Game Pass: Phil Spencer says Xbox isn’t ‘trying to funnel’ players away from game ownership
Phil Spencer says players should play games wherever they want to
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has said that Microsoft isn’t trying to force players into Game Pass, Cloud, or any one way to experience games.
For the past few years, Microsoft has placed a significant focus on Game Pass, its subscription service which allows players access to hundreds of games, including new releases, for a monthly fee.
While the service has been heralded for its value, some have taken issue in Microsoft’s focus on Game Pass, as players don’t own any of the games they receive, raising preservation concerns.
In a new interview with Xbox Era, Microsoft’s Gaming CEO acknowledged players who wish to maintain large libraries of owned games, and claimed that Microsoft isn’t attempting to funnel players away from ownership and towards subscriptions.
“I think we’ve shown respect for people’s libraries over the generations with back-compat and Play Anywhere, and I want to continue to do that,” Spencer told Xbox Era.
“You can buy every game that’s in Game Pass, we’re not trying to funnel everybody into one business model. Play the games the way you want to play them.
“We obviously have to run a good business, so we’ll have our pricing and everything that we do, but I want to make as many options as possible for the games that we have,” Spencer continued.
One of Game Pass’s biggest selling points comes in the wake of Microsoft publishing its biggest titles on PlayStation 5. For example, the upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages will be released on both Xbox and PS5. On PS5, it will cost $69.99, however on Xbox and PC, players can play the game on Game Pass for $15 per month.
“It’s why us embracing Windows and embracing Cloud has allowed us to grow. One of our fastest growing regions for us right now is Asia and it’s not because we’re selling more consoles in Asia, but through cloud and PC, we’re finding more users year over year than in any other place.
“The fastest kind of platform is Cloud. That’s the thing that’s growing the fastest year over year and those are players like you were talking about, like that radio host. We were never going to catch that person with our console. So let’s find them in a way that works, and it’s better for Indiana Jones. It’s better for Xbox.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Spencer shed more light on his decision to bring virtually every first-party Xbox title to PlayStation 5, effectively ending exclusivity on the platform.
