Game Pass will not come to rival platforms
While the Game Pass subscription service has become the centerpiece of Microsoft’s gaming business, its availability across Xbox, PC and the cloud has strengthened the company’s hardware-agnostic strategy. Despite the policy, Microsoft will continue to position Game Pass as the primary attraction for Xbox, according to Spencer’s comments.
This statement follows comments from Xbox CFO Tim Stuart that previously caused some confusion on the matter. Stuart had said that Microsoft plans to bring its subscriptions and first-party content to every screen that can play games, including PlayStation and Nintendo. Naturally, many thought Stuart was referring to Game Pass, the company’s primary gaming subscription service. However, it actually refers to other subscriptions such as World of Warcraft.
Regardless, Game Pass will continue to be a major selling point for Xbox consoles for the foreseeable future. Spencer said Microsoft spends more than a billion dollars a year to secure third-party games for the service. Despite this high amount, the Xbox boss claimed that Game Pass has become profitable.