Since its launch in 2017, Game Pass has been a pivotal part of Microsoft’s gaming strategy, to the point where it might now be the thing the company puts most of its energy into. Xbox hardware is, of course, still a crucial pillar of that strategy, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, but Game Pass has become central to Microsoft’s gaming efforts in a way that most wouldn’t have anticipated before its launch. And similarly, it has informed Microsoft’s decisions and the steps it’s taken in the gaming space in unexpected ways.
Microsoft being as platform-agnostic as it has become is very much something that wouldn’t have happened if not for Game Pass, and thanks to the service, the Xbox ecosystem is now no longer bound exclusively to the console market, with PC and cloud being important sections of the community as well. It’s no surprise, then, that Microsoft wants that ecosystem to expand even further. The company has made it abundantly clear on no few occasions that it wants to put Game Pass and its games on as many devices as possible, and during a talk at the Wells Fargo TMT Summit, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart made that point once again, saying that the company even wants to bring its games and services to PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. Of course, not long after Stuart’s comments were disseminated online, Microsoft Gaming CEO came out in an interview with Windows Central to say that the company had no plans to bring Game Pass to Nintendo or PlayStation. But while that may very well be true, and while bringing Game Pass to rival platforms might not be something that Microsoft is working towards right now, the company has made no secret of the fact that in the long-term, bringing is services and games to other platforms is very much something it wants to do, as it’s said multiple times in the past.
It’s certainly an exciting prospect to think about. Platforming-agnosticism has been a rarity in the games industry for as long as anyone can remember, to the extent that at times it feels like it’s woven into the industry’s very fabric, even at a time where Microsoft has adopted its new strategy so convincingly, or where Sony is now routinely putting out its biggest games on PC. The idea of a games industry where you can play the likes of Halo or Gears of War or Forza Horizon on a PlayStation console is, then, an inherently exciting one, and Microsoft’s ambitions to eventually make that happen are laudable.
It is, however, an entirely unfeasible scenario. As much as Microsoft might want to put Game Pass on rival platforms, and as much as we might want to see that, the biggest roadblock isn’t Microsoft, but those rival platform holders. For Microsoft, having Game Pass on PlayStation or Nintendo means more subscribers, more players for its games, and more revenue from all of it. For the platform holders, however, there is little to no reason to allow Game Pass to become available on their platforms.
Why, for instance, would Sony want to allow a service on PlayStation that cannibalizes its revenue from software sales? Third party titles sell a massive amount on PlayStation consoles, and Sony, of course, gets a cut of each unit that is sold- so why would it give its consumers the option to simply not purchase a game and play it through Game Pass instead, assuming it was available on it? You could make the argument that Sony would obviously get a share of the revenue that Microsoft rakes in from Game Pass subscriptions on PlayStation, but clearly, Sony has shown that it doesn’t believe that is a suitable alternative to actual software sales.
Just think back to all the roadblocks related to Call of Duty that Microsoft faced during its attempts to get its acquisition of Activision Blizzard finalized. One of the most significant ones was Sony kicking up a storm over the fact that Call of Duty would launch day and date on Game Pass in the years to come, something that the company feared would pull players away from PlayStation and to Xbox (which, when you look at how much money Sony makes from Call of Duty sales and microtransactions every year, would be a significant hit for the company, if that were to actually happen). Now extrapolate that not only to a significantly higher number of multiplatform games, but a significantly higher number of multiplatform games on Sony’s own platform. There’s no reason whatsoever for Sony to ever allow that to happen.
Maybe a scenario where Microsoft is only allowed to put a much more limited library of games on the hypothetical PlayStation Game Pass would make more sense from a Sony perspective- but then conversely, that wouldn’t make as much sense for Microsoft. Assuming that in such a scenario Microsoft would only be allowed to put its own first party titles in the service’s catalog, rather than having to split the revenue with Sony that it would get from subscriptions, it would be more profitable for the company to just sell its games on the platform traditionally (which, of course, Sony would have no issues with). Distributing games via Game Pass makes sense when you either get all the revenue (as Microsoft does on its own platforms), or have a big, varied library to attract a lot of subscribers (like Game Pass currently does on Xbox and, to a slightly lesser extent, PC). In this scenario though, neither of those would be true.
Coming back to why Sony wouldn’t allow Game Pass on PlayStation though, because there are more reasons- like the fact that it would be in direct competition with PlayStation Plus. PS Plus is obviously not nearly as central to Sony’s strategy as Game Pass is to Microsoft’s, but it’s still an important and significant revenue stream for the company (as of earlier this year, it had nearly 48 million subscribers). It’s only logical to assume that if Game Pass were to also become available on PlayStation, considering the value that it offers, and considering the fact that it’s much more competitively priced, PlayStation Plus would hemorrhage a lot of subscribers, while Game Pass would gain a lot of new ones.
There are ways in which Microsoft can maybe make its services available on rival platforms at some point down the line, but it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the company wouldn’t be forced to make some serious sacrifices. On PlayStation, for instance, maybe it would be allowed to release a much more limited library on Game Pass, or maybe Sony might be more agreeable to allowing the service on the platform if it was, say, available exclusively with PlayStation Plus Premium subscriptions. Similarly, on Nintendo hardware, maybe we could see Game Pass being available exclusively as a streaming-only service, which would inherently limit its reach and audience. Ultimately, all of those scenarios would be missing the point of why Microsoft would want to put its services on rival platforms to begin with.
That’s not to say Microsoft is running out of ways to expand Game Pass’ reach- not by a long shot. Not yet, at least. Though the service seems to have plateaued where the console market is concerned, on PC and on mobile devices, it still has a lot of room for growth (especially when managed properly, and Game Pass is the one thing that Microsoft has, by and large, managed excellently). Meanwhile, with the addition of major properties like Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and what have you, Game Pass’ potential for growth is only going to expand. But is a scenario where Game Pass is allowed to exist on PlayStation and Nintendo in the form that Microsoft would want it to a feasible one? Sadly, no. The only party in those scenarios that that would make sense for would be Microsoft.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
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