Re:Launch HN: MagnaPlay (YC W23) – Indie gaming subscription...
by candiddevmike on Friday January 13, 2023 @11:58AM
(#34370488)
AFAIK game pass is losing money at the moment and is still in the "pay a premium to get content on the platform" phase. They haven't switched to the Spotify "screw the content providers" phase yet.
Re:Launch HN: MagnaPlay (YC W23) – Indie gaming subscription...
by setgree on Friday January 13, 2023 @02:02PM
(#34372320)
And they may never get there because Microsoft can float loss leaders indefinitely if they can justify them in strategic terms.
Re:Launch HN: MagnaPlay (YC W23) – Indie gaming subscription...
by waboremo on Friday January 13, 2023 @04:52PM
(#34374402)
Spotify was in that phase since it's creation. Contrast paying amounts between Apple Music and Spotify to see that in numbers.
Game Pass has the huge advantage of being about games, it can retain a much lower game library number (~100 titles) but still keep people subscribed by rotating the games around first party titles. This means that until the landscape changes (Nvidia's attempt being squandered nullifies a lot of potential here of a landscape changing), being an invited third party means good income, due to the revenue being split ~100 ways rather than ~11 million ways.
Of course the above is a simplification, as each game gets its own separate contract agreement and the payout isn't based on how many times a game is played.
Obviously, Microsoft are probably loss-leading with Game Pass, but still, not every all-you-cant-eat subscription service is bad to their vendors.