So here we have yet more plainly clear evidence that Xbox games are not selling that well in general, compared to the competition, and the usual guys are out screaming and whining in full defense mode about it, looking for ways to explain away what the results are showing. Come on people. We even have one guy expressing clear disbelief at reality, when I think
those who have been paying attention are not surprised at all.
For crying out loud, what do you expect when Microsoft themselves are telling their own player base to NOT buy games? That it's
all about Game Pass? The bottom line is that Game Pass and Microsoft themselves are
disincentivizing buying games. Plenty of us have said this would happen, and we are seeing it over and over again now in sales charts. And then Xbox-only gamers (or people where it's their clear favorite at least) are trying to say, "no ... all-is-well, please look the other way"? What is the metric for success then at this point? It's not games sold. It's not consoles sold apparently. They've stopped reporting Game Pass numbers recently. To quote Spinal Tap, "where do you go from there? Where? No where." Unless of course Microsoft can find a way to get to 11.
But let's defend it all. This is all great!
Oh yeah, and to the guy saying "some idiots actually want Game Pass to fail" like it's some kind of rooting against a great idea ... the problem is that a lot of people don't think it's a great idea and here is why. It's the same effect as Apple's App Store and the race to the bottom in terms of what people see as value for software. We are at a point where people think a 5 dollar coffee drink that'll give you diabetes is a worthy use of money but 99 cents for an app on your phone is a rip off. Only massive giants like MS can afford to subsidize a gaming habit the way they are currently doing so. The thing is though, they won't want to do it forever unless it becomes a great profit center (and we know it isn't now, and won't be in the near future because they've said so). And if it was successful, do you want MS being the "gatekeeper" of what games can be made since people won't want to buy games on that platform anymore? You would basically NEED Game Pass subsidy to survive. It's a horrible situation to be in if you make games.
Software is
expensive to make. These games should rightfully be priced at 50, 60, 70, 80 dollars a pop to properly support them. Then you have a multi-trillion dollar company coming in and saying we are going to buy up a bunch of software development studios, and ask you to give them a dollar to convert your Xbox Live subscription to Game Pass ultimate for the few years you've already paid up for. How many people will stay on once those subs convert to a 15 dollar a month constant payment? But the damage will be done, at least with the crowd that thinks that games should now be "free" as we keep seeing people say, "it's free with Game Pass!"
But yeah, let's shoot the messengers. Let's rip on people who point out a 93/7 split. Wasn't Resident Evil 8 some ridiculously imbalanced split as well? You don't get bigger than RE8, and it wasn't on Game Pass, soooooo what's the excuse there? You can talk about low numbers all you want "Hey that 93% was only around 2500 copies!" as if ... that's better? So the numbers on Xbox were
extremely low then? Let's not forget the UK was Xbox's second stronghold in the past, so I just don't see how this bodes well for anything at all.
The one thing that is annoying is people not willing to discuss in good faith. My "favorite" game maker doesn't really do what I would prefer at all. And I'm not afraid to say so. I think they screw up a ton of stuff and I realize that they don't really exist to suit my tastes anymore (which is odd because those tastes developed largely
because of their previous output but you know, I digress and all that). But it would be like if I ran around trying to shout down people who pointed out where they are falling short, but instead of trying to disagree with facts I would just insult them while making excuses about real life results. That's what we are seeing right now around Xbox data.
You can love the Xbox, the Playstation, the Switch, or the PC! I don't care. Everyone has their favorites. But don't just freaking make
up because you can't deal with a reality you don't like. It's just so absurd.