On Wednesday, a report has come out that sheds light on revenue after a game is placed on the Xbox Game Pass service, and the report suggests a title can lose “around 80% of its expected premium sales”.
Xbox Game Pass continues to offer a service that provides fans hundreds of titles for a singular sum a month, and although they offer new games to play each month, a new report has suggested games on the service can be losing revenue. During a Q&A on the Installbase forums, Journalist Christopher Dring wrote “Anecdotally, games that are in Game Pass can expect to lose around 80% of its expected premium sales on Xbox,” when asked how much popular sentiment aligns with market perception regarding subscription services.
Dring continues with “That’s the figure that gets thrown around. It’s less if it’s a big mainstream release, but generally… look at how low Hellblade 2 charted. Or where Indiana Jones came. Or even Starfield. Game Pass clearly hurt sales of those titles on Xbox” using Xbox developed title launches on Xbox Game Pass as examples of potential cuts in revenue. Dring did suggest that a specific game’s presence on Game Pass can bolster sales of particular titles on other platforms, like the PS5.
Dring concludes the thought on Xbox Game Pass with “I am actually torn on subscription. I believe it can lead to lost revenue, and services like this make it harder for everyone else. Try being an indie game on Xbox right now that’s not on Game Pass.” So while Dring mentions Game Pass can cut “80%” of premium sales figures, some of the lesser known Indie Game developments may not have been found if they were not on the Game Pass service.
While it does appear Xbox is shifting their strategy away from developing platform-exclusive software for Xbox and being primarily a console developer with the ‘every screen is an Xbox‘ campaign, making first party titles available on other platforms can reportedly bolster premium sales when titles are on the Xbox Game Pass service. This is potentially why Indiana Jones and The Great Circle has been reported as coming to other platforms (including PlayStation in Spring 2025), despite being a first party Xbox development. Xbox Game Pass appears to be Microsoft’s focus for the immediate future, so it remains to be seen whether their strategy will shift further in 2025.
