Phil Spencer Thanks The Fans As Xbox Game Pass Trends On Twitter

It actually started because random people on Twitter were saying that Game Pass is bad due to various reasons, that they were tired of people constantly talking about Game Pass and that Microsoft was paying people to promote the service. Then influencers started to tweet in a jokingly manner what great value the service is and as a result Game Pass started to trend.

The people who wanted others to stop talking about Game Pass drew so much more attention to the topic. Don't they know how things like this work.

They even said that Microsoft was paying influences to promote Game Pass!
The service promotes itself, as we have seen here!

@LtSarge On one hand, I can kind of understand people that aren’t in the Xbox ecosystem getting tired of having to hear about it. It’s hard to talk about Xbox and not bring up its biggest selling point. That probably gets annoying to some. On the other hand, as an Xbox fan, for the past 7 years, I had to hear “Xbox has no games” 8 million times, so I don’t really care if they’re tired of hearing about Gamepass.

Well the games are coming starting August so that’s resolved including 2 big hitters FH5 and Halo which are needed to be honest.
Now we just need more Series x stock in the UK.
Sell consoles sell game pass and items.
Not sure why but the series s not really taken off over here and in my own opinion only. Should have never been invented. Series x £450 and series x disc less £350. That’s all they had to do, would have made life in general a lot easy for developers moving forward.

@Dezzy70
You missed out flight sim? Which is a bit of a system seller, for me and a few others.
A PC melting game on a 450 quid console, and on game pass. Even tho it won't be up with top end PCs it's a gift.

@Hypnotoad107 Well I mean it's the same case as people constantly talking about how great exclusives PlayStation has or how great the Nintendo Switch is in terms of playing on the TV or on the go. People bring these aspects up all the time so I don't see why it's any different for Xbox.

But like you say, Xbox has always been known for "not having games" so now that Game Pass is gaining momentum and is challenging that notion, people are starting to get upset. They don't want Xbox to have games, they want to keep things the way they are, lol.

@Dezzy70 maybe the Series S did not take off in England, but in the devoloping world it's the best thing ever. It's been on the headlines recently that the Xbox Series S was the best selling console in India for two months in a roll. In my own country, Brazil, it's been the best selling console in Amazon for months (including Nintendo Switch and PS4).

The math is simple: videogame consoles are very expensive both in Brazil and Argentina due to high taxes on imported electronics. The Xbox Series X officially retails for R$ 4599, which is equivalent to US$ 932 or £ 671. That's the official price, but since we're having issues with stocks as well, you won't find the Series X for less than R$ 7000 — do the math.

The Series S, however sells for a more sensible R$ 2799 = US$ 567 = £ 408. And that's usually the actual price you find in retail. Even the Xbox Series S is sort of a luxury product in Brazil, where people's monthly average income is R$ 893 = US$ 181 = £ 130.

Even in the developed world, the Series S is a great idea, since people who game mostly on Playstation may see it as a cheap gateway for the Xbox echosystem.

@Dezzy70
I've had a Series S since launch and I love it. I've hardly touched any of the other consoles I own since I bought my Xbox.

The reasons I bought Series S over X are I haven't a tv in the house that would display Series X at full spec, and my first digital only console.
I bought a one S last August and couldn't understand the point of owning a disc only to download maybe up to 80 percent of the rest of the game? So therefore decided digital only. Of course the price is also a factor, cheaper than Switch!
When I upgrade the tv / moniter I may consider series X or perhaps the discless equivalent of the future.
Game pass is amazing by the way!

I genuinely believe Gamepass will solidify itself as the Netflix for gaming. Prices for games are gradually climbing higher, which has the potential to alienate the less financially fortunate. It also broadens the scopes for up and coming developers who otherwise wouldn't get the opportunity to present their creations. It's a win win win system, and I thoroughly believe that in a few years Gamepass will be chugging out hoards of games into the ecosystem

@Nic-Noc20th-C We lucked into having a S and X in the house. Don't get me wrong on the 4K tv the X wins easily but the S is just so, well, nice. It sits upstairs on the bedroom (1080p) TV (or my PC), it plays and looks nice. I wouldn't have been upset if I could only had the S.

