Who doesn’t love Xbox Game Pass? All publishers, it seems, at least according to what was stated by Jim Ryan. The PlayStation executive had his say on the subscription service and also said that the results were lower than expected given the investments. This information emerged via the leak of Microsoft documents for the case of the American FTC.
Precisely Ryan states: “I talked to all the editors and they unanimously dislike Game Pass because it destroys value, not just at the individual title level, but also at the industry level. The recent number of subscribers announced by Microsoft in January was 25 million. I’m sure everyone has their own opinions on this, but personally I expected a larger number given the money spent. We have nearly 50 million PlayStation Plus subscribers. We believe we have an effective subscription service.”
The comparison between Game Pass and PS Plus
The numbers indicated by Jim Ryan are objective, but a direct comparison is not entirely correct. In fact, it should be noted that PS Plus is mandatory for playing online and for many players this is fundamental. In the period covered by the data, Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live were still two somewhat separate services (Ultimate also includes the benefits of Xbox Live). Those who only wanted to play online could simply subscribe to Xbox Live.
Subscribers were therefore divided (we don’t know in what quantity) between Xbox Live and Game Pass. In the case of PS Plus, however, this is not the case. Now Xbox Game Pass Core is for online, so subscribers will be collected under a single category and the comparison could be more sensible. However, we do not have updated data in this regard.
As for the editors’ opinion, Jim Ryan is clearly biased so we cannot take it as an objective statement. Nonetheless, this is what an important leader declares. What do you think about it?
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