I'm pretty sure the 1-2% is after costs. Steam is at 30% before taking any costs into account. As has been mentioned, you'll lose more than 2% on transaction/money handling alone. Also afaik food shops have wildly differing profit margins on different products, some being sold at cost or at loss to attract customers or because it's wares people often compare when deciding where to shop and some is at 100%+ markup because shoppers aren't as sensitive to the price.
Microsoft explored reducing its Xbox store cut to shake up console gaming
Confidential Microsoft documents reveal some big plans
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Microsoft had been planning to cut its Xbox store cut to just 12 percent, according to confidential documents filed in the Epic Games vs. Apple case. The software maker details its store fees and changes in a document from January, where it also lists the 12 percent cut to PC games it announced this week. While most of the important parts of the document are redacted, one page reveals Microsoft also wanted to reduce its 30 percent store cut on the Xbox console side.
A table reveals “all games will move to 88 / 12 in CY21,” which means Microsoft had been planning a significant cut to Xbox transactions for some point in the 2021 calendar year. While Microsoft has announced its PC cut, which is also listed in the same table, the company has stayed quiet about any Xbox plans. A change to 12 percent would be significant, particularly because Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all currently take 30 percent on digital game sales.
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Microsoft’s confidential plans from January.
A Microsoft spokesperson initially said “we have no plans to change the revenue share for console games at this time,” in a statement to The Verge on Saturday, before issuing a clearer statement on Sunday.
“We will not be updating the revenue split for console publishers,” says a Microsoft spokesperson. Microsoft still refuses to answer whether the document is inaccurate, or simply that plans changed.
This document is part of the Epic Games vs. Apple trial that commences on Monday, and there could be questions over Microsoft’s fee plans here. Both Epic and Apple are calling on Microsoft’s Lori Wright, VP of Xbox business development, as a third-party witness next week.
The documents also reveal that Microsoft had been planning to adopt this lower store rate on the PC side with an important caveat. “There is a proposal currently under Gaming Leadership Team consideration to adopt 88 / 12 as a public PC games revenue share for all games in exchange for the grant of streaming rights to Microsoft,” reveals the document. We asked Microsoft whether this proposal went ahead, but the company refused to comment in time for publication. Microsoft is planning to cut its share of revenue for PC games to 12 percent in August, but it’s not clear if the streaming rights clause is still included.
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Microsoft may have a caveat for the PC gaming cut.
The streaming rights clause would mean developers have to ensure games are available on xCloud for this improved revenue cut. Cloud gaming rights, and in particular Xbox Game Pass, have becoming an emerging battle ground for console exclusivity rights in many contracts recently. Nvidia also generated pushback from publishers and developers after publishing some games to its GeForce Now cloud gaming service without permission.
As we noted yesterday, Microsoft has also been quietly backing Epic Games’ action against Apple. Microsoft has previously defended its 30 percent cut for Xbox digital game sales, and Epic Games has been happy to keep it in place. “Game consoles are specialized devices optimized for a particular use,” said Rima Alaily, deputy general counsel at Microsoft, last year.
Alaily argues that the “business model for game consoles is very different to the ecosystem around PCs or phones,” because Microsoft subsidizes the hardware and consoles “are vastly outnumbered in the marketplace by PCs and phones.” An Epic Games executive also revealed in a court deposition this week that the company has never sought to negotiate with Microsoft to avoid using its commerce engine on Xbox. Despite defending its Xbox cut, Microsoft did admit last year that the company has “more work to do to establish the right set of principles for game consoles.”
Elsewhere, another confidential document shines a light on exclusivity with Xbox games. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is listed with a three-month console exclusivity deal, Tetris Effect: Connected with six months of exclusivity on connected updates, and The Gunk with perpetual exclusivity to Xbox.
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The court documents also detail Xbox exclusivity deals.
Update, May 2nd 6:50AM ET: Article updated with additional streaming rights details.
Update, May 2nd 3:50PM ET: Article updated with new comment from Microsoft that makes it clear this cut is no longer happening.
