Why is the amount of Gamepass subscribers “Highly Confidential”?

[Box]

So many companies with subscription services reveal how many subscribers they have.

Crunchyroll: 14.5 million

Netflix: 238.39 million

Disney+: 146.1 million

HBO Max: 76.8 million

Paramount+: 60.7 million

PlayStation Plus: 47.4 million

Nintendo Online: 36 million

I just assume if a company doesn’t share numbers it’s because they’re bad or could give a negative impression. If they break records you’ll hear them shouting from the rooftops within days of release but they gain nothing by talking about slow growth to the public.

 

[Dr Bass]

Because the numbers aren't anything to brag about ...

MS needs to be able to pick their moments to spin/lie whatever about the numbers. If they were reporting them every quarter, it would be plainly obvious they aren't succeeding.

 

[Bryank75]

It's hilarious how they have to contort themselves so much.... first console sales dont matter, then software sales dont matter, profit doesn't matter...

Then they decide that it is subscriptions that matter.... but then they slow down, so now they don't matter anymore and must be kept confidential.

Any information Xbox / MSFT release is so meaningless at this stage. They have basically run out of figures to spin.

 

[Shmunter]

They have rolled Gold into gamepass basic now. You’d think they could chest beat about an “increase”

 

[Bryank75]

They have rolled Gold into gamepass basic now. You’d think they could chest beat about an “increase”

Exactly, I thought an announce for 35 million was imminent. 25 plus about 10 million gold... and still quiet! Weird.

At any rate, I'm not sure how long it might stay at that level. They seem to be hitting a wall regardless.

 

[Dr Bass]

They have rolled Gold into gamepass basic now. You’d think they could chest beat about an “increase”

I would hope people would see right through that, but I doubt it.

 

[ethomaz]

Because it is not growing.

When it was growing MS released each new milestone data.

But after 25 million… 30 million never come.

 

[anonpuffs]

It's because Microsoft likes to deceive shareholders.

 

[Swift_Star]

Because it’s stagnant and it’s not going to grow more.
MS has, once again, read the gaming market wrong.

 

[Yurinka]

Unless they are numbers that they must share for being a public company due to legal reasons, companys only share numbers when they consider it's something worth to brag about.

To don't share them don't imply they are bad. Maybe they don't share them because they aren't special or worth sharing.

How many copies did sell games like Uncharted 4 sold until now? Who knows, Sony doesn't share Uncharted 4 numbers since a gazillion years ago. Does it mean they are bad? No, they simply maybe aren't something special for them because they have many other game that sold similar or higher numbers, and the updated numbers of that game are just a random number for them and only a few hardcore fans would care about.

Regarding GP, the subs number has been stagnant for around a year, and now they removed the $1 tricks and that will increse prices, pretty likely will decrease in the following months since their (pre-ABK) last hope Starfield won't pump the numbers as they'd like.

 

[ksdixon]

If we could work out sales percentage split of active player base for games, and we also knew how many people were subscribing to gp at the same time, we could probably extrapolate some bad-news theoretical numbers easier.

 

[DForce]

They're betting it all on Game Pass.

Sure, they're worth trilling of dollars, but they're not going to keep losing billions on a service that's proving to be unfruitful.

They announced 25m subscribers a few years ago (I believe) and it's stagnant. If they acquire ABK and it's still around 25-30, then it's going to be bad for the service. They'll have more studios and they're committed to releasing games on a service day one.

Releasing 4 major titles each year while not seeing any growth? Then that's bad.

I'm sure they're looking at all the streaming services falling apart.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

"creative accounting"

 

[Sircaw]

Because it’s stagnant and it’s not going to grow more.
MS has, once again, read the gaming market wrong.

You just wait until Microsoft power-up those Doritos' printing presses again, you will see numbers that you did not even think were possible.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Because it’s stagnant and it’s not going to grow more.
MS has, once again, read the gaming market wrong.

Yeah, feels like they are just gonna find ways to inflate the numbers now. Like you said, including gold and whatever they get from activision

 

[Swolf712]

Part of me also thinks it's so they can bluff publishers and developers when getting thee Day One deals. Exaggerating or underselling where necessary to get them to say yes, or agree to take a certain amount under what they initially asked.

 

[Old Gamer]

You know why.

 

[Shmunter]

I would hope people would see right through that, but I doubt it.

They would, but certain evangelists would ignore it and focus on “the message”

 

[Shmunter]

Exactly, I thought an announce for 35 million was imminent. 25 plus about 10 million gold... and still quiet! Weird.

At any rate, I'm not sure how long it might stay at that level. They seem to be hitting a wall regardless.

They may be waiting to pull the trigger balancing passage of time, allowing people to “forget” the how and why

 

[Yobo]

Because Xbox has zero effect on MS stock price so they can just hide and pretend things are better than they are and the main stakeholders don't care either way