To truly survive in the video game industry, publishers and developers have to adapt and evolve with the times. As such, new ideas are formed, new game services are created, all with the goal of potentially putting that dev or publisher on top. Microsoft has been floundering in the eyes of many gamers as of late, and so they needed to do something to win over gamers and prove they were still in control of their own destiny. Their response was to create the Xbox Game Pass, and it seems to be a hit.
For those who don’t know, the Xbox Game Pass is a service that’ll allow gamers to pay a monthly fee in return for playing any game in a large library of titles created by Microsoft. This even got a boost when they revealed that all upcoming 1st party titles would be a part of the service.
In an interview with The Verge, Microsoft talked about how well the reception of the Game Pass was going:
“We’re really pleased with the success that’s happening [with Game Pass],” said Microsoft’s Kareem Choudhry. “We continue to believe in user choice, and we also believe there’s room in the industry for a gaming subscription and that’s what we’re going to build.”
So what’s next for Microsoft via this success? Well, they’re not overlooking what’s going on right now. In fact, they’re hoping to use the Game Pass success to begin a new wing of cloud development at the company. Their goal? To bring their titles to as many platforms as possible:
“We’re looking at ways to make that content available to anyone no matter what device they’re on.”
It’s a bold strategy, but Microsoft may be able to live up to it. We’ll just have to see how it goes. No doubt though that news of this will debut more at E3 2018.
