Salomón Asmar Soto – [email protected]
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Just as it happened to music that jumped from selling CDs to the digital download model, video games on consoles also register a change. Recently, Xbox presented previews of famous titles such as Forza Horizon 5, which will be set in Mexico, the return of Halo, Age of Empires 4, among others. Before, this would generate lines in stores to search for physical copies, but those popular names will now also be on Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s subscription platform.
Precisely the Game Pass, a revolutionary model in the industry, is now the main bet of Xbox, which brings together fans of consoles such as the Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. In total, the company put the arrival of 30 video games on the calendar new from the end of his lecture at E3 until December. Of those, 27 will be in its subscription model, whose price in Colombia is $ 2,000 for the first three months and which is available for console and PC users.
The manager of Xbox for Latin America, Bernardo Camacho, assured that the Xbox Game Pass service “moved the video game industry” and that its arrival in Colombia “has been a complete success”, as he indicated that the growth figures of the services sector , in which this type of membership is found, grow in triple digits.
Is it a risky move to include $ 60 games from the day they are released to the Xbox Game Pass platform?
Although we have made decisions that some brands would look at with eyes of disbelief, what we want is to bring people closer to video games and provide a possibility of entertainment at home. In 2020 we launched 150 games on the Xbox Game Pass, in a year that was also atypical, and it is a business model that has moved the video game industry, since an important part of it was physical or digital sales. Now we are betting on a low monthly subscription in which users can count on all our new releases.
How has this service been in Colombia?
In Colombia, the response has been spectacular, with services being one of the fastest growing Microsoft categories in the country, doing so at triple digits. We started the fiscal year in July and we have very ambitious goals for 2021, and one of those is that people in Colombia continue to enjoy Xbox Game Pass, including computer players, who will have exclusive titles.
Why at E3 this year was the focus all on video game releases?
In previous conferences we always showed things other than games, such as accessory consoles, among others, but the intention this year was to show the number of titles that are going to come, which are 30 in total between now and December. The vast majority of these already have a defined date, as the goal we set ourselves is for it to be very real and tangible for the players.
Do you think that this clarity with the dates is lacking in the industry?
Many of our players told us: “Hey, it’s very nice that has been announced, but by when? I don’t like that they show games and we don’t know if they are for 2025 or 2030 ”. When we give dates we have a target for the launch, despite an unusual year like this in which developers have had to work at home, not only for us but for the entire entertainment industry.
The multiplayer of the new Halo: Infinite will be free, is this the step that Xbox wants to take with this franchise?
Yes, video games have evolved a lot in recent years. When I got to Microsoft they explained to me that physical game campaigns lasted a couple of hours, since multiplayer was very scarce in Colombia. Ten years later, one went from playing 15 hours to hundreds, with titles like Minecraft having millions of monthly users. With Halo we want all players to enjoy it, not just the 120 million people who have ever bought one of the titles in the series. We want all players to try it without the need to make an investment in the game.
Is the goal of Xbox no longer just the public who buys its consoles?
We want to reach users of all platforms and that they play at the time they prefer. While we love those 600 million console players in the world, out of a total of 2.8 billion people who play video games, we want to be present on all devices.
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