Microsoft wanted to take Sony out of the game subscription business
At the end of 2019, the head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, suggested that Microsoft increase annual spending on the purchase of games for Game Pass to $2-3 billion. In his opinion, this would help to take Sony out of the game subscription business, since in a few years there would be a shortage of valuable content on the market.
Bootie voiced his proposal in a letter to Tim Stewart, Xbox‘s CFO. He pointed out that at the end of 2019, Microsoft found itself in a unique position: Google needs another 3-4 years to get a full-fledged game studio, and Amazon has demonstrated that it does not know how to work with games. The only serious competitor to Game Pass is Sony, but so far Microsoft has an advantage of two years and 10 million subscribers.
In a comment to The Verge, Microsoft representatives called the letter outdated and said that the corporation was not going to adhere to this strategy in any case.
Previously, the existence of the Buti letter was reported by gamers opposed to the purchase of Activision Blizzard, but then its contents were hidden from the public.
