In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox Gaming CEO, Phil Spencer, discussed the latest Minecraft movie successes as well as other gaming adaptations and more.
The big screen helps when it comes to the non-gamer. “What is this ‘Minecraft’ thing? And get invested in it. But almost more important to me are the people who have been playing, who have been part of the community, and when they see this, they’re proud. That “Minecraft is something that they’ve been investing in with their time and they see it represented on the big screen and doing well now.” Phil Said.
The Minecraft movie saw incredibly successful numbers, breaking the $300 million mark in just 14 days.
We often talk about whether Game Pass is good for the industry or not here. When asked by Variety “How are you viewing Game Pass’s ongoing role in the larger Xbox business right now?” Phil went on to say:
“I’ll start with just how many people are playing games. And 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.” We also see games that are added into Game Pass, eventually leave the platform. If you build your library on a rotating list of In’s-and-Out’s, it’s not really YOUR library is it?
Phil continued, stating their biggest growth is on PC and Cloud with consoles being up, but that consoles are an established business, but not a “growing segment in gaming.”
“So we’ve got good growth on PC, we’ve got growth on Cloud, in terms of users and hours. And console continues to be a really healthy part of Game Pass.”
“For me, I look at Game Pass as a healthy option for certain people. It’s not for everybody. 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. But I want you to have the choice. So we remain focused on everything that’s on Game Pass is also available to buy. We’re making those games available to buy in more places. And I look at the overall hours of people who are playing on Xbox, playing our games, and that’s a number that continues to grow fairly substantially.”
Xbox is certainly focused on Game Pass, which, by Phil’s standards, continues to grow and be a healthy place for their business model. But is it hurting the industry? Not according to Rebellion. With the recent release of Atomfall, Rebellion saw great numbers on what they referred to as their small title. Saying, “It’s been a huge success. Microsoft has been a fantastic partner to work with, they’ve really leaned in to helping us. 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.”
What do you think of Game Pass? Do you use the subscription service? Or would you rather purchase a few games a year? Leave a comment below letting us know your preferred way to play games.
