Gamepass May be Hungrier than We Expected
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (boring) have released a provisional report recently (also boring). It includes… something of a revelation about how we view Xbox’s Game Pass?
“Microsoft also submitted that its internal analysis shows a [redacted]% decline in base game sales twelve months following their addition on Game Pass,” the CMA noted in its report.
Now, Microsoft had always denied this claim. In fact, they contradicted it a few years back. But this, this is hard to deny. Ultra-boring documents from three-letter government groups are like that sometimes.
Back in 2018, Phil Spencer was quoted as saying “When you put a game like Forza Horizon 4 on Game Pass, you instantly have more players of the game, which is actually leading to more sales of the game… Gamers find things to play based on what everybody else is playing.”
However, it is still possible that this statement was not exactly a lie. Data can change over time. Now, while it might seem farfetched that gamers’ tastes have changed so drastically that they completely pivoted on how they purchase games in the last few years… yeah it’s just farfetched.
And according to the report, Activision may be in the same boat we are. They apparently believed that gamepass cannibalized sales for a while, and Microsoft was aware enough of it to mention it in the report. That farfetched theory is looking crazier by the day.
But hey, how are you feeling about this? For how long did you expect this from Gamepass? Is there any chance at all that Phil Spencer was telling the truth? Are you still bored? Drop your answers in the comments below, and make your voice heard!