In shock to no one another shop bites lower %.
I wonder how those assholes of people saying 30% is "right" gape after pretty much every shop lowered it down aside from consoles and Steam*
I have even btter prediction. 12% cut is actually still wayy too fucking big. 2-3% cut is where it should be.
Microsoft Store: More apps, more open
In June, we introduced the new Microsoft Store on Windows, redesigned from the ground up to meet the needs of customers across a variety of app experiences. We also opened up the Microsoft Store on Windows to developers using different types of frameworks, packaging technologies, and commerce platforms – in alignment with our commitment to choice, fairness, and innovation.
The new Microsoft Store will launch to the public alongside Windows 11 on October 5th. It will also be available to Windows 10 customers in the coming months.
As we continue our journey, we are grateful for the response from the app developer ecosystem, and we will continue to listen to their feedback. Today, we would like to recognize some of the new apps that are now available in the Microsoft Store and share some updates to our policies for third-party stores.
Opening to more apps
Developers told us they love not having to re-write their existing desktop apps or change their business models in order to be part of the Microsoft Store on Windows. Since June, hundreds of app developers have registered to our preview program to bring their desktop apps onboard. An initial wave of new desktop apps that you can try today on the Windows 11 Insider Preview includes communication platforms like Discord, Zoom Cloud Meetings, and KakaoTalk, and creativity-focused tools such as Luminar AI, Music Maker, and VLC. Desktop productivity applications, like TeamViewer, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, and LibreOffice, are also available for download and are joined by new additions from inside Microsoft, like Microsoft PowerToys, Visual Studio Code, and Visual Studio Community.
Furthermore, several high-quality Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are also now available in the Microsoft Store on Windows, including Reddit, Wikipedia, TikTok, Lyft, Quizlet and Tumblr. PWAs on Windows allow developers to bring the best of their web experiences even closer to their customers, for example by easy access in the taskbar or Start menu, icon notification badging, or matching the user preference on light/dark theme mode. Clipchamp, available for free on the Microsoft Store, is a video editor with a deep feature set and seamless web-sharing workflow. Now part of the Microsoft family, Clipchamp is a great example of what Windows developers can deliver using PWA as a foundation.
Opening to other stores
Our commitment to being an ‘open Store for an open platform’ isn’t just about the various technical underpinnings of how apps are built. It’s also about making sure our business terms are fair and help promote innovation. For instance, the Microsoft Store on Windows no longer requires app developers to share revenue with Microsoft, when apps manage their own in-app payment systems.
In that spirit, today we’re announcing another significant update to our Microsoft Store on Windows policies, which will allow third-party storefront apps to be discoverable in the Microsoft Store on Windows. Just like any other app, third-party storefront apps will have a product detail page that can be found via search or by browsing – so that users can easily find and install it with the same confidence as any other app in the Microsoft Store on Windows. Today, we are sharing that Amazon and Epic Games will bring their storefront apps to the Microsoft Store over the next few months, and we look forward to welcoming other stores as well in the future.
As we shared back in August, we’re excited about the journey we’re on to bring Android apps and games to Windows 11, including the ability to discover and search the Amazon Appstore catalog directly in the Microsoft Store. This will start as a preview for Windows Insiders soon; we will share soon more details about the system requirements and market availability of the preview experience, and we look forward to the engagement and feedback with the Windows Insiders community.
Opening to other browsers
In June, we updated our policies for browser apps, enabling developers to bring their own browser engines (instead of relying on the OS’ web platform) and continue to innovate with their user experience. Today we are welcoming two browsers, joining Microsoft Edge in the Microsoft Store on Windows: Opera and Yandex Browser.
Opening to your apps
Our journey has just started, and we look forward to continuing to work together with the developer ecosystem to deliver even more great experiences for the Microsoft Store on Windows. You can learn how to publish your app to the new Microsoft Store on Windows here, as well as catch the latest docs and best practices to reach new customers.
