With the Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft has created a lucrative business branch that the company now aims to significantly expand. The goal is to make this offer available even on competing consoles.
Access to hundreds of games, some of which are current and high-quality, for a monthly fee – that’s the success formula for Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass. The gaming subscription service is immensely popular and seems to be a gold mine for the Xbox manufacturer. This was confirmed by the company’s CFO, Tim Stuart, in a recent conference with the US financial services firm Wells Fargo, as reported by Gamespot.com. According to Stuart, the subscription service is a business with high-profit margins and, alongside Microsoft’s own productions and advertising, one of the most important revenue sources for the Xbox division. This is why Microsoft is eager to massively expand this pillar of their business.
The ambitious and stated goal: The Xbox Game Pass should be available on every screen capable of displaying games. According to Stuart, this explicitly includes the platforms of their competitors. Therefore, Microsoft aims to offer its game lineup on Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Switch in the future. This would be a significant move that would instantly expand the company’s reach tremendously, although it seems rather unrealistic, especially in the case of PlayStation. Sony offers a nearly identical service with its PlayStation Plus subscription and might not be keen on allowing the Xbox Game Pass to undermine it.
Sony Might Have Little Interest
Sony has previously demonstrated a tendency to be somewhat dismissive towards subscription services offered by other providers. This was evident years ago when they rejected the service EA Play on their platform, a service that is now part of the Xbox Game Pass. In the case of Nintendo, resistance might be lower, considering the company does not have a comparable service in its program and generally focuses more on in-house exclusive games. In fact, rumors about a possible Game Pass subscription for the Switch emerged years ago.
Microsoft also aims to broaden its scope in terms of in-house productions and advertising. The recent acquisition of the developer and publisher Activision-Blizzard, worth over 62 billion euros, is considered by Tim Stuart as an important step forward in this regard. This acquisition includes the mobile gaming developer King, known for generating substantial revenues through advertising and microtransactions with its title “Candy Crush Saga”. When and in what form Microsoft will implement its expressed plans remains unclear. Stuart emphasized that he couldn’t make any specific announcements at the moment.