I also like that when a games is FPS boosted when I play on the S I don't have to choose (on some games) between the boost and the resolution (it doesn't help on Series X it also drops any One X enhancements)

@Doctorwhoooourgh Agreed. I think it was a great idea to build its reputation long before dropping the console requirement. it's not trying to "replace" your console experience, it's enhancing it and letting spread beyond that.

@Dezzy70 I looked yesterday to see if the Series X is in stock yet in the UK, I can't believe you still can't get it.

@Snake_V5
Keep looking Smyths toys drop random in store stock each week, around 8 to 10am.
If you quick you can get one.
Also Argos do the same even if out of stock add to basket and click on tell me where.

@Magabro
I guess there is a market for it but a niche one in the whole system of things.
Would interesting to know it’s actual sales world wide compared to series x.
If it was selling that well world wide the series x/s would be top of sales charts each week instead of third each week. So it’s not that much of a seller, the series s.
But if it works for some that’s a good thing.

Was having a good laugh seeing the influencers getting involved last night. Even Alanah Pearce, who is now a Sony employee, got in on the act. So that was amusing to see!

Let's be real.
As someone who owns a Series X and PS5, it's a typical case of jealousy.
If PS5 had the same service, I'd be subscribing day one, loving life and so would these fanboys.
Instead, I have to carefully select which exclusive I'm going to pay £70 for. Spoiler warning, I've only bought 2 so far since owning a PS5 at launch, slightly more expensive than 12 months of Game Pass Ultimate at full price.

The ball is now in Sony's court for if they'll have a proper answer to Game Pass, because it's currently THE most expensive console eco-system to invest in.

@blinx01 Your comment is interesting because I pretty much said the exact same thing yesterday on the forums, lol. It's definitely a case of jealousy. If a corresponding service to Game Pass were on PS5 or Switch, people would be over the moon for it. Instead, they are trying to come up with all these different reasons for why Game Pass is bad in order to make themselves feel better that they are missing out on such a great service.

Well it's worrying that gamepass in general has more hype and more people talking about it than any of xbox's exclusives/upcoming exclusives have.

I would like to see some big third party single player games come to gamepass as that's what I mainly play or maybe some anime games such as the tales of series.

The best deal in gaming, It should be trending..

@UltimateOtaku91
That's the thing. People are not hyped so much for ONE game but ALL of them coming to the service starting July onwards.
That's what it means to be subscribed. You get all the first party exclusives day one!
If you're hyped for just one game, then you wouldn't be subscribed. You'd just buy it.

I'm literally finishing off Yakuza: LAD now. 2 chapters to go. 40+ hours in. I'd suggest that if you haven't already played it. Superb JRPG with crazy Japanese humour.

Then Doom Eternal next gen upgrade is tomorrow.
A Plague Tale: Innocence next gen upgrade July 6th.
Flight Sim is July 27th.
The Ascent is July 29th.

That's just the next 4 weeks and we haven't even had the full list for the month!

@blinx01 yeah you're right, and I've never played a yakuza game but the turn based one I watched a trailer of looks OK so I might give that a try.
I've already completed doom and plague tale on ps4 excellent games, I've completed man of medan and the medium, started control, I'm not into gears or halo and I've mostly played all of Bethesda games on ps4 so would definitely like to see some more bigger single player games come soon.

@LtSarge if you ask me the whole meme is obnoxious and childish, as childish as the feeling of glee and joy I get when I remember #XboxGamePass gives me access to hundreds of games and day 1 releases for only $9.99/month and if you’re new you can even get 3 months right now for only $1!

@Tharsman aaaaaah, you got me with the first line hahan

@Dezzy70 the market for Flight Sim is definitively not the hardcore gamer, although it certainly has some overlap. I doubt those users are as attached to physical media or ownership as more hardcore gamers, meaning that you will not be as likely to see the game chart on charts that are driven by physical sales, and even digital users are that more likely to just play via game pass.

For an apples to oranges comparison:
Death Stranding (“niche” Sony game on Steam) play stats vs Flight Sim on Steam:
https://steamcharts.com/cmp/1250410,1190460

Flight Steam is played more, and keep in mind you can buy Flight Sim also from MS store without Steam, or just play it via GamePass.

