Since its announcement in 2016, the Xbox Game Pass has come a long way, to the point of becoming, to this day, a must-have and the main subscription service in the video game industry. It must be said that with a price around 12 euros per month on average, the Game Pass allows players to access more than 450 games, including Xbox Games Studios Day One games with the 18 euro subscription. This represents a fairly strong quality/price ratio, especially since these offers provide other advantages such as access to online multiplayer, exclusive promotions and even access to Cloud Gaming for the Game Pass Ultimate.
While the Game Pass can be truly prolific for players, it can quickly become harmful for the industry itself and in particular the physical gaming market. According to Christopher Dring, a business journalist and founder of GamesIndustry, releasing a game in the Game Pass would cause its physical sales to drop by 80%.
The Game Pass: the enemy of physical distributors
The physical video game sector has been in crisis for several years. Just a few hours ago, we learned that physical game sales had decreased by 35% last year in the United Kingdom. This trend brings many difficulties, particularly in specialist stores such as GameStop, which had to close another 300 stores in December 2024.
Of course, this crisis can be explained by the rise of online stores, such as the PlayStation Store or the Xbox Store, allowing players to buy their games any day and at any time. Many promotions throughout the year make it possible to offer advantageous prices. The other phenomenon is explained by subscription services such as PS Plus and in particular the Game Pass, which allow you to play sometimes very recent games at no additional cost.
According to Christopher Dring, the founder of GamesIndustry.biz, the arrival of a game in the Game Pass is a real disaster for its physical sales, which would drop by 80%. Dring reveals that he has analyzed the impact of the Xbox Game Pass on the market, particularly on multiplatform game sales, and the findings are clear.
Each game released on the Xbox Game Pass will reduce the overall sales of the title on this platform. On the other hand, this will increase sales on other platforms. But overall, Christopher Dring is quite mixed about the economic effectiveness of the Game Pass. Let's remember that according to the latest reports from Bloomberg and Windows Central, Microsoft would spend an average of $1 billion to offer big games on its Game Pass (excluding first-party games from Xbox studios).
To date, the Game Pass is divided into four offers:
- The Game Pass PC (11.99 euros per month)
– An offer for PC players only
– Allows you to play Xbox Games Studio Day One games as soon as they are released
– A vast catalog of games (approx. 200 games)
– Access to an EA Play subscription.
– Access to benefits for Riot Games games
– Exclusive promotions - The Game Pass Core (6.99 euros per month)
– An offer for console players only
– Access to more than 25 games
– Access to online multiplayer
– exclusive offers - The Game Pass Standard (12.99 euros per month)
– An offer for console players only
– Access to hundreds of console games (approx. 400)
– Access to online multiplayer
– Exclusive promotions - The Game Pass Ultimate (17.99 euros per month)
– An offer for console, PC and Cloud players
– Immediate access to new games from the day they are released
– Access to a catalog of more than 600 games (PC / Consoles)
– An EA Play subscription
– As well as exclusive promotions and other benefits
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