He adds that subscriptions' role as the primary business model for a games platform remains unproven. While it offers a cost-effective experience for the user, it raises difficult financial questions when it comes to sustaining blockbuster games development.
Severin adds: "The acquisition will undoubtedly have a positive impact on Game Pass subscriptions, and with it publishers becoming more dependent on the Xbox ecosystem. One effect is their negotiating power will weaken in the process. Another effect is that as gamers increasingly pick up games subscriptions, they will likely buy fewer individual high price point games going forward."
Jörg Tittel – director of C-Smash VRS and The Last Worker, as well as host of the Directional Podcast with Chantal Ryan – worries about the impact on the visibility of indie games included in Game Pass, as well as the possibility of games in general becoming devalued.
"If you can get the new COD for 'free', why should you try out the next indie gem?" he says. "Especially since COD has been established as the most valuable game of all time – almost ten times more valuable than Skype, which Microsoft acquired years ago."
Rose adds: "As Microsoft has said, Game Pass numbers have slowed and it’s started to hit what seems to be some kind of limit in terms of the number of people who are willing to subscribe. But if the latest Call of Duty lands on Game Pass, isn’t that just going to be too big to say no to? Are millions of people going to continue to pay $70 for CoD when they could go with Game Pass?
"Obviously from my perspective as someone with games on Game Pass, I hope they choose Game Pass — that’ll mean more players for my games on the service, potentially bigger Game Pass deals to go with the bigger subscriber numbers… definitely an outcome I’d be open to."
www.gamesindustry.biz