@Tharsman 😂😂 not gonna lie i've been seeing tons of tweets similar to your comment last night and having too much fun from those

I didn't quite understand GP until a year or so ago when Microsoft really doubled down on Age of Empires again and I tried it out on PC. Now I have a Series console and I'm always discovering new games I never would have played before.

Haters don't get it but it's really more about discovery and trying a game instead of blind buying. It isn't just about playing AAA games for cheap. Service deserves even more praise than it gets.

@UltimateOtaku91 I think the exclusives are part of the discussion though. Game Pass itself is one point of discussion, but all those exclusives....and playing them is already built into the price you're already paying.... no "look at all the $70 games I can buy in the next 12 months!" effect there. I think it's a shared part of the discussion. Heck, Sony helped Game Pass accidentally with MLB. Talking about the big new Sony exclusive on Game Pass sure generated a lot of Game Pass buzz in April. FH5 will be the next one.

Tales of Arise launching on Game Pass though....man, that would be awesome! And not inconceivable. MS wants Japanese games, and Arise debuted on Microsoft's stage. Though the metrics for Scarlet Nexus isn't encouraging for a game that closed out the second Xbox show if we go by those UK numbers on PS.

@Dezzy70 Series S won't be a sales dud. It's just a product for a different market of which the UK, and the early adopter market in general isn't part of. Take the PS5 sales numbers for games for example where games are selling better on PS5 than PS4 (or XB.) The hardware early adopters are the people who buy niche full price games at launch. Which are also the same people that buy premium hardware. Meaning that vast sea of PS4 owners aren't the people likely to buy niche full price games at launch. Or premium hardware.

We're still in the period, especially with the shortages, where the people that want to buy the new consoles are the big spender gaming enthusiasts. The "developing world" as others mentioned, it's a big thing, and in the US it's a big thing as a budget console. But the "budget next gen console shoppers" haven't really kicked into full gear yet. On a normal console launch I'd say that this holiday is when that market gets into gear. However in the weird launch this is where chip shortages extend into 2022....we might not see the S really spike until holiday '22. By then it might have some big black friday deals and go viral. Budget-conscious shoppers don't buy electronics at launch. We do, but we're insane. The voices tell us to do it.

@Tharsman Not to mention there's less than zero point in buying Flight Sim physical. The game itself is mostly streamed assets in real time from the cloud servers because the total game is somewhere over a petabyte of "installed" data if you were to have it local.

Ironically, Flight Sim is the culmination of what Matrick was badly trying to promote with the always-on cloud power they were going to have with X1. In this one case (and Crackdown 3 multiplayer if anyone remembers that exists), the whole "power of the cloud" thing is actually real. Flight Sim is just too big to locally install. A disc is little more than a launcher.

@NEStalgia
That’s what those voices are.

@UltimateOtaku91 Does Phil sound worried to you? 😂

Wii sports was trending on Twitter the other night

@NEStalgia I would not say this is anything like Don Matricks vision. His vision was about preventing trade of used games, and always online being a means to that end.

Some games having online requirements like this one are as expected as an MMO requiring an online connection.

@Tharsman I don't mean his whole policy, but if you watch the infamous reveal, there was the part he was pushing the "power of the cloud" and enabling bigger experiences not locally possible. This is the kind of thing he was taking about. So he actually got one thing right.

@Magabro
Just one correction, monthly average income in Brazil is R$ 2544, R$ 893 is the minimum wage.
Anyway, video game in Brazil is a luxury hobby.

@Igorfgon https://exame.com/economia/renda-media-mensal-do-brasileiro-caiu-para-r-893-diz-fgv/

@Magabro
Curious, I saw this information in another source.
https://take-profit.org/en/statistics/wages/brazil/
But I know how hard is live in Brazil...

@Igorfgon probably both numbers refer to different things. I'm no economist and I could be wrong, but I suppose that, for example, in a family of four where two adults work but two children do not, the average income per family member will be lower than the wages of the parents.

Anyway, you got my point. Videogame consoles are a luxury in developing nations and thus the Xbox Series S is a godsend for us, making that hobby more accessible to people who otherwise would not be able to play videogames at all.