Xbox Game Pass is coming to Windows 10 PC. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that the company has plans to bring the Netflix-styled game subscription service to Windows 10 PC. At the moment, Xbox Game Pass is restricted to the Xbox One. Though this could change soon enough. While Nadella didn't outline concrete plans for this to happen, we won't be surprised to see more information at XO18, a Microsoft Xbox fan event slated for November 7.
"Bringing Game Pass to even the PC is going to be a big element of [increasing the strength of our gaming community]," said Nadella during a conference call after Microsoft's earnings call (via Gaming Bolt).
It will be interesting to see how Xbox Game Pass would work on Windows 10 PC. Reason being, Xbox Game Pass has helped the company bolster its Xbox One sales and bringing it to PC may simply give consumers less of a reason to bother with the company's hardware. That being said, we won't be surprised to see it lean on the Xbox Play Anywhere program Microsoft launched a couple of years prior.
While a subscription-based plan for Xbox hardware seems like a logical conclusion for Microsoft given its focus on Xbox Game Pass, it will be interesting to see how this would benefit the current game development business model. Particularly with big publishers like Ubisoft sounding off on the disadvantages of such services to them.
"I actually view subscription gaming as inhibiting our progress, and I'll give you two examples. One is with PS Now. I think that's a great technology for getting streaming content to people, but we don't make the money as a publisher — we don't make the same amount of money as we would even just putting stuff on sale. So why bother, from a publisher's standpoint?," asked Ubisoft's Chris Early in conversation with GamesBeat.
"The technology is great for a player. I can play anything anywhere instantly! It's awesome technology, which is inhibited by the business model. So charge a PlayStation Plus add-on to be able to stream any game you own to any device you own. That's a great service for the player. It's going to start people adopting that streaming concept in more places. You'll be able to get to a place where you have more people focused on streaming.
There's a similar challenge with your business model. We see it works. We're believers. You've capped it with a subscription plan, where publishers aren't able to make money. On the other hand, you could just sell the game and let people have the five-minute experience while it downloads, or pay you an add-on price to be able to continue to have fast access in many more places. With subscription it's just giving it away."
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