Xbox Game Pass was officially launched in June 2017, so it is already close to six years old and, in all this time, those who have subscribed through PC or Xbox consoles they have been able to enjoy hundreds of games without having to buy them one by one. Now, the world of videogames is scandalized because Microsoft has (more or less) recognized that this affects sales… did anyone doubt it?
The Activision-Blizzard purchase on the horizon
First of all, it must be said that this tacit acknowledgment by Microsoft has come about because of the trouble that Sony –basically– wants to get the Americans into on account of the Activision-Blizzard purchase last year and the accusations of monopoly that are falling to those of Redmond from the US, the UK and Europe, who seem to be tearing their hair out because in the future call of duty It could become an Xbox exclusive.
So within the allegations that Microsoft is presenting on both sides of the Atlantic, it has been seen that they openly acknowledge that Xbox Game Pass could be affecting video game sales. Something that surely we all knew and it was not necessary for anyone to tell us: if you have a subscription with close to 400 games, it is very difficult for you to continue buying releases at the rate that they come out in stores, so you choose to pay 10 or 13 euros per month and ready.
In any case, after the reactions to this kind of confession from Microsoft, what remains is that video games are still treated differently than the rest of the leisure industries on the planet. Violence in cinemas or on television does not have the same repercussion as that of a gta, For example. Some don’t turn boys into murderers and others do. Whether we like it or not, society continues to stigmatize everything that smacks of video games and we have to try to turn the tables.
And the movies, music and series?
If Microsoft is little less than destroying the market for Xbox Game Pass, what are Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+ and the rest of the platforms supposed to do with the sale of music, movies and series in both digital and digital formats? on CD and Blu-ray? whatHow many movie releases have you purchased once they hit the stores?? Or maybe you have waited for those films to end up on one of the platforms where streaming to which are you subscribed?
The anti-Microsoft world rails against Xbox Game Pass because it leads users not to buy video games but at the same time we have examples of other companies that do the same and nobody has accused them of anything similar. Even within the videogames themselves. Stadia no longer exists and it did. Amazon does exist and it does, with Luna and its gift sets every month. And Sony does it, giving away games, creating collections and putting dozens of titles from the last 25 years of all its machines in a drawer.
The market is shifting towards the subscription model. It is an evidence that we all live daily. Surely Microsoft is the least wrong for having Xbox Game Pass. What others have to do is adapt to that reality, as record companies and film and television producers have done.
