These issues dont just press Sony, but probably any other publisher trying to offer value in a market Microsoft has increasing leverage in.
Gamepass is only sustainable for Microsoft because they can afford to throw money at Xbox seemingly forever no matter how much or little the market actually wants it.
The rules of market supply and demand that one stereotypically learns in high school usually doesn't account for a company making a killing in one field, and then being able to fail upwards in another by being able to undercut.
The only issue is having the games to do it, which is why they acquire already popular and successful publishers.
The goal isnt to be a Netflix of games, but rather the Amazon of games.
Sony just has a lot of skin in the game, but any game not sold on gamepass will need to successfully compete against gamepass as a value. Making a shooter probably looks a lot worse to publishers and investors, I'd assume, now that CoD might look free.
Of course, maybe Sony will stay dominant through PlayStation 6, and Microsoft will change course, not seeing Xbox as something worth losing money over, but nobody knows.
Gamepass (and selling Xbox hardware itself) probably loses Microsoft a lot of money, and the layoffs wont offset the big costs of acquisitions
This is a different game than the days of paying Rockstar to keep GTAIV DLC exclusive, or Konami to keep MGS4 exclusive.
I assume there was a meeting like this at a lot of companies this year.
