Game Pass ‘not for everybody’, says Xbox boss Phil Spencer

Microsoft’s gaming boss has reiterated that Xbox isn’t expecting everyone to sign up for Game Pass, and acknowledged that the subscription model is “not for everybody”.

Speaking to Variety, Phil Spencer discussed Microsoft’s thinking around its subscription offering, and claimed the company is happy for its audience to continue purchasing games outside of Game Pass.

“It’s not for everybody,” he said. “If you play one or two games a year, Game Pass probably isn’t the right business model for you; you should just buy those two games, and that would make total sense,” he said. “But I want you to have the choice. So we remain focused on everything that’s on Game Pass is also available to buy.”

Spencer continued: “I’ve always thought about Game Pass as just another option for somebody who wants to play. We have many business models for people playing from free-to-play, buying games, discounted games–Game Pass is an option.

“So when I’m looking at Game Pass, I want to make sure the hours that people are playing continue to go up, that new people see this as a way for them to find and build their library of games, and we remain focused on that.”

While Spencer did not share new membership data, he claimed the number of hours people are playing on Xbox “continues to grow fairly substantially,” partly due to Game Pass.

“Game Pass has been an important part of that, but I don’t try to solve for Game Pass specifically on its own. It’s kind of part of the equation for Xbox finding new players,” he said.

Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley recently claimed that launching into Xbox Game Pass had been “a huge success” for survival action game Atomfall.

“Microsoft has been a fantastic partner to work with, they’ve really leaned in to helping us,” he told GI.biz.

“They brought their skills and their scale to bear on our small project, and it’s done really, really well for them, so they got a good deal, we got a good deal out of it as well.”