Documents from the British competition authority reveal that Microsoft did admit to a drop in game sales linked to its Xbox Game Pass service.
In the video game sector, Microsoft is one of the companies that communicates the fewest figures to analyze its results. We do not officially know the number of Xbox consoles sold or the precise number of subscribers to Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Live Gold.
It is therefore most often necessary to relate to the statements of company executives who can present the truth in the best possible light. Except when it comes to legal documents where Microsoft no longer has the luxury of disguising the truth. This is the case in its proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard where the firm had to deliver its internal documents to the authorities, particularly in the United Kingdom.
The minutes of the CMA, the competition authority in the United Kingdom, have been heavily censored to avoid making confidential information public, but you can still unravel some juicy information.
Microsoft admission
For example, there is the following quote:Microsoft also said that its internal analysis shows a drop in [censuré] % of game sales twelve months after being added to Game Pass“. In another paragraph of the document, the CMA indicates that internal Microsoft documents point to a decline in game sales ( B2P, Buy-to-Play) when a game is added to its subscription service.
While all of this may sound intuitive, the idea that adding a game to Xbox Game Pass lowers its retail sales, but it’s something Microsoft has always rather denied. Like the reminder GameIndustry.biz Phil Spencer, the boss of Xbox, indicated rather that an addition of the game to the Xbox Game Pass helped to increase its sales.
Be careful, both statements could totally be true: Phil Spencer in his statement probably picked out a few examples of games where the word-of-mouth enabled by the addition to Game Pass helped increase sales. Several independent game developers had also testified to this effect.
Still, the general conclusion seems rather to tend towards a drop in sales. Activision’s documents in this same takeover project rather point to a refusal to placecall of dutyand other publisher licenses in the Microsoft service. If the takeover does not take place, it is unlikely to imagine the video game giant offering its best titles in the Xbox Game Pass.
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