Microsoft says strategy games are key for PC Game Pass, and it wants more
It seems Microsoft loves strategy games. I mean who doesn’t, right? But it’s not like your average RTS game gets the kind of mainstream attention that Halo or Cyberpunk gets. And yet, I recently sat down with Microsoft’s general manager for portfolio planning and analysis, Matt Percy, to talk about how valued these experiences are for Xbox Game Pass for PC.
Now known as PC Game Pass, the ‘Netflix for games’ service has certainly proven to be a very potent arrow in Microsoft’s quiver, and strategy games are reportedly an important component to its success. It’s not all about Forza Horizon 5 or Halo Infinite, it’s about Total War: Warhammer III and Microsoft’s own Age of Empires IV as well.
Some fun facts about PC Game Pass: strategy games made up about 15% of the launch portfolio, with grand strategy game Imperator: Rome one of the genre’s leading names on the service. Now, there are over 40 strategy games, and Percy couldn’t be happier. “Strategy games have become some of the most popular titles in our portfolio,” he tells us. “They’re consistently in the top ten games every month and they drive as much as 20% of our monthly engagement on PC.”
“Our goal for Game Pass has always been to offer gamers more choice,” Percy explains. “And give creators more choice as well. We think we’re having a really positive effect on the [strategy] genre on PC, because you’re making it more accessible to people.”
Percy has more stats to back him up on this as well. Apparently, after joining Game Pass people play 20% more games outside of the service, as well as trying 30% more genres. “It’s wild to me that somebody comes in maybe for a Halo and then discovers what they really loved is Darkest Dungeon all along,” Percy explains.
Longevity is key to most games, but strategy games seem especially good at this thanks to either long-running DLC support, passionate modding scenes, or ideally both. But unless you’re one of Microsoft’s first-party games then there’s no guarantee you’ll be on Game Pass forever, so migrating fans from the service is going to be an important final challenge.
Percy reiterates that Microsoft is very upfront about what’s coming and what’s leaving Game Pass in any given month, as well as offering discounts on purchasing Microsoft Store versions of a game, with additional discounts for DLC. It’s also important to the team that the Game Pass experience be as “consistent” with other platforms as possible.
Total War: Warhammer III will be the next big strategy game to come to PC Game Pass, although Victoria 3 is going to drop too when it arrives. In August Civilization-challenger Humankind launched as a day one Game Pass game and recently Slitherine put Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector onto the service – and the list keeps growing. Considering this is one of my favourite genres, it’s wonderful to see this kind of attention.
For Percy, it comes back down to being able to offer choice, and giving Game Pass subscribers more of what they want. And through the subscription model he hopes that developers get the freedom to focus on what they do best: “Make the game that you want to make,” he says.
“Make the game that you feel comfortable making – there’s a home for it in the service. I think that’s a really fun thing to be able to say… We want developers to be able to make the games they want and find the audience’s that those games deserve.”
As an addendum to the other services I tried, I tried out Microsoft's XCloud service after being alerted that it's now in public beta.
It's streaming what I assume is some xbox whatever, NOT a regular computer. I don't actually own a controller(ish, I'll see if I can dig my old one up, I just don't know where I left it) so I'm using a chrome extension to emulate a controller with kb+m:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keyboard-mouse-for-xbox-x/nmfedkijhhigaikbadoijiolmjjgoimd
It does come with its own games unlike Stadia/GFN, and there's quite a few games to pick from -- seems to be a decent library of about 150-200 games. If you don't own a console, this is actually a way for you to play some games you don't have access to.
You can see when I press the move, the character takes a bit to respond. But when I press jump, the jump happens near instantly. So the latency actually seems to be fine. However, the picture quality isn't great... after recording it I realized this might actually not be a network issue but a potato issue, as I'm playing it at 1440p
https://streamable.com/dw0hmu
NOTE: the video itself is not good to judge the quality as streamable heavily compresses it.
