Xbox Game Pass was officially launched in June 2017, so it’s already almost six years old, and in all that time, those who subscribed through PC or Xbox consoles they were able to enjoy hundreds of games without having to buy them one by one. Now the video game world is outraged because Microsoft has (more or less) acknowledged that it’s affecting sales…did anyone doubt that?
Activision-Blizzard takeover on the horizon
First of all, it must be said that this tacit recognition of Microsoft was born out of the trouble Sony wants to -essentially- put Americans into because of the purchase of Activision-Blizzard last year and the accusations of monopoly falling on those in Redmond from the US, UK and Europe, who seem to be tearing their hair out because in the future Call of Duty
Thus, in the allegations that Microsoft presents on both sides of the Atlantic, we have seen that they openly acknowledge that Xbox Game Pass could affect video game sales. Cosa que seguramente todos sabíamos y no hacía falta que nadie nos lo dijera: si tienes una suscripción con cerca de 400 juegos es muy difícil que sigas comprando lanzamientos al ritmo que salen en las tiendas, así que optas por pagar 10 ó 13 dollars al mes and ready.
In any case, after the reactions to this kind of confession from Microsoft, the fact remains that video games are always treated differently than the rest of the leisure industries on the planet. Violence in the cinema or on television does not have the same repercussions as that of a GTA
And movies, music and series?
If Microsoft is anything less than destroying the Xbox Game Pass market, what are Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+ and the rest of the platforms supposed to do with selling music, movies and series all at once? digital and digital formats?on CD and Blu-ray? WhatHow many movies did you buy once they hit stores?? Or maybe you waited for these movies to end up on one of the platforms where streaming
The anti-Microsoft world denounces the Xbox Game Pass because it leads users not to buy video games but at the same time we have examples of other companies doing the same and no one has accused them of something similar. Even in the video games themselves. Stadia no longer exists and it did. Amazon exists and exists, with Luna and its gift boxes every month. And Sony is doing just that, giving away games, creating collections and putting dozens of titles from the last 25 years from all of its machines in a drawer.
The market is moving towards the subscription model. It is an evidence that we all experience on a daily basis. Microsoft is surely the least wrong to have Xbox Game Pass. What others need to do is adapt to this reality, as record labels and film and television producers have done.
