Microsoft’s dematerialized toy library is doing like a charm, and will continue to swell with the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard.
There was a time when the only way to buy a video game was to go to a store and buy a small polycarbonate wafer in its rectangular case. But that era is long gone; today, all it takes is one click to buy a game on the Internet without leaving home.
A trend publishers sniffed out early on; we have therefore seen various all-in-one subscription offers flourish that allow you to take full advantage of a plethoric catalog, and all at a derisory price compared to the cumulative price of the games. This is the case with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, which recently passed a symbolic milestone and now totals 25 million subscribers.
And you don’t have to look far to find out the reasons for this success. Today, AAA games are often priced between €60 and €70 each; it is therefore easy to understand that many players prefer to pay a ten euros per month for a flexible and attractive formula rather than ruining yourself by investing in a unique and potentially catastrophic game.
Activision-Blizzard games soon on the menu?
And this concept still has a bright future ahead of it. We note for example that the list of available games continues to expand. In 2021, the Xbox Game Pass, for example, saw the arrival of a host of excellent games such as the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, Dishonored, Doom, and even Wolfenstein. And with the proposed takeover of Activision by Microsoft, we can reasonably expect that the catalog inherits some additional nuggets.
Indeed, there are extremely serious candidates that many players would be delighted to see on the Game Pass, because Activision-Blizzard arrives with a few small ones in its bag such as the legendary Warcraft franchise, the legendary Diablo games, or even the famous FPS Call of Duty.
At present, it is still impossible to know which games will take the plunge and when, but it is in any case a prospect that could not be more exciting. “This acquisition will make Game Pass one of the most diversified and interesting offers on the video game market.”, says Microsoft in a press release. And don’t count on our portfolio to contradict them!
