According to Bloomberg, over the past decade, Microsoft has spent almost $80 billion on developing the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem, including $69 billion for Activision Blizzard and $7.5 billion for ZeniMax Media. The company wanted to create a Netflix equivalent for games, where users would get access to hundreds of projects by subscription.
However, the plans did not materialize. In 2017, Microsoft expected to reach 77 million subscribers by fiscal year 2026 – now only about 30 million people use the service. After price increases, some players canceled their subscriptions.
Now Xbox is returning to basics. Division head Asha Sharma stated that the company will focus on key brands and increasing the number of exclusive games.
Xbox will bring more of its best games exclusively to Xbox, so players have a reason to buy the console.
At the same time, Microsoft will continue to develop Game Pass as part of a broader strategy – attracting over a billion users across different platforms.