Spencer regularly makes a point of complimenting the competition, and does so here, while trying to get away from the like-to-like comparisons of console generations past.

The full interview is well worth a read, if only to see how eager Xbox is to be everybody's friend. And my hope is that Game Pass can get to that same level.' There are clearly shows on Netflix that would have never been greenlit by NBC or CBS, or ABC in the old model, and frankly, can have real success. When the team, if they’re just out there pitching the publishers on a retail game, if it doesn’t fit into some Excel spreadsheet that tells you what the retail outcome will be, then it doesn’t get green-lit. 'The thing that’s been heartwarming to me, as somebody who’s been building games for so long, is to see games come to the service that wouldn’t have been built. There’s some downside risks that we can help cover which gives us certain capability with the content, but also helps them go do some things that maybe they couldn’t get greenlit on a pure retail model,' Spencer said. We already have a revshare relationship with most of the content creators because we have a store I’m hoping we can get to a model where as we see upside, they see upside. 'My hope is we will get there, and maybe not 100 percent, maybe some hybrid model, which I think could work. Every possible take on the situation is already out there, but this year's lockdown and the knock-on effect on the usual revenue streams open to musicians has brought fresh focus to a system that leaves many of its partners unhappy with how payments are calculated ( this recent Wired piece is an excellent breakdown). The usage model Spencer references is most often linked with Spotify, and usually in a negative light from the perspective of music artists. Indeed it's hard to see what other approach would work in an industry where budgets can range from the low thousands to hundreds of millions.

This kind of flexibility obviously depends on both seriously deep pockets and a willingness to back a range of projects.

Is xbox game pass worth it