Here is an admission of Microsoft vis-à-vis the Game Pass which will make him lose points for the takeover of Activision Blizzard…
The UK Competition and Markets Authority has indeed, as part of its investigation, discovered an internal Microsoft analysis contradicting the alleged benefits in 2018 of its subscription service on the sale of video games.
Change of music
Introduced in 2017, Game Pass is at the heart of Microsoft’s gaming branch strategy to reach a wide audience and distribute ” more games to players “. Nevertheless, some saw in this service (not without reason) a blow to the very sale of games.
A year after the release of the service and in the context of an interview with LevelUp, Xbox boss Phil Spencer tried to brush off those concerns. According to him, making a game accessible as soon as it was released on the Game Pass gave it greater visibility, and therefore better sales figures.
This assertion, however, has been contradicted by Microsoft following the ongoing investigation by the British authority into the takeover of Activision Blizzard by the American giant. In its report, the authority indeed notes having received an internal analysis from Microsoft indicating that it had noted ” a drop [censuré] % of game sales 12 months after being integrated into Game Pass “.
A Game Pass that is expensive for games… and for Microsoft
This observation seems obvious, but is better when you say it. It seems unlikely that access to several games as soon as they are released for around ten euros per month is less attractive than buying each game individually at its high price (80 euros for large Microsoft exclusives now).
Clearly, Game Pass hurts game sales more than it encourages them. This situation seems to be detrimental to the video game market as a whole, but also to Microsoft’s claims to buy the lucrative Activision Blizzard group.
The extravagant $69 billion buyout is thus even more compromised than it already was. Especially since the report of the British authority also mentions an admission of Microsoft internally regarding Activision. According to him, the publisher would not like the idea of making its games available on any subscription service, believing that this ” would severely cannibalize the sale of its titles, especially new releases “.
Is the idyllic marriage between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard beginning to take on water? The sequel to the next episode of this soap opera which promises to be long-winded!
Source : Games Industry
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