An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Microsoft's revenue from Xbox console sales was down a whopping 42 percent on a year-over-year basis for the quarter ending in June, the company announced in its latest earnings report. The massive drop continues a long, pronounced slide for sal...
They could stop charging gamers a subscription to play the paid games (they “own”) online.
This could attract some customers that don’t want to deal with PC or don’t want to add fixed costs to their monthly or yearly bill.
This is one of the key reasons why I own PS5, but I don’t play or invest in it. Even though couch gaming is much more comfortable for me.
I’m in the same boat.
Elden Ring, Helldivers 2, many games I’d get on Sony PS Store that I just get on Steam because I want to “own” the full game not just the offline part of it.
Microsoft not being evil? Not going to happen. (Except for smokescreen purposes and amounts)
There was a time where it was worth the money because it was far and away better than any free online offering. That time was probably up to about 2010. Now that servers are paid for with digital game sales, it would behoove them to drop the fee. Instead, I think they’re just about to change the console market as we know it.