that temporarily, but they will need to routinely release quality games to keep constant significant growth. The 50% growth was rather lofty IMO.

37% is still good growth. Also I'm guessing Halo was factored into their predictions before its delay.

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau