It's nuts to me that SoT sells like this constantly when it's available on Game Pass. I'm guessing there's no crossplay between the GP and Steam versions? Would make sense that would drive sales if people are looking to play with their friends.
There's full cross play and cross save between all versions, including Xbox.
I do understand where you come from and I do understand being a bit skeptical about it, but no need to look for a "technical" explanation. The market is not just one, there are many people out there with different preferences and budgets. Some prefer a subscription, some prefer to buy the games they play, some do both be subscribed but also buy the game that's in the service, and there probably many more possible and nuanced consumer profiles out there. Yeah, a subscription service and selling games do compete against each other, but they're not mutually exclusive. And depending on the situation, they could be mutually beneficial. Not saying this is the case, but while you assumed that the lack of cross-play could explain by the Steam sales one could argue that cross-play actually helped Steam sales. Game Pass subscribers are more likely to try the game, which helps the game keeping healthy community numbers, and make the game more popular. People that don't Game Pass might buy it on Steam, word of mouth, to jump in and play with either their Game Pass friends or just to try another online game that's doing fine in part cause it's part of a subscription service. Again I'm not saying this is case and take it just as an illustration. And I do understand the skepticism, but some devs have mentioned they're happy so far with the subscription service, some publishers ever tried to have their own, and part of the players seem to be liking the services. And the figures here don't suggest anything in the contrary with two MS first party studio getting the gold and silver medal in Steam this week. It seems to be working!
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