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Why The True Start Of The Xbox Series X|S Generation Is Now | The Wait For Xbox Exclusives Is Over

sainraja

Member
Why can't someone who spends for game pass feel like they own what's on game pass? If they can access to their heart's content the same as anyone else, I don't see what the issue is in them thinking that. I feel I own everything on netflix and disney + too. Is it a big deal how I see the stuff on HBO Max, Disney+ or Game Pass?

You're paying for it, so the service and all that service provides belongs to you until you decide to stop paying for it. That's how my internet service and cable and electricity bill works also.
That's fine. You can look at it however it makes sense to you. Since we're discussing this with others on an online forum, we have to look past how we look at things (specially if it's unique to us). With a subscription (like Game Pass), we are paying for access to content for the duration of the subscription, we're not paying to own any of that content.

There are subscription services where you can pay yearly for updates and as soon as you stop paying, you get to keep the "last version" of whatever it was; this kind of subscription option is usually with productivity software. In this scenario, you could say you OWN the software that you have paid for. I guess you are cool with it either way but Game Pass only gets us access, not ownership. You are paying for a service on an ongoing basis.
 
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That's fine. You can look at it however it makes sense to you. Since we're discussing this with others on an online forum, we have to look past how we look at things (specially if it's unique to us). With a subscription (like Game Pass), we are paying for access to content for the duration of the subscription, we're not paying to own any of that content.

There are subscription services where you can pay yearly for updates and as soon as you stop paying, you get to keep the "last version" of whatever it was; this kind of subscription option is usually with productivity software. In this scenario, you could say you OWN the software that you have paid for. I guess you are cool with it either way but Game Pass only gets us access, not ownership. You are paying for a service on an ongoing basis.

Imagine they end up upgrading the Ultimate option while keeping it at the exact same price by allowing subscribers every 4 months to pick any game from Microsoft's first party collection to own even if you don't stay subscribed? So if after subscribing to game pass for 4 months you decide you want Starfield, Redfall, Forza Horizon 5, or the Halo Infinite campaign, you can make a choice to keep anyone of those forever. And if you don't pick a game they stack indefinitely.

And if you unsubscribe without ever taking advantage of the free games, you're still allowed to pick games from Microsoft's first party collection on game pass to own because the system remembers that you are entitled to however many games for the months that you were subscribed. It would be a further incentive to subscribe because while you're subscribed you'll be getting games to permanently own the old fashion way on top of having access to hundreds to play.

Then you might say "what would be the point of that since people will just unsubscribe the moment they get that game they want while still having the ability to play it the entire time they were subscribed to game pass" And my answer there is I don't even think Microsoft would care. They subscribed, and if they ever feel the need to do such a thing again, they can subscribe again for another 4 months and repeat the process. But, again, my view is why not stay and keep access to hundreds of existing games with many more on the way? This seems like a pretty obvious "upgrade" that Microsoft can do at relatively zero additional expense to themselves.

In a way it cleverly creates an incentive for people to stay subscribed for at least 4 months just to get themselves a game. Maybe Microsoft can do something even more extreme and give people a free game every 2 or 3 months from their first party collection if they're subscribed to ultimate. They really do have options with this thing. Hell, they could even announce it as a time sensitive Game Pass promotion that runs for 6 months or even a year. The upside is they potentially get all kinds of extra people to subscribe, and then once the special promotion ends, many just decide to stick around and stay subscribed anyway. It's a win win.
 
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Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
Ok I'll try


paying $120-$180 a year


cost $120-$180 a year?


wZ00LmL.gif
Are you implying he's lying, or, are you low key shilling for $70 games like an idiot? I'm just curious..
 

coffinbirth

Member
never mind if it's the best value or not, he said it's free but i have to pay to access the service so i want him to explain to me how is paying = free
He did though...Microsoft Rewards. You can get a lot more than $10 a month. You don't have to pay a penny out of pocket.
 

sainraja

Member
Imagine they end up upgrading the Ultimate option while keeping it at the exact same price by allowing subscribers every 4 months to pick any game from Microsoft's first party collection to own even if you don't stay subscribed? So if after subscribing to game pass for 4 months you decide you want Starfield, Redfall, Forza Horizon 5, or the Halo Infinite campaign, you can make a choice to keep anyone of those forever. And if you don't pick a game they stack indefinitely.

