Microsoft has run up against questions about Xbox Game Pass’ financial viability ever since it launched the subscription service.
Is Xbox Game Pass too good to be true? That’s the question Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell asked in a recent feature, speaking to developers and Microsoft executives to try to find out the answer.
Despite all the insistence from Microsoft that Xbox Game Pass makes sense for the bean counters in Redmond, I’ve had my doubts. How can something so good value, something that offers all Microsoft’s first-party games and an increasing number of third-party games day-and-date, make financial sense? When you consider you can get in on Xbox Game Pass for a quid, it really does seem too good to be true. Like Epic with the Epic Games Store, I assumed Microsoft was burning through millions of dollars trying to get Xbox Game Pass off the ground.
And for Microsoft’s first-party development efforts, I’ve wondered how Xbox Game Pass can possibly make sense. With spiralling development costs on the current-generation of consoles, how can first-party exclusives make a profit when you can play them for next to nothing via Xbox Game Pass?