By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
29.11.2023 - 19:07 / gamespot.com / Bobby Kotick / Tim Stuart / Nintendo
«It's a bit of a change of strategy,» Microsoft admits.
By Eddie Makuch on
Microsoft wants to bring Xbox Game Pass to PlayStation and Nintendo. Xbox CFO Tim Stuart said during the Wells Fargo TMT Summit this week that the goal is to make first-party games and Game Pass available on «every screen that can play games,» and this includes rival consoles.
«It's a bit of a change of strategy. Not announcing anything broadly here, but our mission is to bring our first-party experiences [and] our subscription services to every screen that can play games,» Stuart said. «That means smart TVs, that means mobile devices, that means what we would have thought of as competitors in the past like PlayStation and Nintendo.»
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Stuart said Game Pass is a «high margin» business for Microsoft, along with first-party games and advertising. These are all areas that Microsoft plans to expand into significantly in the time ahead, Stuart said. The executive added that buying Activision Blizzard helps Microsoft get there faster than it might have been able to on its own.
For the advertising part specifically, the Candy Crush mobile game series from King--which is now owned by Microsoft--is deeply embedded with ads and microtransactions.
For Game Pass on rival consoles, it makes sense that Microsoft would want to do this, because it would expand the reach of the subscription service to a much larger audience. Whether or not Sony or Nintendo would allow Game Pass on their console is another question. For its part, Sony previously blocked EA Access (now called EA Play), saying it did not represent a good value for PlayStation users.
Game Pass is a subscription service that includes access to all of Microsoft's first-party games at launch and a growing catalog of other games. Microsoft now owns the Call of Duty series, and titles in that series could begin to appear on Game Pass in 2024.
Microsoft paid $68.7 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard as part of the biggest acquisition in video game history and one of the largest ever in the technology space. As part of the deal, Microsoft gets ownership of every ABK game and studio. Spencer asked controversial CEO Bobby Kotick to stay on through 2023, but whether or not he leaves in 2024 is unknown.
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By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
Microsoft could expand to new markets with ad-supported game streaming.
Microsoft is reportedly planning to offer free game streaming in exchange for advertisements. As per TweakTown, Xbox Gaming CFO Tim Stuart suggested during the recent Wells Fargo TMT Summit that to expand geographically, it would be ideal to leverage the company's xCloud service, allowing players to cloud stream games at any ‘endpoint' via a simple Game Pass Ultimate subscription. He further added, “For models like Africa, or India, Southeast Asia, maybe places that aren't console-first, you can say, ‘Hey, do you want to watch 30 seconds of an ad and then get two hours of game streaming?'”
Microsoft is considering ad-based business models for its Xbox Game Pass streaming service, according to chief financial officer Tim Stuart.
Microsoft is exploring the possibility of offering access to Xbox Game Pass in exchange for viewing advertisements.
Welcome to the busiest moviegoing season of the year, when films in theaters are actually worth trekking out to see and everything hitting VOD and streaming is… the movies that came out a few months ago that are also super worth checking out. Ack!
Xbox Series X|S maker Microsoft has once again expressed a desire to release its membership service Game Pass on to PS5, PS4, allowing first-party titles like Starfield and Forza Motorsport to become available to a wider audience. Xbox CFO Tim Stuart made the comments during the Wells Fargo TMT Summit, stating it to be a «bit of a change of strategy».
Xbox boss Phil Spencer says Microsoft spends over $1 billion a year bringing third-party titles to Xbox Game Pass.
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Despite indications and rumours that Xbox might be keen on expanding its Game Pass offerings to also be available on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms, Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer has revealed that the company doesn’t have any current plans to do it.
Happy December, Polygon readers. Christmas movie season is here, and there are tons of new Christmas movies slated to come out over the next month.
Earlier this week, a different Xbox executive said Microsoft's mission was to bring Game Pass to PlayStation and Nintendo.