And if you unsubscribe without ever taking advantage of the free games, you're still allowed to pick games from Microsoft's first party collection on game pass to own because the system remembers that you are entitled to however many games for the months that you were subscribed. It would be a further incentive to subscribe because while you're subscribed you'll be getting games to permanently own the old fashion way on top of having access to hundreds to play.

Then you might say "what would be the point of that since people will just unsubscribe the moment they get that game they want while still having the ability to play it the entire time they were subscribed to game pass" And my answer there is I don't even think Microsoft would care. They subscribed, and if they ever feel the need to do such a thing again, they can subscribe again for another 4 months and repeat the process. But, again, my view is why not stay and keep access to hundreds of existing games with many more on the way? This seems like a pretty obvious "upgrade" that Microsoft can do at relatively zero additional expense to themselves.

In a way it cleverly creates an incentive for people to stay subscribed for at least 4 months just to get themselves a game. Maybe Microsoft can do something even more extreme and give people a free game every 2 or 3 months from their first party collection if they're subscribed to ultimate. They really do have options with this thing. Hell, they could even announce it as a time sensitive Game Pass promotion that runs for 6 months or even a year. The upside is they potentially get all kinds of extra people to subscribe, and then once the special promotion ends, many just decide to stick around and stay subscribed anyway. It's a win win.
I mentioned an exaggerated version of what you are describing when I said 300 redeem points to use towards any game we want but that's besides the point. We currently don't have those options and if Microsoft does expand to offer that with Game Pass, they might be able to reach people who are into owning games vs through a subscription. I'd welcome it.
 
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MrFunSocks

Banned
I think you'll probably find that less and less people actually care about "owning" their games as time goes on. Remember all the hoopla about the Xbox One games essentially being all digital in 2013? Everyone cried and cried and cried about not being able to take their games to their friends houses or trade them in. Now we've got game buyers for both consoles being about 80% digital!

Most single player games are one and done for people. They buy them, play them, sell them or trade them in. Game Pass is perfect for people that consume games like that. They don't care that they don't own it because they were never wanting to own it forever, they just wanted to play it. The other big games these days are annual sports games - which again, people generally only care about owning for a limited time - and GaaS free to play games like Fortnite and Warzone, which again, people don't care about owning for the long term because there is no long term and it cost them nothing anyway.

I used to love buying games, especially cool collectors editions. Then I realised that I'd look at them for 10 mins and then they'd get stored in boxes in the shed, so I stopped buying them. I then went full digital because I never trade or sell games. Then I realised that I actually play very few games that I buy, so I just stopped buying games that I wasn't sure I'd really really enjoy for a long time. I subbed to Game Pass because there's just such little financial outlay and I get to play hundreds of games if I want to, for not much more than I'm already paying for Gold.

Game ownership is changing, not just because the big bad companies want it to, but because consumer habits and priorities are changing too.
 

DavidGzz

Member
Xbox has top revenue for the month of June. More stock since they are no longer allocating so many chips to Xcloud plus E3 showcase doing work? Either way, pretty awesome considering the onslaught of games hasn't arrived yet.

I think you'll probably find that less and less people actually care about "owning" their games as time goes on.

Yep, I don't own my music(Spotify), shows(streaming), or many of my games and I don't mind. I have this huge library of games on Xbox, Steam, and PS and I may play 1% of them again...
 
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I mentioned an exaggerated version of what you are describing when I said 300 redeem points to use towards any game we want but that's besides the point. We currently don't have those options and if Microsoft does expand to offer that with Game Pass, they might be able to reach people who are into owning games vs through a subscription. I'd welcome it.

It's certainly well within their toolkit if they're already into giving Game Pass subscribers so much as is. Doesn't seem too big a stretch to allow non Game Pass ownership of games every couple months or so to some of their more dedicated subscribers? Seems pretty interesting.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
I think you'll probably find that less and less people actually care about "owning" their games as time goes on. Remember all the hoopla about the Xbox One games essentially being all digital in 2013? Everyone cried and cried and cried about not being able to take their games to their friends houses or trade them in. Now we've got game buyers for both consoles being about 80% digital!

Most single player games are one and done for people. They buy them, play them, sell them or trade them in. Game Pass is perfect for people that consume games like that. They don't care that they don't own it because they were never wanting to own it forever, they just wanted to play it. The other big games these days are annual sports games - which again, people generally only care about owning for a limited time - and GaaS free to play games like Fortnite and Warzone, which again, people don't care about owning for the long term because there is no long term and it cost them nothing anyway.

