No one doubts the subscription service Xbox Game Pass be a hit, but Microsoft wants to get more juice out of it. The idea I would consider would be to throw a low-cost version of this service with limitations. Although there are some limitations, this offer could be interesting for many, since its price would be 4 times lower.
This information comes from Microsoft’s survey exploring Xbox Game Pass membership options. For comparison, the company showed what its new service could be, a “Pass Lite game”, compared to the subscription with friends and family.
This would be the low cost Xbox Game Pass
As you can see, we are talking about a subscription service for one person. Unlike the Ultimate or Family, you can only choose between play PC or console games, not both. The possibility is eliminated to play titles on the day they are releasedthese will be playable 6 months later of his release. EA Play games not includedalso, there is no access to play from the cloud, member discounts are removed and any games you want to play on your PC or console will need to be downloaded.
Essentially, a subscription for gamers who don’t mind missing out on Microsoft’s First Party releases. We may even think that they are 2.99 euros to play a game of our interest. It’s cheaper than buying it and we could even think more about a rental system, where you pay 3 euros and you can play a couple of games you want for 1 month. Of course, as a negative point, it is indicated that with this Game Pass subscription you will see the ad before playing.
In this way, it seems that the whole industry is doing a heavy emphasis on adding advertising as an additional method of generating income so that the user pays less.
Is there really room for a cheap Xbox subscription service?
All streaming video platforms they resort to advertising to make access to its platform cheaper. Sure, Netflix isn’t doing very well. We knew it last night began to return the money to companies that had paid to show popularity due to the low popularity of their new subscription service. Seeing this, it would be normal to also see an Xbox Game Pass with advertising given the rest of the platforms.
This is just a survey, but it makes it clear that the company is already thinking about new ways to earn through subscriptions. In theory, Microsoft earns little or nothing from console sales. Almost all income are related to the games or services such as Game Pass. Maybe we could be earlier a replacement for Xbox Live Goldas the “Game Pass Lite” adds the ability to play online.
Removing Xbox Live Gold for this new level of Game Pass would provide Microsoft a new and strong source of income. Not to mention that it also adds a new strong differentiation to the offer offered compared to competitors. Taking that into account, we may be at the first clue that Xbox Live Gold will end in 2023.
