the Xbox Game Pass is gaining more and more support and is today the major asset of the Xbox brand. But if Phil Spencer and its teams are betting everything on the service, others are worried about the potential impact that this subscription could have on the industry and on user behavior. This is particularly the case ofEd Friesformer vice president of publishing back in the days of the very first Xbox, who not only sings the praises of Xbox Game Pass.
Game Pass and Spotify, same fight?
Fries saw himself being asked by Xbox Expansion Pass about Xbox’s current strategy, specifically Xbox Game Pass. When asked what he would do otherwise, he then claims to be afraid of the consequences that could be linked to Game Pass, comparing the success of the service to the advent of Spotify in the music sector:
” There’s one thing they do that makes me nervous, and that’s Game Pass. It scares me because there is an analogy to be made with Spotify which was created for the music industry. When Spotify took off, it destroyed the music industry, it literally cut the music industry’s annual revenue in half. It’s done so people don’t buy songs anymore. People don’t buy songs on iPhone for example, because why would you? They are all on your subscription service. Apple said it was going to withdraw the purchase of songs because no one is buying them anymore.
We must therefore be careful not to create the same system in the gaming sector. These markets are more fragile than we think. […] So the Game Pass makes me nervous. As a customer, I love it. I love Spotify as a customer: I have all the songs I want […] But that’s not necessarily good for the industry. »
He nonetheless tempers his remarks by noting that the percentage of games present in the service is very low in comparison with the immensity of current production (recalling that hundreds of games are released every day), and that not everything is intended to be on the Game Pass, unlike Spotify.
But his words are also questioned by journalist Tim Ingham from MusicBizWorldwide, contacted by VGC, who asserts that Spotify has on the contrary had a positive impact on the music industry, in particular by countering piracy.
Remember also that the Xbox Game Pass is still very far from being the equivalent of a Spotify in the video game industry, as its scope is more limited (especially by platforms). We will probably have to wait a few more years before drawing the first assessments of the boom in subscriptions in the video game sector, but there is no doubt that manufacturers and publishers are watching this very closely.