This seems unlikely.
Maybe they book some of the extra $10/mo from Xbox All Access in GamePass and not hardware? I would believe most buy GamePass Ultimate and don’t do the workaround, though.
It’s just shit original reporting, being regurgitated by other lazy journalists. The clearly isn’t just Game Pass revenue. Mostly likely it also includes Xbox Live Gold.
For example, the table this claim is based on also says that Sony has 40-50% market share in “Serviços de assinatura de múltiplos jogos para consoles” while Microsoft has 30-40%. PS Now is not larger than Game Pass, so this actually has to be PS Plus + PS Now vs. Xbox Live Gold + Game Pass.
Maybe it includes the money from ingame microtransactions or DLC from games played via gamepass?
Yes, it includes Gold.
Are folks still buying regular Xbox live? That seems weird since you can get gamepass for the same price, although I guess it requires banking it up front.
I would assume there are just tons of people auto-renewing Xbox Live Gold.
Netflix just bought Spry Fox (Cozy Grove, Road Less Taken).
That’s cool! My son really liked “Minecraft Story Mode”, and I confess “Bandersnatch”… got me.
It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
Netflix has ported a couple of games to mobile, too, for those who might have missed it. Into The Breach, for example, was a great little game that Netflix Games brought to mobile. That seems to be games space they’re eyeing.
I actually thought about that when the news was posted above. I’ve been vaguely interested in Cozy Grove, had it on my Xbox wishlist for a while waiting for a sale. That happened a few weeks ago, but by then I decided I’d rather have it for my Steam Deck, so I’ve got it on my wishlist there- it seems more like the kind of thing I’d play on a handheld, checking in when I have time, etc. But hey, a mobile version on my phone or tablet, that’s free with my Netflix sub like Into the Breach? Sweet.
Their game, Road Not Taken, is absolutely fascinating even though I wasn’t smart enough to play it at a high level. I’m not familiar with the rest of their work, anything else like that?
Cozy Grove is sorta Animal Crossing-like. And their other major game is Alpha Bear, which is a word game on mobile.
Netflix has stretched beyond narrative games, although their premiere indie studio acquisition was probably Night School, who are heavily focused on narrative.
Besides the Into The Breach mobile version, I also like Desta: The Memories Between, which is a tactics game from ustwo (Monument Valley, Alba, Assemble With Care), Poinpy, and Townsmen (a minor update to that city-building game, which has been on mobile and Steam for awhile). They also released Spiritfarer for mobile, which is an amazing game, but I found too many bugs in the mobile version at release.
If you have a Netflix subscription, it’s worth looking at their offering. Similar to Apple Arcade, they’re relatively meaty games without any free-to-play nonsense.
Yeah, Cozy Grove looks like that animal crossing game everyone was obsessed with back at the beginning of the pandemic, but a bit spookier, and with the explicit design that there’s not more than an hour or so of content every day, which suits me fine.
Right after they just rebranded
Well at least they didn’t close them down and then rebrand them.
That’s sucks, those were all back in the glory days of mobile gaming when real developers thought hard about the format and made innovative titles. Hitman Go’s aesthetic was second to none.
Marathon was a formative game, for me. It’s hard to overstate just how much I was influenced. Alex Seropian is a genius, and critics of his level design can go run The Rose. I played the whole. thing. I played it so much I heard Phfor or whatever they’re called around the corner once in real life. I spent hours in LAN and chose my first online handle because of it. I came up with imaginary video game weapons I thought some developer, somewhere, should make based on this experience.
The reboot could be anything; I’m such a fan I don’t even care if it’s good: as long as it has heart and soul, I’ll love it. Somewhere in the heavens they are waiting. The candle burns out, for you.
Pathways Into Darkness is also interesting, but didn’t land in my life at the right time or else didn’t have quite the same kick. There is some je ne sais quoi to it, but you’ll have an approximate experience playing Xibalba on the web for free. Same flavor, less substance.
Pathways suffered from the tech being unequal to the demands of that sort of game at the time I think. I loved the theme/scenario for that though.
According to that article, it’ll be a squad-based, team extraction type multiplayer shooter.
If that’s the case, I’m out.