Xbox Game Pass has long been considered one of the most important subscriptions in the gaming industry, but analyst Matt Piscatella believes that the service has not met Microsoft's expectations for one simple reason. He named free-to-play hits like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox, which occupy the time of millions of players, as the main culprits.
According to the expert, the idea of building a business around a subscription was logical, but it did not align with the habits of most users. Instead of regularly trying dozens of new games, many players prefer to spend hundreds of hours in a few favorite free-to-play projects.
Piscatella noted that even adding Call of Duty to Xbox Game Pass did not have the expected effect. This did not lead to a significant increase in the number of subscribers and Xbox console sales, which shows that the problem is not in the service's content, but in the changing behavior of players.
The analyst reminded that Game Pass was originally conceived for access to old Microsoft games. Later, the company changed its strategy, starting to release new projects on the subscription on release day.