During the audit on the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the CEO of PlayStation shared a very clear opinion on the Xbox Game Pass. A personal opinion that the rest of the industry seems to adhere to.
During the Activision Blizzard buyout hearing, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan spoke about Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft’s subscription that allows you to play hundreds of games. And if we are to believe the boss of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the service would be very unpopular with publishers. Even Bobby Kotick, the boss of Acti, is not in favor of it.
Xbox Game Pass is a ‘value destroyer’
The Xbox Game Pass, an advantageous offer for players but not for publishers? This is what we retain from two new statements made during the audit for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The first comes from Microsoft’s direct competitor, PlayStation. In front of the judges and the lawyers of the various parties, the CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, made it known that the “editor disliked” the service. ” I spoke to publishers and they all told me they don’t like Xbox Game Pass because it’s a value destroyer » he explained.
According to Jim Ryan, publishers therefore believe that this type of subscription has the effect of devaluing their games. He didn’t go so far as to betray the names of the companies in question, but the CEO of Activision agreed. The latter has indeed indicated that he has an aversion to the Xbox Game Pass model. A system which, according to him, affects the results. “I have a strong aversion to the idea of multi-game subscription services. Maybe a lot of that is because I live in LA and mega-media companies have migrated their content to these subscription streaming services. And it was felt on the results which suffered from it”.
Moreover, and even if he will probably not have a say in the event of validation of the takeover of Activision Blizzard, he is against offering Call of Duty games on the Xbox Game Pass. This is not going to please Microsoft… Questioned by a lawyer from the Redmond firm, Jim Ryan also thinks that Bobby Kotick will keep CoD away from the service if the acquisition does not go through with its process. .
First-party games, the key to success for PlayStation
On Twitter, Bohemia Interactive (ARMA), which was part of Microsoft’s very long list of potential takeovers, on the contrary defended the Xbox Game Pass. “Hello players! We would just like to say, for no particular reason, that we really like Game Pass. As a developer and publisher, we see it as a great complement, and at the same time, as a break from the classic game store model. Subscription is an alternative that allows more players to be part of our community DayZand we’re pretty happy it exists.”
The classic model mentioned by Bohemia Interactive is the one defended against everything by PlayStation. That of full-price games, which Microsoft has kept, and which allows a return on investment. And for good reason, as revealed during the audition, AAAs like The Last of Us 2 Or Horizon Forbidden West cost an arm. Hundreds of millions of dollars, just for the development and therefore without the advertising budget.
Previously, Hikori Totoki, chief financial officer of Sony, had for his part said that the quality would be lower if the PS5 exclusives were offered at the exit in the PS Plus. “We believe that currently, development costs and R&D investments need to be aligned with product quality, in order to improve the platform and the business over the long term. If we offer the AAA PS5s in a subscription service, then we’ll probably have to reduce the investment we put into those games. This will deteriorate the quality of first-party titles and that is what worries us. So we want to make sure that the development costs are aligned with this desire to have solid products and titles, to distribute in the right way. “.