The key overlay is from my side as an OBS extension, NOT their side. So you're experiencing the same exact delay I was experiencing. The quality was OK, starts out a bit fuzzy but after about 30 seconds it's decent enough.
GeForce Now remains by far the best streaming service I've tried. I don't know what magic Nvidia is using, but streaming will never be usable unless others are able to copy it. If for some reason you must use one of these services and already have a large steam library, stick with GFN. GFN got kneecapped hard with the publisher thing though.
Again, the one major complaint I expected to be near impossible to resolve -- latency -- seems to actually be nowhere near the issue I thought it would be.
Perhaps I should move all these to a "Rusty reviews various streaming services" thread, hmm. As a side note, anyone know the best website for hosting videos that doesn't compress the shit out of them? Bitchute destroys my videos.
Xbox App on PC will now predict if your machine can run a game before you download it
Feature rolling out to users now.
Microsoft is rolling out an updated version of its Xbox App for PC that includes an at-a-glance indication of whether your machine will likely be able to run a game before you download it.
The feature, which should be particularly useful to Game Pass subscribers reckoning with the service's sizeable library of titles, is being referred to as the Game Performance Fit Indicator.
Essentially, each time you look at a game via the Xbox App, you'll see a short message offering a prediction of how well Microsoft expects it to run on your machine, generated by comparing a title's performance on PCs with similar specs to yours.
Xbox App on PC's new Game Performance Fit Indicator in action.
Microsoft says the new feature is starting to roll out to users now, but notes that, while it continues to gather performance data for different games, checks may not appear for all titles.
Alongside the Game Performance Fit Indicator, Microsoft has highlighted a number of other app improvements in its announcement post, including backend changes designed to make for smoother and more reliable user experience.
Xbox Game Pass Business Model Doesn’t Seem to Work While Nintendo’s Switch Online Does, Says DFC Intelligence
Aernout van de Velde • Feb 1, 2023 08:02 AM EST
According to games industry market research firm DFC Intelligence, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass doesn’t appear to be a sustainable long-term business model.
That’s what the research firm writes in a new article about the gaming subscription services from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Microsoft recently published its financial results for Q2 of FY23, but although Xbox Game Pass subscriptions have grown further, subscription numbers don't necessarily tell the entire story. The problem with Game Pass, according to the DFC, is that Microsoft is giving away too much content in order to generate its revenue. Meanwhile, although not nearly as good as Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, Nintendo appears to have found the sweet spot with Switch Online when it comes to offering decent value for consumers.
“The problem with Game Pass is the business model does not appear to work”, the research firm writes. “Comparing subscriber numbers is not necessarily fair because the services have significantly different prices. However, what is clear is how well Nintendo’s subscription service works as an enhancement to the overall business model of selling hardware and software. In contrast, Game Pass appears to be trying to be its own end where Xbox hardware sales are not important.”
“When one does the math, Game Pass is making probably three times the revenue Nintendo Switch Online currently generates and probably getting close to matching PlayStation+ revenue because it is priced higher. However, Microsoft is giving away a lot to generate that revenue and it does not appear to be a sustainable long-term business model.”
The article then goes on to explain why DFC Intelligence believes that Nintendo Switch Online is compelling for both consumers and Nintendo as a company.
“The last part of giving away AAA first-party content is the kicker. Nintendo’s online service includes extra content for Mario Kart 8 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. However, these titles respectively sold 48 million and 40 million units at full retail price. In other words, these two titles generated more revenue than a year of Game Pass.”
Nintendo’s Switch Online service is believed to work as an enhancement to Nintendo’s overall business model.
"The bottom line is that game subscription services seem to work well as a value-add proposition. Nintendo has shown that with Nintendo Switch Online. There are tens of millions of users that will pay $60+ for a game and a cheap mediocre online service. Taking it to the level of a Game Pass requires not only significantly more expenditure but requires giving up a large established revenue stream."
Do you agree with the DFC? Is Microsoft’s business model sustainable in the long run and how about Sony’s and Nintendo’s? Hit the comments down below.
