The gaming market has seen a massive increase during lockdown when users are forced to stay at home, and Xbox is no exception to this. Xbox recently claimed that its Game Pass has hit 10 million active subscribers.
The Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service which gives the user access to 100+ Xbox games for the price of $10, the PC version of this service comes at a cost of $5 and a combo of both can be bought for $15 dollar with the added Xbox Live Gold.
This new type of subscription-based distribution of games can bring a new element to the console wars. Xbox’s competitor Sony has started its subscription service PS plus since 2014 but it has been largely a failure as compared to Xbox’s Game pass, even though it boasts a massive catalog of 800+ games and the PS4 has more install rates than the Xbox consoles. Xbox’s careful consideration of included titles can be a major reason why its subscription package was marginally more successful than that of Sony.
All the while the companies continue its testing of Project xCloud, a game streaming service that allows players to stream their Xbox titles to their mobile devices.
While digital sales are on the rise, the consoles are experiencing a decrease in sales, which may be due to the launch of a new generation of consoles on the line. The subscription services of individual companies can be an influencing factor in the sales of their next-generation consoles, and if everything continues as it is right now, Xbox may take a lead which Sony did not expect.
