@thehawk3986: There have been 100+ years of delivery mechanisms for music and other entertainment. New ones rise up and others fall away. The near demise of theaters was exacerbated by COVID lockdowns and $10 Cokes. One day there will be tech to stream it all directly in our heads and it will be a wrap. 😄
The selection on Game Pass is great, btw. Over the next two weeks, the service will see Atomic Heart, Yakuza: Ishin, and Wo Long.
@Barighm: Of course it would impact sales of their 1st party games. I used to buy the deluxe editions of 1st party games ($99.99). Playing mainly on PC, having the option to bounce back and forth to console is awesome. Years ago, even I was stubborn about joining Game Pass for more than a month at a time.
In June 2020, I did the 3-year XBL conversion. Is buying games a problem for me? No, but GPU is a better option. Most the games I buy are on PC. Without Play Anywhere, I would simply buy Steam versions of MS games.
What will be curious to watch is when MS has a more regular 1st party release cadence. The price has to go up, which is understandable. MS Rewards points are out of control and I see them dialing back. After closing the ABK deal, the publisher's catalog will likely go up on Game Pass. Whether CoD will launch in Game Pass is the big question.
@Barighm: I don't know...the Epic v. Apple case was where Sony's cross-play penalty demands came out, right? What other types of Sony documents would help Microsoft's case? And yes, it is not about Sony's game production, but that does not bar 3rd party deals (games which Sony does not develop yet pays for exclusivity).
I also agree that this is the FTC grandstanding and insisting on a case where the initial grievance is flawed. Khan wants to make headlines. I guess if they don't molest newsworthy deals, they don't have much else to do. Nothing that would garner fame.
@treechopper88: That is not a fair comparison, as Lost was on broadcast television. No cable fee or streaming subscription required. The potential audience was anyone with access to a television set. There was far less competition (from cable, broadcast, or streaming) as well.
It was a straightforward question. If you pay for the account, what difference does new restriction make to you? Why get upset and cancel? Whoever is "borrowing" from you can pay for their own account or do without. Your reaction was more along the lines of a "borrower" who doesn't have a Netflix account to cancel.
The network expects to get seasons 7-10 after this? Good luck with that. Time to Netflix it.
Squanch Games is likely dead in the water, too. It is almost comical that High Life blew up, there are these good vibes over its path to success, and then...***WHAM!*** Straight into a brick wall. Almost immediately.
@psych32: Doesn't seem the network made a move until the allegations became public. One would think they had prior knowledge, though we have no confirmation. Seems that they are more worried about public opinion/perception in the current zeitgeist.
@archnophobia: Why would you cancel over this, and why the harsh sentiment? If you are the account holder, then simply tell the people leeching off of your account the free ride is coming to an end.
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