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Microsoft indirectly acknowledges the impact of Game Pass on game sales
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Microsoft indirectly admitted, during the latest report submitted to the British Competition Authority, that its Game Pass service is hurting sales of its games. This acknowledgement was not direct, but was elicited through numbers, and the reasons for which we will report to you, as per the company's statement below.
In a highly anticipated new revelation, Microsoft has revealed that Game Pass is causing a drop in game sales on the service. The revelation comes thanks to an interim report from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority that was released due to an ongoing investigation into the company's merger with Activision Blizzard and contradicts statements made by Phil Spencer himself.
The report presented was an acknowledgement that the service does not generate the desired revenue. Of course, it is aimed at players and in return it makes huge financial losses. The report says the following:
Microsoft provided its internal analysis showing that sales of base games declined twelve months after adding them to Game Pass.
There has long been speculation that this is the case, but this report from GamesIndustry.biz provides the first official confirmation of the reality of the situation. The report stands in stark contrast to previous statements made by Phil Spencer in an interview with LevelUp.com, where Spencer confirmed at the time that there is profit from games that are added to the service from day one, resulting from the increase in player numbers for those games.
He cited, for example, the games Forza Horizon 4 and State of Decay 2. Spencer said at the time that the proof of his words are the analyses of the company NPD, specialized in tracking game sales.
Will this service really have an unknown future in the company through these mentioned results after all these years? Share with us below in the comments section.