Starfield
Bethesda
Last week, Sony laid out a plan that seems like a pretty big departure from its usual strategy of the past few generations, moving beyond PlayStation boxes and into the mobile and PC market. So much so, they plan to have half of their game sales on PC and mobile by 2025.
We’ve seen a rapid rise in PC ports from Sony for their exclusive products, and their recent acquisitions have provided that the acquired games do not only have to be shown on PlayStation alone (Bungie’s Destiny, for one). Sony has shown strong PC sales, in addition to normal, strong sales of first-party console games, and it amazes me: Has Microsoft boxed itself here?
Before you completely turn on the flames from the fanboy wars, hear me out.
Microsoft has taken a number of “pro-consumer” initiatives with its policies regarding: Xbox Game Pass Day 1 launch and cross-selling of exclusive products that come with a PC copy, and vice versa. But by committing to this and seemingly unable to turn the course if they need to, without wild amounts of backlash, I wonder if Sony might be able to come along now and show them what they’re missing out on. .
god of war
Sony
Microsoft has previously made fun of Sony’s PC policies, saying they do not sell multiple copies of the same game. And yet … the PC move works for Sony as they have shown great initial sales with their new ports, with much more to come. Microsoft, meanwhile, is just giving away the farm by assembling PC ports with console releases. Is this positive for Xbox players? Yes absolutely! And yet, it is also potential lost revenue for the gaming division, especially if Sony expects PC sales of games to account for a large portion of their revenue in the future.
The second revenue game here is the perpetual debate over the Xbox Game Pass, and whether it’s a sustainable way to keep making huge AAA games. Again, here Microsoft has committed to day one launches of exclusive on Game Pass. But that means games sales is… what, exactly? We actually never know. They originally reported 20 million Halo Infinite players, but a large number of them played “for free” on Game Pass, and others played multiplayer, which does not even require it.
Sony, meanwhile, took what I would argue was a bumpy decision to raise the price of the first party game to $ 70, an extremely bad look, and even through a huge PlayStation Plus renewal, they still have not committed to releasing the first party game on day one there. Yes, this makes the Xbox Game Pass a more attractive service, but it is also … a wealth of revenue! It’s not hard to see why Sony is doing this because their exclusive products are moving tens of thousands of box / digital copies, and they can not assume that the subscription revenue will take hold there. They have previously openly expressed concern that this idea is simply not viable.
The Xbox Game Pass experienced explosive growth, especially during the pandemic, but now it’s slowed down, and it may slow down further, given that high-profile first-party gamers thought would come to Game Pass is now delayed for next year, specifically Redfall and Starfield.
Play Pass
Xbox
More generally, we can see the overall worm turning to other high-profile subscription services. Netflix finally seems to have peaked in light of increased competition and inflated budgets for original productions. This has led to stock crashes and layoffs. No, the two situations do not exactly match. The Xbox is a tiny bit of the trillion-dollar megacorp, Microsoft, which means they can eat potential losses if they need to. But the fact is that Sony and Nintendo continue to dominate the hardware and software races at the moment, limited only by the supply, and I just do not think the Xbox Game Pass will offset the difference in the long run, especially when these shortcomings sort themselves out. out.
Microsoft is pro-consumer in many ways. It’s definitely a good deal to have access to all of Microsoft’s exclusive for a monthly sub, with bonus PC copies, forever. But I think there’s a reason Sony is not following suit, and I wonder how much Microsoft leaves on the table with this strategy if they do not see Game Pass subs subs further in the future.
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