Microsoft buys Activision-Blizzard

And time will tell whether it is successful or not. Like I said, we are just entering into this new GaaS world. The more players in the market, the greater the competition.

And why do they need to keep that basic price there? Competition. If Netflix had market dominance they could charge whatever they like.

I repeat, competition keeps prices in check. If the future is GaaS, and Microsoft, Sony, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, etc are offering services then I don't see how Microsoft can have room to charge $50 pm or whatever.

Game pass gamers are more willing to spend on DLC and battle passes. There's a false sense that you haven't paid for the game so can afford to pay for dlc. In a way its not a false sense, if you think about it all you need to do is play 1.5 games in a year (80+40=120) and every game after that is essentially free.

Game Pass destined for failure. Lolz salty.

Netflix themselves said it's due to increased competition, not just covid. I mean, losing 50% of your companies value is huge. The market sees which way the wind is blowing, they tried to raise prices because they have little room to expand their customer base and they need to grow revenue badly, and it's not working.

That's why their value has plummeted.

I know this is veering off topic, so to round back to Microsoft, Game Pass has a good head start now like Netflix did, but competition is coming soon, so raising prices won't be easy with so many competitors for your customers to fly to.

My mistake, apologies.

I wish people would quote posts so we'd know who is referring to what.

Customers were tied to a console before GaaS, so once Sony or whoever got you to buy their console, they had you locked in to an extent. So yes, they could raise prices then.

I find a lot of the misunderstanding in this thread comes from an inability (unwillingness?) to see that looking forward, console gaming as we know it is not going to continue, with GaaS inevitably on the rise. So companies being able to lock people in with a console purchase is not going to work the same way. So whatever argument that references how things worked ten years ago is irrelevant.

In the future, having a smart TV and a Bluetooth controller is all you'll need to access the various GaaS offerings. No need for a €500 console. Hardcore gamers might still want their consoles, but casuals won't care. They just want the best deal and they represent most of the market.

So the ability for customers to migrate between services will be as seemless as cancelling your Netflix subscription and signing up for Amazon Prime. So in the face of that competition, service providers will find it difficult to raise prices, just like Netflix is struggling to right now.

That's the point I'm making above. I hope it's a lot clearer this time. I'm talking about GaaS. I'm not talking about how things worked on the PS3 or Xbox One because that's irrelevant, it's the old world. GaaS is the new world. My point has been about GaaS for several pages now.

Yeah I agree, I think Sony will cling on while Microsoft and all the new players will offer their services to every device imaginable.

Nintendo will probably offer GaaS in 2145.

Its not far fetched to expect some sort of game pass dongle coming out in the next year or two.

There's big doubts as to whether TVs can handle the likes of game pass without some sort of dongle or using the controller to stream like stadia.

If you live in an urban area where high speed internet is standard, then it's not that far off really. I play Game Pass streamed to my phone over WiFi sometimes and the experience is pretty good for what is still a beta service.