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The story
A thread appeared on 5ch’s “Hardware/Industry (Console War)” board floating a hypothetical Xbox reform plan: “cut Game Pass prices,” “bring back exclusive titles,” “end day-one Call of Duty releases,” and “introduce time limits on the cloud version.” Rather than debating the merits of the proposal itself, the thread spiraled into a battle over Xbox’s MAU (monthly active user) numbers, with posters citing strong earnings from Japanese publishers like Capcom, Square Enix, and Koei Tecmo to counter with “Japanese third-parties are thriving even without Game Pass” — a classic console-war slugfest.
What people said
Cut Game Pass prices → users rejoice
Drop CoD day-one → CoD sales finally reflect its real reputation, and they can beef up the Game Pass lineup too
Haha, quit it lololol
Huh? Windows 11 has over a billion users, and Xbox's MAU is over 500 million. Loser console? Come again??
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/04/23/we-are-xbox/
If Xbox's MAU is 500 million, then PS5's MAU must be like 2 billion lol
Time to face reality, PS fanboy
Peak "Geha" (console-war board) energy
Going by the recent State of Play, I don't think there's even a need to troll anymore…
Not with PS5 software sales like that
Falcom doesn't even release on Xbox, and they're on track for their best sales since the company was founded this year
People like this clearly start from their conclusion and can't see reality anymore
Sega — the one company actually leaning into Game Pass — is the only one struggling. Every other Japanese third-party is thriving
That "Sarah Bond" thing was way too incomprehensible
PS users don't really want Xbox games in the first place
Especially Japanese ones. Their attitude is "release it if you want, don't if you don't, either way we don't care"
Forza Horizon 5 sold over 5 million copies and BO2 sold 2 million — and you're saying PS users don't want MS games?
Then go buy some Sony games instead
But don't ports like FH5 and CoD end up selling record numbers anyway?
It's foreigners buying those
MS games have zero popularity in Japan
Saying that on a board only Japanese people read doesn't really land
The antis have all quietly become Switch users
Exactly
I'm a Switch user too
I just hate Xbox fanboys, that's all
If you want decent performance, are we talking over 200,000 yen?
If you take the leaked specs for "Helix" at face value, it'll probably run well over 300,000 yen
Gonna ignore that? Because you're rooting for Xbox?
For a deal that was supposed to prove to regulators it wasn't about buying up exclusives, they've done way too much stuff that contradicts that
That applies to every hardware maker though
None of them are keeping up with how things are changing
Honestly I wouldn't want one even for 30,000 yen
No disc drive, and Xbox doesn't even release physical games anymore anyway
Never wanted one to begin with
Sounds like PS is dropping discs too, so Nintendo's the only sane one left
You just want used games, don't you
That'd be Sarah Bond
What's that supposed to mean
Sony posts great PS5 earnings and then makes downsizing moves
Nintendo hasn't announced any major titles since the Switch 2 launch either and is just watching and waiting
Everyone's all over the place, huh
I don't care about the other stuff
Seems like the casual players in that segment grew way more than expected
Guess it's not just Sony that pulls the "ending the service due to popular demand" line
Sony gets bashed for closing the PS3 store, but the Xbox 360 store was the first one to shut down
The rising running costs are no joke
Though technically it's not ending the service, it's switching to a pay-per-use model
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Comparing MAU (monthly active users) figures is a classic case where numbers take on a life of their own once different counting methods are involved. The “over 500 million” figure for Xbox cited in the thread includes Windows and PC Game Pass users, so it rests on different assumptions than console-only usage figures. Meanwhile, the strong earnings from Capcom, Square Enix, and Koei Tecmo are all results each company has already reported for fiscal periods from March 2026 onward — but that alone doesn’t prove a causal link between having (or not having) Game Pass distribution and business performance. The thread’s real fault line is which factor to prioritize — “Japanese third-parties thriving independent of Game Pass” versus “the scale of Xbox’s ecosystem” — and it’s worth noting both sides are cherry-picking only the facts that support their argument.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Console War)) thread “Xbox Asha: “Cut Game Pass prices! Bring back exclusives! Drop CoD day-one! Time-limit the cloud version!”“
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