Game Pass / Microsoft
Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription makes dozens of the best games available and is quite profitable. But how profitable is it for their creators?
There is a wide discussion about the impact of Game Pass on the gaming industry. Some argue that subscriptions stifle game development, but some developers seem to be «stifled by» big bags of money. Information about the cost of placing games in the subscription has not been very public so far, but one of the Microsoft employees has outlined some financial frameworks. Website Windows Central noticed an interesting line in the resume of former Senior Business Development Manager Ian McIntyre.
«Concluded more than 500 transactions with a value of $50 thousand to over 50 million, secured both indie hits and AAA games for Game Pass».
Of course, we are not talking about who received how much, but given the Xbox Game Pass librarywhich includes, among others, Grand Theft Auto V, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl and many other hits, it’s easy to see where the tens of millions went.
McIntyre underscores his information by saying that he «helped grow Game Pass subscribers from the beginning to more than 30 million users», «personally identified and secured access to breakthrough games like Vampire Survivors early on to ensure that Game Pass offered cutting-edge and highly engaging content», «acted as a key global business development and contracting agent for third-party content for Xbox and Windows». This data is still available at LinkedIn.
These are hardly the best of times for Microsoft. Recently the company laid off more than 9000 employees, half of whom worked at Xbox itself (isn’t that why such a helpful manager updated his resume?). Microsoft allegedly saved half a billion dollars on replacing employees with AIand some actually the AI laid him off, right on his birthday. But, as they say in one distant galaxy, «spice must be supplied» — into the Game Pass.