In a revelation that surprises no one, microsoft revealed that Xbox Game Pass is driving down game sales on the service. The revelation comes thanks to the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s interim report which was released amid the ongoing investigation into the Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard merger and goes against Phil Spencer’s statements to him. -even.
Xbox Game Pass is causing cannibalization, Microsoft admits
The report states the following with regards to Xbox Game Pass:
“Microsoft also said its internal analysis shows a (redacted) decline in base game sales twelve months after it was added to Game Pass.”
This has long been assumed to be the case, but this report (via GamesIndustry.biz) provides the first official confirmation of the reality of the situation. This is in stark contrast to previous statements by Phil Spencer in an interview with LevelUp.com, in which Spencer said:
“When you put a game like Forza Horizon 4 on Game Pass, you instantly get more players of the game, which actually leads to more sales of the game. Some people have questioned that, but when State of Decay 2 came out , you saw that if you looked in the US on NPD, you saw that this game was selling very well the month it was released on GamePass.
In other news, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor won’t be coming to next-gen systems due to hardware limitations, and fans were left disappointed by God of War Ragnarok’s Super Bowl announcement.