MICROSOFT

Xbox and Game Pass will have price increases

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Phil Spencer, the big boss at Xbox(image above), spoke about the good health of his Game Pass service, and Xbox in general. The head of shoppingmode Microsoft Studios thus confirmed the explosive growth of Game Pass PC (+159% in a year), but also admitted that the growth of Game Pass on consoles has slowed in the same period, but that it is a fall that is logical:

“On consoles, I've seen growth slow, mainly because at some point you've reached everyone on the console who wants to sign up for the service,” explains Phil Spencer.

In fact, the sales of the Xbox Series shoppingmode are estimated at around 18 to 19 million units, while the volume of subscriptions to the Xbox Game Pass shoppingmode would be around 30 million, against the 25 million it had in January.

Spencer also claims that Game Pass is already profitable, a claim made a few months ago. But without usable official numbers, it remains difficult to form an opinion on this point.

However, the highlight of this interview is not directly related to Game Pass. It's just that Phil Spencer is actually preparing people for a general increase in his prices, both in services and in hardware, and for him it seems to be something inevitable:

“We kept the price of our consoles, we kept the price of the games and our subscriptions. I don't think we can do this forever. I think at some point we will have to raise prices for some products, but as we approach this holiday, we feel it is very important to maintain current prices.”

In short, the company will have to wait until the end of the year to announce its price increases.

mundophone