Xbox Game Pass has emerged as one of Microsoft’s key strategies going forward. While it’s by no means the first video game subscription service we had, it’s certainly the biggest and the only one being aggressively pushed by a platform holder. It’s had a good rotation of games coming and going since its initial launch and is planned to come to more and more platforms. It’s also expanding, and with the acquisition of Bethesda, it means there will be a lot more titles coming onto the service by next year, but it seems that it’s not done by a long shot.
Talking to GameReactor, Phil Spencer talked about Game Pass and its future. When asked about Microsoft acquiring more companies, he didn’t give a specific yes or no, but did seem to hint it would be happening in regards to the service expanding, saying, “So, with the growth that we are seeing, I expect we will constantly be in this mode of bringing more creators into the fold.” What’s maybe more interesting is that Spencer said he sees a key thing missing from Game Pass he hopes to expand on: more casual, broad appeal titles similar to their acquisition of the Minecraft property.
“If we look at what people are playing on Xbox, what Game Pass subscribers are playing, I think what is missing from our portfolio is casual content with a broad appeal. E-rated content (to use an ESRB rating) is not a strength for us. We obviously have Minecraft and we have some other franchises. But when I think about expanding the creative palette that our teams have, I think that is critically important.”
Xbox Game Pass is currently available via Xbox One, PC and Xbox Cloud Streaming on Android. It will also be available on the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S launches when they launch November 10th.
