Seth Dickinson is an award-winning published author, short story writer and video game developer. His body of work includes the novels ‘The Traitor Baru Cormorant’, its sequel The Monster Baru Cormorant, the upcoming Exordia, and multiple short stories. His work on video games includes writing much of the lore of Destiny: The Taken King, an official expansion pack to Bungie’s award winning Destiny. Since 2009 he has also been an active member of the FreeSpace SCP modding community, Hard Light Productions, most notably writing the lore and story to the highly regarded FreeSpace: Blue Planet continuity.
"We have a service that is financially viable, meaning it makes money, in Game Pass," said Spencer.
without actual numbers ,its easy to say anything really.
if they spend over a billion dollars for content, how profitable is it really.
"without actual numbers ,its easy to say anything really."
We´re talking about the same company that almost 10 years ago wanted the Xbox brand dead and gone with all of Bill Gates´s blessings!
If Gamepass wasn´t profitable by now, MS would have it shut down already! Think!
Have you THOUGHT about how much money MS uses to acquire and keep all the games on Gamepass? Then think about the relatively low number of Game Pass subscribers and the amount of money they bring in every month.
There is no chance that Game Pass is actually profitable. It is a market disruption tool which a giant megacorporation like MS can afford to use in perpetuity if needed.
I'm just going to say it. Unless they're fudging the numbers, gamepass isn't profitable.
There is 0 chance that xbox as a whole is profitable with the money they've been chucking at publishers and developers.
It's the long game for them
@Kornholic
MS can't lie about stuff like this. If they say GamePass is profitable then it is. The only real overhead is licensing fees and marketing. All the infrastructure is basically accounted for as part of being a digital storefront so they can probably put all those costs in a different bucket. Even if it is profitable by $1 they arent lying
@Kornholic
"There is no chance that Game Pass is actually profitable."
Seriously dude, how old are you? In what world are you living???
Phil Spencer is the CEO of Gaming in one of the most valuable and important companies in the freaking world!
There´s no f* way he would go out and lie about a MS product or service been profitable without incurring in SERIOUS financial crimes, genius! You have absolutely NO idea of the repercussions and consequences of such acts! Period!
Just because *you* don´t want something to real, makes it unreal.
Get a grip in reality fcs! Smdh.
Would they have shut it down? They can't shut it down. Because what else do they have to rely on? Not console sales, not game sales, just daddy Windows.They've spent 70 billion. That was to try and make Gamepass the king. If you're spending over 1 billion a year (also that's very ambiguous, it could be close to 2 with that wording). Then I fail to see how the amount of subs makes it profitable And that's without advertising and running costs. They are playing the long game in the hope that enough people actually do move to gamepass to make it sustainable in the long term.
"There is no way Phil would go out and lie". Because he's never done that before has he 🤨 there's a thing called creative accounting
As revealed in the emails, Xbox is MS' last bastion in the consumer space- they really want to hold on to it.
I didn't think Phil is lying.
1. All the Gold revenue is now counted as GamePass revenue
2. They aren't getting the big 3rd party new games like they used to. I think they've cooled their jets on third party spending
3. Most importantly, it's unlikely they are measuring the lost opportunity cost of first party game sales as an expense to GamePass. Ultimately it just looks like the game companies make less money. So it may LOOK profitable on the books, but overall could be costing them.
How old are YOU? Big companies use accounting tricks and gimmicks all the time to make things look better than they are. Ever heard of window dressing?
Even if Game Pass was making a profit on the record, in real world it is really easy to see that Game Pass can not be profitable the way it currently is.
In addition to that, Phil Spencer is a known liar, usually the opposite of what he says is true.
There is no way Phil would go out and lie". Because he's never done that before has he 🤨 there's a thing called creative accounting"
It reminds me how Don Mattrick use to lie all the time and he believed in his lies😂
Well if 25 million subs are spending at least $10 per month on the base sub, that's $3B per year. So, yeah, that's pretty profitable.
Out of those 25 million subs, how many millions are on free trial? How many are using MS rewards for free GP subs?
"Well if 25 million subs are spending at least $10 per month on the base sub, that's $3B per year. So, yeah, that's pretty profitable."
Not to mention that according to FTC documents, about 75% of all Gamepass subscribers, pays for the Ultimate tier!
Mine was 100 for 3 years, how many are actually paying full price when there are so many ways to get huge discounts? Places like CDKEYS sell a months gamepass ultimate for £3. That $3B is year is absolutely way off.
@andy85
"@obscure which you can buy for £3 a month."
That 3 Billion annual figures doesn´t even account for those Xbox Live Gold subscribers now turned into Gamepass Core subscribers, dude.
You can´t spin this around, no matter how hard you try it.
Think about it... if the gaming division wasn't profitable, Microsoft would have axed it by now.
Why would they support a division during years and years, if it wasn't profitable?
Would would they heavily invest in acquisitions if it wasn't profitable?
Uber literally made its first ever profit in Q2 2023. Disney+ has never made a profit. Netflix only became profitable 2 years ago. MS is big enough it could keep an unprofitable business going if it saw room for massive growth
@Plague-Doctor27
So you saying Microsoft hasn't axed the Xbox division because they like pissing off Sony fanboys?
LOL.
@lelo2play
What? Where did I mention Sony at all? I'm saying your reasoning is flawed. Companies frequently keep unprofitable ventures going if they see a path to future profitability. I never even said GamePass isn't profitable. But pointing to Gamepass and saying "well it still exists so it must be making a profit" is flawed logic
Didn’t Spencer say they were spending “2 billion on games” when the xbox one was releasing?
mUh diVeRsHiTty
The face of diversity right there XD
Zzz
Why all these SJWs have that face that says “I have no personality” when taking a picture, I mean damn can’t they smile?