The other thing is this, saying a game launched at the wrong time makes absolutely no sense...….This is Gears of War, one of MS's premier franchises, if people aren't buying it, something else is wrong.....Lets be honest, Xfans made lots of noise about Crackdown 3, SOT, SOD2, Forza Horizon 4, but they gamepassed all of these titles even if they knew buying these games at $60 would help the devs much more..... You can launch your game anytime, as long as the game appeals to people, they will buy it at the launch price......
I'm legit interested in how well the Gamepass model works for Microsoft. Is this going to be like that movie pass thing which eventually went bankrupt? I'm not good enough at figuring out financials to understand if things are working for a company or not, personally.
Yeah, Gamepass being successful is just PR fluff at the moment.....It's just like that Iraqi general saying all is well, we have everything under control, whilst missiles litter the background where he stood...….Moreover, MS just announced great numbers for Gears 5, as beating Fortnite on Live, but the reality is, it's really all those people on gamepass, Xbox and PC and those from Steam boosting those number tremendously...…..It really says nothing about how Gears is doing relative to sales or profit.....
In my estimation, for MS to make gamepass viable, they would need 500 million to 1 billion subs at the current/regular $1-2 a month gamepass offers.....Even if 10 million people gamepass Gears 5 and that's being generous, it wont be close to being worth it, anything but....
I don't know a single person who buys physical anymore (UK). All our Game stores have shut down and Supermarkets have a little shelf for them. Physical is pretty much dead here.
I'll assume the bulk was Digital and Gamepass.
People still do, as is shown by NPD, UK charts etc.......Yet this whole gen I have been Digital only and I don't plan to go back.....I bought all my main and favourite franchises at launch $60...…...
Yet as you indicated, more persons will shift to digital as more stores continue to shutter......Still, The replacement model vs Physical puts more money in Sony and MS's pocket.....You don't have to press any discs for digital, think about returns or damaged shipments, insurance, shipment costs, marketing at stores, customs charges etc etc.....The games are on Sony and MS's storefront, they make max profit......So with so many game studios closing down in this fickle industry already, why would gamepass be viable now....it cant be. The gamepass model is no where near viable for consoles, not at 14.99 a month and certainly not at $1-2 for two months...…..MS has to motorboat subs like they are Netflix on Crack. they need to hit markets like China, Europe and Japan and even expand their sub-base in America much much more.......I just don't see it......At least not yet...