Yeah, that is the scary part. MS has very deep pockets and their absolute faith in Xcloud and gamepass can be very disruptive for the gaming market as a whole. Especially if MS plans to buy more major studios.

The thing with gamepass is that it needs a whole lot of smaller A/AA titles and/or GAAS content. Because every month they'll want their users to be wondering "what's next?!". Because if MS would go the Sony route and release 1 or 2 big AAA titles, people will just hop in and out gp to play those specific titles.

That's why I would much rather see what they'll do with their own IPs before they go near any other studios. If you're an Xbox fan, of course you'll be super excited to see MS own those Bethesda IPs. But what if MS turns everything in GAAS or episodic content because that's the only way to keep people engaged with gamepass? Isn't that what's already happening with Halo and look how that turned out. Bethesda has already been going in that direction with Fallout 76 and Wolfenstein YB. Both resulted in horrible games that nobody would buy at retail. But the truth is, they would be perfect games for gamepass.

@sealionact: GP has been out for 3 years and they managed to build 15m subscribers over Xbox, pc and mobile. I know it just released on mobile, but still. A new gen is now starting and we don't know what the bulk of the GP subscribers on Xbox One will do. Will they stay in MS's ecosystem and migrate to SX, or will we see a lot of them migrate to ps5?

I also think GP is great but is it really a good enough reason to stick with a Xbox console if ps5 is nailing it with their exclusives? I guess we'll see.

@Ibacai: I dunno man, I just got a feeling that that 3 billion market MS is banking on doesn't exist. Stadia has like 250k subscribers and it looks like Google is giving up already. MS is doing better but 15m is still not a lot when you consider they've been giving GP away practically for free with those $1 trials.

I also think there will be a ton of people like me, who hop in and out of the service to play specific titles. I basically played MS's entire exclusive catalogue for like $10 bucks... Now I paused my subscription and will just renew it when something like a new Doom comes out. Not sure if that's how MS will be making that $8 billion investment back anytime soon lol.

@Ibacai: I think it'll all depend on the quality of that Gamepass material and how many subscribers MS can build. Stadia now has 250k users and it looks like Google has already given up. MS is practically giving GP away for free and now have 15m subs. Better then Stadia, but not nearly enough to make it profitable, especially when people are using $1 trials and are hopping in and out of the service to play specific games.

We'll see man. Maybe these companies are all chasing a market that simply doesn't exist and Sony doesn't have to do anything?

@sealionact: GP is great value and I love it. However, does GP really have that big a impact when it comes to console sales? If it did, the ps4 and Switch wouldn't be outselling Xbox One by 4:1.

The fact is, there's no way in hell MS is going to build significant GP subscribers from their consoles alone. Even if they could match the success of the 360 and sell 90m Series X's, it would maybe get them 20m subscribers. MS wouldn't spend $8B to hopefully reach max 20m subscribers, they're looking to haul in billions. That's why GP in combination with Xcloud is their end game.

@sealionact: Well, because for a huge company like MS console gaming is too small a market and it isn't really growing. Ever since they launched Kinect, MS has been looking past consoles and been trying to lure in the people who never owned a console before. They're doing the same thing with Xcloud and GP.

Obviously they still want to sell consoles but their focus on building GP numbers through Xcloud is way more important. But why not do both? I hear you ask. Its because GP and Xcloud actually get in the way of selling their new Xbox. I would have bought a SX if it had Bethesda exclusives, but not if I can just stream them on any device I already own.

That's why imo the ps5 will be even more dominant than the ps4. MS is giving Sony free reign over the traditional console market, while they're putting all their eggs in the GP, cross platform basket. Trying to catch a far bigger fish that may or may not exist.

@girlusocrazy: I also have my doubts. Still, big players like MS, Amazon and Google are all pushing for cloud gaming and you don't need to buy any specific device to use their services.

I'm not too worried about any of those companies taking over the gaming market. But I am worried when I see a behemoth company like MS doing everything in their power to force us into the cloud. Unless you play on pc or buy a Xbox, we will probably HAVE to play in the cloud if we want to play the Bethesda's games. Also, because the subscription model demands a totally different type of content to work, we could see a shit ton of fan favorite franchises turned into GAAS or smaller scale episodic games.

Honestly, I can only see this going 2 ways and they both suck. 1. We'll all be playing in the cloud because those companies start buying up all the major 3rd party studios and that'll be the only way to play their games. 2. Cloud gaming will utterly fail because they can't build high enough subscription numbers. Google, Amazon and MS will cut their losses and pull out of the gaming market, leaving a mess of disbanded studios in their wake.

Maybe I worry to much, but behemoths like MS, Google and Amazon can be super disruptive for gaming. Especially if they are 100% convinced cloud gaming is the future and they can just shallow up whole publishers for $7.5B. I don't hate Xbox or MS, but I would much rather see what they'll do with Halo and their own Ips first, before they go near any other major studios or publishers. The scary part is that they were also bidding on WB while closing the Bethesda deal, and now there are rumors of them buying Ubisoft...

@sealionact: Phil's been talking about it since forever lol

Microsoft’s head of gaming and Xbox, Phil Spencer, has revealed that the company sees Amazon and Google as its main competition for the future. Speaking in an interview with newly launched technology publication Protocol, Spencer dismisses Sony and Nintendo’s ability to create a cloud infrastructure that will challenge Microsoft, Google, or Amazon.

“When you talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a ton of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as the main competitors going forward,” says Spencer. “That’s not to disrespect Nintendo and Sony, but the traditional gaming companies are somewhat out of position. I guess they could try to re-create Azure, but we’ve invested tens of billions of dollars in cloud over the years.”

Microsoft has been realigning its gaming efforts for a future far beyond the Xbox console. The software giant’s big effort now involves reaching billions of players around the world with cloud gaming. Google has already launched its Stadia service, and Microsoft is trialing its own xCloud streaming service that is set to launch fully later this year.

@sealionact: Don't care is maybe a bit blunt but lets face it buddy, they aren't expecting Series X to come close to ps4 or ps5 installbase numbers. Like Phil said, if that was the goal they wouldn't put all their games day one on GP and put them on pc and phones too.

Of course Bethesda was bought for Xbox gaming, its just that they are detaching themselves from the Xbox brand and are slowly pulling out of the console market. I mean, would you consider yourself a Xbox gamer if you're using GP through an app that's pre-installed on your tv? Because that's the only way MS could theoretically reach those billions of "gamers". Its also why all the Bethesda games will come to ps5. I mean why would MS leave money on the table by not doing that, if everybody can play them through a tv/phone app anyway?

@sealionact: Like I said, how do you think MS is planning to reach those 3 billion gamers with GP if they wouldn't have so much faith in Xcloud? They've said many times that they don't care if we buy their new Xbox or not. Their next gen strategy is putting the player in the center and allowing people to use GP on the devices they already own