XBOX Gamepass Price Increase

Between 2017 and 2020, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google tried to force their way into gaming with cloud streaming platforms. Stadia, Luna, and even Xbox Game Pass were all pitched as the “Netflix for games.” The promise was simple: unlimited access, one flat fee. But it didn’t stick. Stadia is gone. Luna never took off. Even Xbox, with all of Microsoft’s resources, continues to trail Sony and Nintendo, largely because it lacks the first-party exclusives that actually drive players to buy in.

I’ve always been suspicious of these “all-you-can-eat” subscription models. Whether it’s music (Spotify) or gaming (Game Pass, Stadia, Luna), the math never really works for the people making the art. Spotify’s user experience is polished, but artists are stuck with fractions of a penny per stream. Unlimited access benefits the platform, not the creators.

Take Xbox Game Pass. It’s often celebrated as the future of gaming, but the economics don’t add up. The “Ultimate” tier now costs $29.99 a month, which is a staggering price point for what’s essentially a library of mid-tier titles padded with a few bigger releases. And here’s the key point: if Game Pass were really the “Netflix of gaming,” then it would be producing culture-defining originals the way Netflix does with shows like Stranger Things or Squid Game. Instead, the catalog leans heavily on filler, not foundational works.

That’s the problem with most streaming platforms. Big tech is great at building infrastructure, raising capital, and designing slick interfaces, but they fall flat on the art itself. Games, like music, aren’t just “content” to fill a subscription library. They’re cultural works that cost real money to make and carry even more cultural weight once released.

Unlimited streaming models, whether in gaming or music, flatten art into a commodity. They create a treadmill of consumption where creators get squeezed and audiences rarely encounter work that defines an era.

The future has to look different. Instead of chasing a “Netflix for everything,” we need platforms that value the work itself — the album, the project, the game — as something worth owning and remembering. That’s the foundation we’re building with Pedestal.