The argument that gamepass rates with Sony's offerings IS absurd.
Any game you can point to, you can point to that game already being available on Sony's store OR you can point to PSNow, which has heads and shoulders more games than Gamepass does.
Nobody will be streaming 2K on Switch when they can buy it outright, and no one will be singing the praises of multiplayer games they have to stream, regardless.
The idea that MS can overtake Sony with worse games, using streaming services Sony is ALREADY leading the charge in, while simultaneously having no games that even compete with Sony's financially or critically, is delusional.
Here are a smattering of games that you can play on Gamepass - which, if it ends up on Switch, will expand Gamepass's reach and customer base:
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Banjo-Tooie
- BioShock
- BioShock Infinite
- Fable 2
- Fable 3
- Fallout 3
- Fallout 4
- Forza Horizon 4
- all the Gears of War games
...and that's just through the "G"s.
The idea that these games are not appealing enough to a general audience to drive Gamepass subs is
fucking insane. Like, you have to be willfully ignoring the popularity of these games to make the argument that you are making.
Microsoft has a good collection of first- and third-party games, many of which were highly-rated by critics if you care about that (I don't) and many of which are current-generation releases. They have access to the Rare games from the N64 era that Switch owners would absolutely care about on top of that.
If you don't think that these games are popular enough to spur subscription growth in Gamepass, especially if it's placed on Nintendo consoles, and if you don't believe that this will represent a significant increase in revenue for Microsoft and be of - I don't know, interest, concern, whatever - to the other streaming services owned by game companies (so not just PS Now, but also EA Access), then I don't know what to tell you. We're just going to have to absolutely disagree on this one.
Some of you (I said "you," and you've mentioned it here a bit, but I don't mean just you personally) are so fixated on "but who will win the console war," and there really isn't an argument that GP access on Switch will somehow sell more Switches than PS5s or Xboxes than PS5s or whatever. I think that Microsoft would love to win that competition, mind you, but they've never been able to beat Sony worldwide, even when they were at their best and Sony was at its worst, and they never will. But we're entering a phase where Microsoft really just wants its services in as many places as possible and in which GP very arguably represents the best value in streaming services owned by the companies.
The idea that Sony wouldn't give a fuck about GP on Switch because it won't lose them the console sales wars? Yeah, sure, I'm on board with that.
The idea that Sony wouldn't see GP on Switch as a threat to the viability or attractiveness of PSNow? I don't see how you could possibly believe that. I'm sorry, I just can't see a strong argument that Sony won't care about this. There certainly could be one! I'm not seeing that argument so far.