It’s unquestionable that Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription offers great value for gamers. With three varieties to choose from — PC only, console only, or both — players will have access to a library of over 100 titles, many of them on launch day. The service is so enticing that PlayStation owners have begun asking for Sony to combine PlayStation Now and PS Plus into something similar. The only potential downside to Xbox Game Pass is that people may find themselves with too many games they want to play and not enough time before they are removed from the service.
In July 2020, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated during an earnings call that there were nearly 100 million Xbox Live players around the world and Xbox Game Pass was seeing record subscriber growth. It’s been rumored that the incredibly successful Xbox Game Pass has now reached between 25 and 30 million subscribers, although the official number announced by Microsoft in January is “more than 18 million.” That’s significant growth for a service that launched just over four years ago, as gamers either convert their Xbox Live Gold subscriptions or sign up for the first time.
Despite numbers that might seem impressive to a layman, Xbox Game Pass hasn’t performed as well as Microsoft expected during the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2021. According to a financial document prepared for a November shareholders meeting, Microsoft had a growth target of 47.79% for Xbox Game Pass in 2021, but instead the subscriber count grew by only 37.48%. In 2020, the subscription service surpassed expectations, growing by 85.75% as opposed to the projected 71%. It should be noted that the target subscription numbers for 2021 were set before the delay of Halo Infinite in August 2020.
In addition to the launch of Halo Infinite being postponed to December, there haven’t been many big ticket Xbox exclusive titles released in 2021. Age of Empires 4 will be launching on Xbox Game Pass for PC on October 28, Forza Horizon 5 is scheduled for a November release, and Remedy’s first-person shooter CrossfireX is still expected sometime this year. Besides that, the decline in Xbox Game Pass subscription growth might be partly attributable to people returning to regular work after a year spent mostly in lockdown.
For owners of either a PlayStation or Xbox console, the corresponding subscription services may prove appealing. Even for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, the most expensive of them, the annual price equates to the cost of three new games. Sony very occasionally removes games from PlayStation Now, but currently offers more than 700 titles. Microsoft, on the other hand, removes games from Xbox Game Pass every month and replaces them with new ones. This can be a bit frustrating if a person is in the middle of playing a game and learns that it will no longer be available in two weeks, but titles leaving the service usually go on sale for those who want to keep playing.
Source: IGN