Microsoft’s entire strategy in games pretty much revolves around Xbox Game Pass at this point, and everything from their cadence of new game releases to continued studio acquisitions is being informed by the subscription service. With the growth of Game Pass being their primary driver, one would assume that they are going to try and attract more subscribers not just by making the service available in as many places they can, but also by introducing even more competitive pricing tiers for it.
And it seems they’re considering just that. Speaking during a recent media briefing, Xbox’s experiences and platforms boss Liz Hamren suggested that Microsoft might be considering introducing cheaper subscription tiers for Xbox Game Pass.
“We need to innovate to bring our games and services to more people around the world. And we’re investigating how to introduce new subscription offerings for Xbox Game Pass,” Hamren said (via VGC). “The point is that we’re being creative and dynamic in thinking about how to deliver the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet across devices, geographies, and financial realities.”
She went on to add that from consumers to game publishers, Xbox Game Pass is a model that’s worked very well for all concerned.
“We’re doing all this because Game Pass works,” she said. “It works for consumers, and it works for publishers. With Game Pass, players spend 20 percent more time playing games. They play 30 percent more genres and play 40 percent more games overall, including games outside their Game Pass subscription.”
Meanwhile, Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently also said that in spite of a growing focus on cloud and services, Microsoft is still focused on hardware, and that work on new Xbox platforms is already underway.