Since its announcement in 2016, Xbox Game Pass has come a long wayto the point of becoming, to this day, an essential and the main subscription service of the video game industry. It must be said that with a price located around 12 euros per month on average, the Game Pass allows players to access over 450 gamesincluding Xbox Games Studios Day One games with a subscription of 18 euros. This represents quite good value for money, especially since these offers offer other advantages such as access to online multiplayer, exclusive promotions and even access to Cloud Gaming for Game Pass Ultimate.
If Game Pass can really be prolific to players, it can quickly become harmful to the industry in itself and in particular the physics gaming market. According to Christopher Dring, an economic journalist and founder of GamesIndustry, releasing a game in Game Pass would cause its physical sales to drop by 80%.
Game Pass: the enemy of physical distributors
The physical video games sector has been in crisis for several years. Just a few hours ago, we learned that the sale of physical games had decreased by 35% last year in the United Kingdom. This trend brings many difficulties, particularly in specialized stores like GameStop which had to close another 300 stores in December 2024.
Of course, this crisis can be explained by the rise of online stores, such as the PlayStation Store or the Xbox Store, allowing players to buy their games any day and at any time. Numerous promotions throughout the year offer advantageous prices. The other phenomenon is explained by subscription services like PS Plus and in particular Game Pass which allow you to play sometimes very recent games at no additional cost.
According to Christopher Dring, the founder of GamesIndustry.biz, the arrival of a game in Game Pass is a real disaster for its physical sales which would drop by 80%. Dring reveals that it has analyzed the impact of Xbox Game Pass on the market, particularly on sales of multiplatform games and the findings are clear.
Each game that is released on Xbox Game Pass will reduce the overall sales of the title on this platform. On the other hand, this will help increase sales on other platforms. But overall, Christopher Dring is quite mixed about the economic effectiveness of Game Pass. Remember that according to the latest reports from Bloomberg and Windows Central, Microsoft would spend an average of $1 billion to offer major games on its Game Pass (excluding First-Party games from Xbox studios).
As of today, Game Pass is divided into four offers:
- Game Pass PC (11.99 euros per month)
– An offer for PC players only
– Allows you to play Xbox Games Studio Day One games as soon as they are released
– A vast catalog of games (approx. 200 games)
– Access to an EA Play subscription.
– Access to benefits for Riot Games games
– Des promotions exclusives - Game Pass Core (6.99 euros per month)
– An offer for console players only
– Access to more than 25 games
– Access to online multiplayer
– Exclusive offers - Game Pass Standard (12.99 euros per month)
– An offer for console players only
– Access to hundreds of console games (approx. 400)
– Access to online multiplayer
– Des promotions exclusives - Game Pass Ultimate (17.99 euros per month)
– An offer for console, PC and Cloud players
– Immediate access to new games the day they are released
– Access to a catalog of more than 600 games (PC / Consoles)
– An EA Play subscription
– As well as exclusive promotions and other benefits
Source: www.journaldugeek.com
