Despite the undoubted success of Xbox Game Pass, Phil Spencer, Xbox boss, has claimed that sales of classic games are far from being overlooked by consumers. Many continue to buy boxed games and digital versions.
Microsoft is relying heavily on its Game Pass service for Xbox, which offers gamers a huge library of more than 400 games for a monthly subscription of less than 10 euros. However, in an interview with the New York Times, Xbox boss Phil Spencer announced that its subscription does not yet completely replace traditional video game sales.
According to his information, the retail market “ continues to be very strong and growing, so let’s make sure we offer our customers the choice between subscriptions and transactions “, did he declare. Despite the success of Game Pass on Xbox, the retail sale of games still seems to be more important. ” The number of transactions is more important than the number of subscriptions Spencer added in his interview. ” Membership is growing faster, just because it’s relatively new. And with the Game Pass, we were one of the first players in this space. But the transaction activity is very important. We still sell physical disks “.
To read also – Xbox turns 20: look back at two decades of success and failure
Cloud gaming is booming, but it’s not about to win
Many companies have recently launched into cloud gaming. This is for example the case of Google with Stadia, or even of Amazon with Luna. According to Spencer, It is not impossible that Netflix is also quickly launching into the video game, since the American company has a huge cloud, essential to the development of a cloud gaming platform. In addition, we know that Netflix recently launched Netflix Gaming, its offer that allows you to play a few titles on mobile.
However, unlike its competitors, Microsoft has a big advantage. Indeed, according to Phil Spencer, Microsoft is the only company of the lot that has experience in video game creation and a large community. This is also growing very quickly, since we know that the Xbox Series X sells better than all previous console generations. Its rivals are content to buy different video game studios to offer exclusives on their platforms.
Source: The New York Times
