Microsoft has been making some big moves lately when it comes to the video game industry. To some, it started back when Xbox made the promise that all first-party video game titles would launch on PC alongside the Xbox console. That was big news for PC players that were missing out on some big-name exclusive games. Then came the Xbox Game Pass service. This was a service that started to download all of the big first-party exclusive titles onto the Xbox consoles. Instead of paying for each game individually, players would only have to pay a monthly fee to gain access.
Afterward, there came the announcement of the cloud gaming service. For Xbox Game Pass subscribers, they could stream the catalog of video games to their mobile devices. Eventually, that grew to PC platforms, and we now know that Xbox consoles would receive the same treatment. Cloud gaming is a big push from Microsoft right now, and it will likely continue to be that way. That’s, of course, despite falling short of their internal goal that was missed when it came to subscriptions for the service.
The internal team at Microsoft had a goal of subscribers rising to 47.8% this 2021 fiscal year. However, it looks like after the financial statement came out, Microsoft only had a rise of 37.5% of subscriptions. That’s not a massive drop in some eyes, but it is still likely a considerable targeted number that Microsoft hoped to surpass within the fiscal year. Still, that doesn’t mean the service is in any danger.
Xbox Game Pass is likely something we could see blow up again with the holiday seasons. More players are likely getting new consoles, and what better way to get access to many excellent video game titles than by paying for a subscription service rather than individual titles. Likewise, there could be plenty of gamers out there waiting for the subscription service to get pumped up. There are those that know more big-name first-party exclusive titles are coming. It might just be a waiting game for Game Pass to really thrive in numbers.