I used to love buying games, especially cool collectors editions. Then I realised that I'd look at them for 10 mins and then they'd get stored in boxes in the shed, so I stopped buying them. I then went full digital because I never trade or sell games. Then I realised that I actually play very few games that I buy, so I just stopped buying games that I wasn't sure I'd really really enjoy for a long time. I subbed to Game Pass because there's just such little financial outlay and I get to play hundreds of games if I want to, for not much more than I'm already paying for Gold.

Game ownership is changing, not just because the big bad companies want it to, but because consumer habits and priorities are changing too.
This is how they want you to feel about owning your games too. This is just another way of how Gamepass devalues games
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
This is how they want you to feel about owning your games too. This is just another way of how Gamepass devalues games
It doesn’t devalue games in any way. What it does is give people that don’t care about ownership an amazing deal. Do you think they’re going to stop selling games?
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Well, you're discussing something that hasn't happened. The $10 game pass option is there just like it was since 2017. Microsoft simply added a higher value offering for $5 more. So long as they continue to tie any price increase to increased value that presents no obstacle to casuals.

$5 more got you Xbox Live Gold, Game Pass on PC and Xbox, EA Play and Xcloud.




You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you the amount, but I'm a regional manager based in New York for a major technology company. Companies we work with include Apple, Sony, Adobe, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and many more. We don't just work big company contracts, but smaller companies too, and we work with individuals also if they can afford us. But since I've been in my new position we regularly sponsor or donate some of our services free of charge to local business owners or smaller establishments to demonstrate how we can help improve their operations. It's a good way to advertise what we do for folks who don't know, and our referrals went through the roof afterwards. So there's room for growth there.

I always thought I made good money, but last year just right before COVID the company got hit with a major emergency endangering not only some of our bigger fortune 500 clients, but our government ones as well. Management was on a warpath, pissed off at why the guy they put in charge didn't plan for such a situation. I won't say he didn't have a plan, but he was already dealing with a ton of shit when he was hit with that clusterfuck, and then in that position with everybody looking to you for direction he kinda started looking at all the worst case scenarios and it stressed the guy out to the point that it was a mess. Management got upset at a seeming delay and fired him. Me being next in their crosshairs as the most senior person after him kinda didn't want that pressure all on me, so I appealed to have him reinstated. They did so at my urging, but two days into working on the issue his worst fears were kind of realized, and so he just decided he needed to step away because it was too much stress. Left to me I kinda took a "well fuck it, if they're gonna fire me, they're gonna fire me. I can only work so fast" approach and just organized the staff and people on hand to just straight up ignore certain things and focus instead on what I felt was more important. We worked for nearly 2 weeks, only going home 3 days, rest of the days were spent dealing with the emergency, sleeping next to servers, outside server rooms, in hallways and offices lol, and we got it fixed. By the end I was given a higher role and increased pay matching their appreciation I guess (kinda still deserve more for what I did though :messenger_grinning_sweat: ) Also got management to agree to pay raises for everybody who helped me do what I did since I felt they deserved it too.

The main work aside, I also maintain many private contracts relating to radio stations (only one big, rest small no name stations), recording studios, hospitals, universities, hotels and even clothing stores. I personally consulted on and helped design a key part of Chase bank's network security back in 2007-2008 that I'm proud to say has remained flawless even when other things around it didn't meet the same standard. That same work with Chase landed me a private cybersecurity contract with a major U.S. political party that began in early 2018. I've kept my scope on that intentionally small because they refuse to provide me the access I would need to truly guarantee my work, and I won't set myself up to be a scapegoat when I'm proven correct, so I've intentionally deployed a limited solution that has been effectively proving my point now for about 3 years. Prior to that though, the same thing I designed for chase, I designed and deployed a version of for the energy company Con Edison between 2014-2016 along with something else that, according to them, has saved them lots of money in dealing with their various sub contractors.

Also have a few famous actors/actresses and sports athletes as clients. One of the actresses was going to attend E3 2020 with me along with her husband when we initially thought there was going to be one prior to COVID because they want to get more into videogame voice acting and just generally get to know more about the industry as a whole, so I felt E3 was a great place to do that. And finally, I'm a longtime federal government independent contractor, separate from the contracts my job has.

Not everything I do for all these people/companies is all the same, it's all different, or else there would be no way in hell I could manage it all. That's kinda been the advantage of the people I've met and the situations I've found myself in. Referrals, references, friends, people who just enjoyed your company, people who gave me a chance when I didn't have any actual experience, just book learning. I wouldn't be anywhere without all of those things and a shit ton of luck, can't lie.

