Microsoft spends $1 billion a year generously to make Game Pass attractive…

Gaming News Microsoft spends $1 billion a year generously to make Game Pass attractive…

Subscription fever

The release of Game Pass in 2017 was not without difficulties, as the existence of such a service in video games raised many eyebrows. The full name Xbox Game Pass presents itself as “video game Netflix” and gives players access to a large library of games for a monthly subscription. An offer that clearly attracted gamers, as the Microsoft service was a great success, It established itself permanently in the video game landscape and led to Xbox becoming one of the few players to offer such an offering on console and PC

. On the other hand, the question of financing regularly arises with the subscription platform. Like everything else in the industry Microsoft is very careful about formalizing its sales numbers outside of the milestones that allow it to congratulate itself on occasional successes. However, a little information gathered here and there can help us get a rough picture of the situation.

In fact, Bloomberg was recently able to interview Sarah BondPresident of Xbox since October 2023 to review recent developments in the company, between games giving up their console exclusivity and the company’s legal troubles following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. As Insider Gaming reportsin the middle of this river interview, Bloomberg reports that Microsoft would spend $1 billion a year to secure gaming rights third party on their Game Pass. Information that is not necessarily new as it has already been mentioned by Phil Spencer in an interview for Windows Central

which is confirmed here by the American publication.

See Xbox Game Pass at Microsoft

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I waste my money or throw it out the window

This enormous sum comes with the realization that the American company would offer publishers very attractive contracts, to which they would pay several million dollars for the inclusion of their titles, in addition to royalties on the revenue generated through subscriptions. Extremely generous contracts, coupled with billions in annual expenses undoubtedly makes Game Pass a major investment for the IT company. However, Xbox and Microsoft claim that their service is profitable, Estimates suggest revenues vary between $1 billion and $2 billion per year.

However, these are recipes to which We have to deduct the billions of dollars spent on the arrival of the games third party on the platform the license fees paid to the various partners and various additional costs (technical maintenance, marketing, etc.). All this proves the importance that Xbox attaches to its service, investing a lot of money in it and at the same time seeming to be particularly happy with it. Again, the opacity surrounding these companies does not allow us to get a complete picture of the situation, however It’s certain that Game Pass is at the heart of Xbox’s future strategyIt remains to be seen how much time separates us from an inevitable price increase.

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