Xbox Game Pass was a bit of a surprise announcement. The service launched back in 2017 and offered players a chance to enjoy a curated collection of games. However, since then, it has continued to expand in a big way. Players worldwide are given a chance to really open up new opportunities to enjoy video games. Today, we’re finding out that Phil Spencer offered an update on the service and how he views the Xbox Game Pass initiative today.
The head of Xbox recently had an interview with Variety, where the topic of Xbox Game Pass came up. When asked about Phil’s views on the service now, we’re told that the service is seeing growth overall. In particular, Phil Spencer noted that Microsoft is seeing good growth when it comes to PC and Cloud gaming. While more hours are growing in those two areas of the service, that doesn’t mean consoles are down, as Phil noted that consoles are also a good and established business.
I’ll start with just how many people are playing games. And I’ve always thought about Game Pass as just another option for somebody who wants to play. We have many business models for people playing from free to play, buying games, discounted games, Game Pass is an option. So when I’m looking at Game Pass, I want to make sure the hours that people are playing continue to go up, that new people see this as a way for them to find and build their library of games, and we remain focused on that. Our biggest areas of growth right now are PC and Cloud, which makes sense, since consoles, all up, are a good business, they’re an established business, but they’re not really a growing segment in gaming. So we’ve got good growth on PC, we’ve got growth on Cloud, in terms of users and hours. And console continues to be a really healthy part of Game Pass. But there isn’t a unique need for Game Pass to be the only way for people to play. If everybody who’s a Game Pass subscriber instead decided to buy their games, that’s good for the business as well. – Phil Spencer
But ultimately, it looks like Microsoft is still fond of having Game Pass as an option. Phil Spencer says it’s a healthy option for certain people and not for everybody. He knows that if you’re only playing one or two games a year, Game Pass is probably not for you. It would make more sense to buy those one or two games. However, as mentioned, it’s an option that allows players to dive into these games across PC, Xbox consoles to Cloud gaming.
For me, I look at Game Pass as a healthy option for certain people. It’s not for everybody. If you play one or two games a year, Game Pass probably isn’t the right business model for you, you should just buy those two games, and that would make total sense. But I want you to have the choice. So we remain focused on everything that’s on Game Pass is also available to buy. We’re making those games available to buy in more places. And I look at the overall hours of people who are playing on Xbox, playing our games, and that’s a number that continues to grow fairly substantially, and that’s really the metric I think about for success. And Game Pass has been an important part of that, but I don’t try to solve for Game Pass specifically on its own. It’s kind of part of the equation for Xbox finding new players. – Phil Spencer
In other related news, we just got word about the second wave of April 2025 titles for Game Pass. If you missed out on the announcement, you can view the games heading to the subscription service for the remainder of this month below.
Xbox Game Pass April 2025 Wave 2
- Grand Theft Auto V (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 15
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
- Neon White (Console) – April 16
- Now with Game Pass Standard
- SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 16
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
- Crime Scene Cleaner (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 17
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
- Tempopo (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 17
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 24
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
- Towerborne (Game Preview) (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – April 29
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
- Far Cry 4 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – April 30
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
- Anno 1800 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 1
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 1
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
- Dredge (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – May 6
- Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
