It is for everyone, OP.
But this is an uncharted territory.
No one knows what is the right formula so services won't canibalize softwares sales and vice versa.
No doubt MS is the best positioned, but as history proved several times it really doesn't matter who started first, but who made it right.
We saw MS tried to breath a little with the new prices for Gold, but got rekt as a result.
I think they're already seeing their projections falling apart cause GP was supposed to attract everyone and new public for their ecosystem, but it is just not working.
The only horny ones about the service are their faithful and loyal small hardcore community.
But this brings a huge problem they are also the people who buy more games.
They can act stupid, but they are not dumb. They started to buy less games to make full use of GP.
So, MS is in a peculiar situation right now.
GP probably reached a more stable growth right now and people are not buying as many softwares as before.
I think the last number was 15M subscribers and just a few months after they announced 10M. I doubt will see this number going as fast and that is why Spencer thought some shit to compensate it and the so called "pro consumer" took a rude hit this week.
Like I said this is an uncharted territory and no wonder Sony is taking a more careful about their services. They still don't know how to implement it without fuckin with their huge softwares sales and Plus numbers. MS doesn't have anything to lose unless money, but this they have a lot to burn.
And once again I think is all about their projections. MS should have some kind of quota to reach and they are falling behind cause they have those 2 walls: only their hardcores are signing up and they don't know how to attract new public. When even their casuals don't see the appeal of GP... How can they attract new people to their ecosystem and even better to GP? There is zero doubt it is the best cost x benefits service out there, it is aimed for everyone, but it really doesn't matter if only the hardcores are preaching about it. That's the challenge. Find the formula and you may find the gold.
It will be a long year for MS...just another one.