Phil Spencer confirmed it's not making money in the FTC leaks. That's why in MS's financials they don't disclose gamepass financials.

It actually staggers me how widespread the belief that MS won't up prices is. I wonder if they thought the same about Netflix or cable TV subscriptions? Lol

And yeah, also in the FTC leaks MS stated they'd love to do a hostile takeover of Nintendo or Valve if they got the choice. I don't know why people think Microsoft are on their side. They're a 2.5 trillion dollar company with a history of anti-competitive behaviour lol

You don't think MS will up prices? Lol

Phil Spencer in the MS FTC leaks literally said that Gamepass isn't making money. Now, personally, I'm of the belief that MS is a for-profit company rather than a charity, in which case they'll up prices.

They have to up prices or shut down gamepass. That's not my opinion, that's capitalism. Microsoft will not keep gamepass if there's no possibility of making money from it, and there isn't at current pricing (source: Microsoft).

And save thousands? Thousands? You'd seriously be buying more than 33 AAA games each year for full retail price? Then never playing them again? Sounds like you're exaggerating by a pretty large amount lol

I don't think that necessarily has to be true.

Even so, MS is already dabbling with buying publishers and wielding them as a weapon through enforcing exclusivity. See buying Bethesda and destroying development of the PS5 port for Starfield. I think it's naive to think this will get better and not worse.

Who says they'll have to?

I'm very skeptical that you're describing the majority, let alone vast.

That "only worth playing once" thing only applies to story heavy, fixed map, pure single-player games, which are mainly a sub-set of AAA games, typically on consoles.

(Or multiplayer games when somebody only plays those games were their friends are, so the game stops being fun if most of their friends aren't there anymore, so naturally such people never get back to those)

Further, even amongst that kind of game, some are so good that they're fun again to play after some time (though it usually takes a couple of years to forget enough of the details for it to be fun again). For example, Fallout 3.

Methinks you're a very young gamer, who is mainly fad driven hence buys the same AAA games as his friends and doesn't buy indie games (which is where you'll find the most replayable games of all, as indies often have generated maps since they can't afford to spend millions of dollars on people doing level design) so yeah, all you've ever seen is games that are only fun once or for a very limited time period.

Youthfullness would also explain why you confuse your own behaviour with "the vast majority of the gaming community". (Which is extra funny because the average age of gamers nowadays is somewhere in the mid 30s).

I would be seriously surprised if you were an older gamer as they're more likely to buy games for their fun factor - not fashionability amongst peers or last gen graphics - hence sooner or later end up playing some indie game or other with generated maps, plus are much more likely to have picked up again some game they played and finished years ago and still fondly remember, just to discover it's actually fun again.