Microsoft’s subscription service, the Xbox Game Pass, offers tremendous value, with more than 100 games in the catalog and first-party titles, including Halo Infinite in 2021, that will launch at no extra cost. But one of the biggest questions around the platform is how developers make money from it.
Speaking to The Verge, the head of the Xbox, Phil Spencer, said that Microsoft is doing all sorts of business with developers depending on their unique situation.
“Let’s say our deals are everywhere. That sounds untreated, but it’s actually based on the developer’s need,” Spencer explained. “One of the things that’s really good to see is a developer, usually a small or medium-sized developer, might be launching a game and saying,‘ Hey, we’re willing to put this into the Game Pass on our launch day if you guys are right now. they give us X dollars. What we can do is create the ground for them to succeed in their game. They know they will get that return. “
In some other cases, Microsoft fully funds the game’s manufacturing costs. In this situation, the developer can make money from retail sales, while Microsoft can allow the release of these games on PlayStation, Switch, and PC as well, while developers will also be committing that revenue. Microsoft has unique benefits in these types of situations by launching a game on the Xbox Game Pass.
“They’ve protected themselves from all the harmful risks. The game is done. Then all the retail is up, we have the option for the day and the date,” Spencer said. “That would be a flat fee for a developer. Sometimes a developer has done more with the game, and it’s more of a transaction,” Hey, we’ll put it in the Game Pass if you pay us that much money. “
Other agreements are different. The developers approached Microsoft and asked for deals based on “use and revenue.”
“We are open [to] we experiment with a wide variety of partners because we think we didn’t figure it out. “Spencer said.” When we started, we had a model that was all based on usage. Most partners said, “Yeah, yeah, we understand that, but we don’t believe it, so just give us the money in advance.”
Also in the interview, Spencer said he is enthusiastic that thanks to the Game Pass, more and different types of games will come to light.
“When the team is just putting publishers out there for a retail game, if it doesn’t fit in an Excel spreadsheet that tells us what the retail result will be, it won’t turn green,” Spencer said. . There are clearly shows on Netflix that NBC or CBS or ABC would never have been green in the old model and, frankly, could achieve real success. And I hope you can get the Game Pass to the same level. “
The Xbox Game Pass doesn’t criticize its critics, as some say subscription services like the Xbox Game Pass and Apple Arcade further value games and assume that people think games should be free or cheap.
The Xbox Game Pass is launching very strongly, with 15 million subscribers so far. Xbox Series X | About 70 percent of S consoles were attached to a new or existing subscription, which promises good service delivery.
The Xbox Game Pass, as a platform, isn’t making money, at least not yet, and that’s partly due to the $ 1 sign-up promotions available today. It is also well known that subscriber services do not make much money in the beginning.
Recently, EA Play – a subscription service formerly known as EA Access – was included in the Xbox Game Pass and brought titles like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and more.
