No surprise, really. Microsoft wants to make money through subscriptions, so let's compare them to Netflix. The strategy is to churn quantity over quality and squeeze the creative market to get the most for the least. All the recent film and TV strikes, including the animators, have some connection to Netflix's practices.
Microsoft is doing the same. It cannot beat Sony in raw console sales or Steam in digital sales, so it's doubling down on subscriptions and all the unpleasantness that comes with this. Why else would it reduce a valued franchise like COD into subscription fodder? If it could buy Rockstar, it would make GTA free to play (as long as you have a Gamepass sub).
But to reach profitability in a subs model, it has to be ruthless: squeeze creative teams, make heavy cuts, and license as much as it can as barrel-scraping prices. This is a race to the bottom.
No surprise, really. Microsoft wants to make money through subscriptions, so let's compare them to Netflix. The strategy is to churn quantity over quality and squeeze the creative market to get the most for the least. All the recent film and TV strikes, including the animators, have some connection to Netflix's practices.
Microsoft is doing the same. It cannot beat Sony in raw console sales or Steam in digital sales, so it's doubling down on subscriptions and all the unpleasantness that comes with this. Why else would it reduce a valued franchise like COD into subscription fodder? If it could buy Rockstar, it would make GTA free to play (as long as you have a Gamepass sub).
But to reach profitability in a subs model, it has to be ruthless: squeeze creative teams, make heavy cuts, and license as much as it can as barrel-scraping prices. This is a race to the bottom.
Totilo on bluesky when?
I'm on Threads. Does that help?
I really don't like to use that thing. Come to the blue, it's way cooler, I promise.