In conclusion, I make pretty good money. But that doesn't mean I don't love a good deal when I see one. I'm from a Jamaican immigrant family where at times we didn't even know if we were going to have anywhere to live day to day, week to week or month to month, so I was kinda always taught to see money differently. For the first big job I ever had I literally use to hand my mother up to 70% or more of what I made believing surely she would always make the best decision on what to do with it, and I can make due with what I keep and what I've been saving separately. It only took my clueless behind 3 or 4 pay checks in to realize very quickly just how very bad an idea that was, and I changed approach in a hurry. And it's been smooth sailing since then. So while I may splurge on OLEDs and all kinds of electronics and other things I may not need from time to time, I do try my best to not be wasteful and value my dollar because I know what it's like when you don't have it to spend. Believe it or not, I don't even own or drive a car. I don't see game pass as a mere value service. I see it being a legit option to doing it any other way for even hardcore gamers because of the games that are coming to in the coming years. Game Pass won't always fully satisfy me, and that's when I'll step out and go buy what game pass isn't able to provide me. Sometimes, for reasons specific to me, I'll even buy things already in game pass.

I like Game Pass, it's a cool as hell and convenient way to try out and play many more games than I would ever be willing to individually spend on just to give them a spin even with all the money in the world to support my gaming habit.

Holy shit, from all this info! I know exactly who you are...You're my good mate JEFF! :D

Hey Jeff!

Seriously, though. Glad Covid worked out for you. It's shit hearing about how many people it has effed up. Sounds like you stepped up to the plate and did what you needed to do! Props to you my man and nothing wrong with treating yourself with the things you enjoy. Sounds like you've earnt it.
 
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So now we're just creating threads based around videos from random no-name youtube channels with less than 5k subscribers?

Why was this video particularly interesting OP?
Yeah its one thing making a thread because of an article from IGN, or an article from some games journo, but we dont need these threads from some random clueless youtuber.
We may as well make threads for every thought we users have on here.
The Office Reaction GIF


I've been saying this for quite a while now, but I always felt like a dickhead everytime I mentioned it.

Small increase in threads being made to (or at least appear to) self promote their own videos these days.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
Game ownership is changing, not just because the big bad companies want it to, but because consumer habits and priorities are changing too.


The funny thing is, back in the old days, when gaming was nowhere near as accessible and popular as it is nowadays, when many many people actually started their adventure with video games, you truly didn't own anything - arcade saloons? You didn't own shit, you just inserted the coin and you either lasted 5min. or died within 30s, and literally no one complained, ever. Internet cafes? Same deal, you paid for hours and what you did with them, what you played, was entirely up to you, and you couldn't even install anything on those PCs, just pick whatever there was already installed. Same for gaming saloons with all sorts of home consoles, where you also bough hours for a given console, PSX, PS2, GC, DC, N64 etc. None of that didn't take away any fun at all from playing games back then, it actually made the whole experience so much more exciting and you appreciated every single minute of it.

And now after a 10$ increase all of a sudden people are so concerned about the ownership, where frankly, no one seemed to be bothered with it when the games were 60$, or 50$, because at the end of the day once new generation showed up people sold their old consoles along with those old games, and never looked back, and those who bought them digitally still have them, they didn't disappear from their accounts. So I don't know, either that extra 10$ is really starting to push the envelope and people need to find themselves a justification for spending this much on video games, or it's just the console warriors trying to spin the narrative in defense of their beloved brand because everyone else is slowly but surely moving into service/streaming-based approach, which is simply much more cost-effective.

Bottom line is, being able to play more games never hurt anyone, especially when it costs less.
 
I think you'll probably find that less and less people actually care about "owning" their games as time goes on.
Change owning for deciding what games you have access to and when (instead of whatever games someone else decides to let you play this month).... This is what owning means.

Also, when people compare 70$ vs "free" they don't count the medium to long term total cost of the rental fee, or they excuse it with the rebates you get (as if no other service offered rebates). Then there is the fact that you eventually get AAA games on the cheap (and you choose which ones you get, no need for 200 games when all you play this month is RDR2 or among us)... Plus a lot of kids/people play fortnite all the time, what does gamepass or a similar service does for them? Or how does it compare to free games on Epic games store?

Also, I have gamed for way too long, my personal collection is way bigger than what gamepass offers any given month.

Back on topic: these games are announced, they are not released... When they ship we can have that conversation about the Xbox drought being over.
 
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