Xbox Game Pass Costing Microsoft More in a Year Than You’d Ever Expect, but Is It Worth It?
Can Microsoft justify its annual spending on Xbox Game Pass in light of the many issues the service currently faces?
- Recent reports about Microsoft spending staggering amounts to keep Xbox Game Pass alive raise questions about the service's value.
- While Microsoft faces several issues regarding the service's pricing and what it offers to subscribers, it continues to believe that physical consoles are obsolete.
- However, the success of Sony's PlayStation 5 and its mid-gen update may put a dent in that assumption.
Xbox’s subscription service finds itself under the spotlight once again after reports on its annual spending have raised questions about its value to Microsoft even as those about its value to its subscribers remain unanswered in recent times.
The latest report about the service brings several relevant issues that it faces from various sources to the spotlight, raising doubts about its validity in the current scenario that Microsoft faces and potential courses of action that it can take to remedy the situation.
Have Microsoft’s Baffling Decisions Finally Come to a Head?
The recent reports about Xbox Game Pass must be examined from the context of a series of events that Microsoft would want to remain forgotten. Chief among them is the decision to restructure its pricing and services to better match those being offered on PlayStation Plus, Sony’s own subscription service for its consoles.
Despite its new plans coming close to matching those being offered by its closest rival in gaming history, Microsoft found itself under the scanner of the FTC, which had previously launched an all-out attack against its acquisition of Activision.
Can Xbox Game Pass Continue to Deliver Value to Microsoft and Its Subscribers?
Despite Xbox Game Pass offering a plethora of options to its subscribers in terms of what it includes based on the tier that has been selected by them, the question of the service’s value proposition continues to haunt Microsoft.
The post below highlights annual spending reports from Bloomberg, which showcase a staggering amount of money being offered to publishers in order to keep their titles on the service.
Considering the poor response to Xbox Game Pass’ new pricing structures, concerns about Microsoft’s annual spending on the subscription service were almost inevitable, with one user giving a succinct yet understandable answer to the question posed by the post.
It is indeed surprising that Microsoft would choose to change the many offerings Xbox Game Pass brought to its subscribers in a move that was largely unpopular thanks to the poor performance of the Xbox Series S/X consoles against Sony’s PlayStation 5.
It is a move that seems strategically unwise despite Microsoft’s determination to remove console exclusivity out of the equation of modern gaming and perhaps even eliminate the need for a console altogether in the near future.
While fans of Xbox Game Pass would hope that Microsoft is able to find a balance between its spending and gains on its subscription services, the introduction of Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro as well as reports of its collaboration with AMD for the next generation of gaming consoles are sure to throw a wrench in any plans it may have for its future in gaming tech.
Xbox fans may soon give up hope in Microsoft’s ability to salvage this unfortunate situation despite the company having very optimistic predictions for the value of its recent acquisition of Activision and the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
