Phil Spencer explained how Game Pass affects Game Sales
The head of Microsoft’s gaming division, Phil Spencer, gave a video interview after the X018 presentation. He talked about how the Xbox Game Pass service helps to sell games better.
A Game Pass subscription costs $10. For this amount, players get access to an extensive library of the service, and for them there is no need to buy each game separately. But paradoxically, sales of games hosted on the Xbox Game Pass (Forza Horizon 4, for example) are only growing.
Some people see a contradiction here, but the data suggests the opposite: in the month when State of Decay 2 was posted on the Game Pass, sales of this game were very high.
Microsoft vice president
The reason, according to Spencer, is as follows: Game Pass subscribers turn into walking ads for games they like from the Game Pass library. Thanks to them, other players who do not have a subscription have a desire to buy the game and try it on their own.
Game Pass, according to Spencer, is also good because it gives players the opportunity to get acquainted with new genres. And also tell about them.
When gamers are looking for something to play, they usually look at what everyone else is playing. They watch what game is currently in the top Mixer or Twitch, what friends are playing, what they are discussing on Discord. It's the same with Game Pass: when a game becomes popular on the service, then people will know about it outside of it.
Microsoft vice president
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