Is it fair to say Microsoft doesn’t care about hardware sales anymore?

[PS5 Pro]

Looks like they’re banking everything on Gamepass being their main source of revenue, which I suppose their thinking is they can sell half as many consoles as PS5 as long as they make as much money or even more than Sony through Gamepass it’ll be a success.

It’s a bit risky no? Will Netflix type subscription work for gaming? Also let’s not forget they’ve basically been giving away Gamepass like candy so will the consumers stick around when MS starts charging them full prices?

Microsoft cares about whatever form you want. Consoles won't be necessary as the cloud grows stronger, but today reality isn't a viable option to the masses. 5g is required to get things like 4k and whatever else we don't even know about yet. By next next gen we'll be entering 6g and i can assure you we won't be using physical hardware. The world itself will be very different just like now. Not too long ago nikkaz was saying we can't do digital downloads because of data caps

 

[winb83]

They are still vested in hardware sales. They can't be outsold 2:1 like they did this gen.

This isn’t their primary business. If it’s making money and hopefully growing it’s not gonna hurt them and can stay around. I doubt many investors care about Xbox as much.

 

[SNG]

You can tell Microsoft is all about providing a service. Gamepass is there trump card. They are the only gaming company out the three that has the infrastructure to be the netflix of gaming. This next gen will be very telling for them because if the gamepass is a big success you can kiss them making a console good bye.

 

[The Mad Titan]

Oh now it's all coming together for people.


Hardware is only a means to get consumers as an install base and create brands.


As far back as the ps2, systems have made little to no profit for companies.

Things have been trending digital and service base for years. The success of Xbox live then psn should have clued y'all in on that, follow that by music and then movies and TVs shows....yeah it's pretty clear.


I mean when was the last time you bought physical media like a DVD that didn't involve gaming? If not for gaming I think DVD and blue ray would be even more obscure.

Microsoft not worried about having the #1 selling console. If people without a system are going to purchase gamepass and play on the PC (which is 9 times out of 10, a windows machine anyway) that's a huge W


And gaming is at a spot where there are just TOO many games out for people to realistically all play or buy or even know about. Gamepass allows alot of smaller developed games to get play. For instance I wasn't gonna buy a plague tale probably ever, but it's on GP right now and I'm looking forward to playing it.


Truthfully I look forward to the so y version of gamepass that they pretty much have to drop or push at some point in the future. I doubt they'll do day and date 1st party games... But some of the other smaller games that are ps/pc exclusives that I'll never buy? Yeah I'll sub to that.