A lot has been said about Xbox Game Pass, from the sheer value it provides to how much impact it will have in the next generation. Though it has millions of subscribers (with over 10 million reported in April 2020), it’s not the biggest profit venture for Microsoft right now. This is according to Aaron Greenberg, GM of Xbox games marketing at Microsoft.
Speaking to What’s Good Games in an interview, Greenberg said that Game Pass is “not a big profit play” currently, since it’s just started out. That being said, despite costing quite a bit in the short term, Microsoft is looking at the long game. “It’s a different mindset. If you do optimize for profit, and you do specifically say… you can either say, ‘How we do get as much profit out of each customer?’ Or, do you pivot that and say, ‘How do we add as much value to our fans?’ ‘How can we actually over-deliver on value?’ If you do that, you build fans for life,” Greenberg said.
Whether fans are built “for life” are not remains to be seen but there’s no denying the share value. At the recent Xbox Games Showcase, major titles like State of Decay 3, Fable, Halo Infinite, Avowed and much more were all confirmed to launch on day one for Xbox Game Pass. That’s crazy value, even if many of these titles are a ways off from launch.
Fans shouldn’t worry about the company losing lots of money on it though. “We always laugh [when we hear that]. Please don’t worry about us,” said Greenberg. “Microsoft is going to be alright. We’re gonna make it – I think we’re gonna be OK.”
Some of the bigger titles coming to Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks include Obsidian’s Grounded, Shin’en Multimedia’s The Touryst, Sega’s Yazkua Kiwami 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator for PC and inXile Entertainment’s Wasteland 3. Stay tuned for more details on what to expect in August.