320°

Xbox Game Pass Reportedly Generated $2 Billion in Annual Revenue Between 2019 and 2021

While sustainability remains a mystery, Xbox Game Pass was wholly embraced by the market in years past, as it reportedly generated considerable revenue.

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wccftech.com
Obscure_Observer21d ago

Yes!

With more money made out of games on multiple platforms, Game Pass will only grow bigger and better!

lodossrage21d ago

You should really wait until that show profit before this is cheer worthy.

Every service brings in revenue. How much profit comes from it is where the sustainability will come into play
2 billion in revenue in 2019-2021 is great an and all. But what were the operating costs?

CrashMania21d ago

Yeah, there's a reason they never reveal Xbox profit numbers, and we all know what that reason is.

Obscure_Observer21d ago

"You should really wait until that show profit before this is cheer worthy."

Game Pass is alive and well since 2017 so its obviously profitable. And they do reveal profits for their investors and shareholders; you know, the people that matters in this particular regard.

The only thing I might wait is for a great line up of upcoming first and third party games day one on the service.

Scissorman20d ago

Profitability is going to be little to non-existent. Had the service been able to generate any meaningful profit, then we wouldn't be seeing every 1st Party Xbox title coming to PlayStation.

badz14920d ago

@Obsecure

Xbox is also still alive and kicking in 2025. Must be because it makes so much profits, right?

Kyizen20d ago

Exactly 2 billion revenue, not profit and Activision cost them 68.7 billion so...how many years to break even on that?

Silly Mammo20d ago

Hey! Be nice to Obscure. It's been a very difficult year for him trying to defend Xbox. Let him have this "win".

Bathyj20d ago

"Game Pass is alive and well since 2017 so its obviously profitable. "

You know Xbox as a company didn't make a dollar of profit until well into their second generation. And you can thank Don Mattrick for that, the guy you love to blame for everything that's wrong with Xbox not your lord and savior Peter Moore who you all hail as a hero now.

Sharky23119d ago

Revenue is different from profit. If Game Pass was doing what Microsoft wanted then Xbox wouldn’t be going multi platform. I really wish that they would say their real numbers. Not just some kind of spin that sounds good until you dig in. I’d be willing to bet it’s still losing money.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 19d ago
Christopher21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Revenue is money taken in, not profit. This means 16.67m Game Pass users at only $10/month, even less at higher priced levels that actual offer game subscriptions. That's an overlap from last gen to this gen, which means most of this isn't about game pass so much as just people paying to play online. And those subscriptions are to afford the costs to keep things running, not to necessarily be a profit point (though, they probably made a small percentage off of it overall).

crazyCoconuts20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

To add to that, MS has to pay third party publishers as well. Didn't we have a report about that being $1B annually?

https://www.purexbox.com/ne...

Tacoboto20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Add even more to that - gamers that take advantage of MS Rewards + Bing can rake in enough points to "buy" Game Pass Ultimate with only 12k MS Rewards Points.

I haven't paid for GPU in over a year and my membership goes to September currently. I redeemed a month just three weeks ago and am over halfway to the next redemption

Christopher21d ago

***Game Pass is alive and well since 2017 so its obviously profitable.***

That's not how that works. Xbox is being hugely propped up by Microsoft and as a division has lost money recently just due to the over $100b in studio purchases let alone eating a TON of costs to get people to switch over with lower pricing that only in the last two years saw increase to help prevent more losses.

It's a long road toward profit and, more importantly, market control in subscription gaming. They've been spreading the good will, though. Games on Steam, games on PS5. More profit to help them fuel the subscription plans.

lodossrage21d ago

I was just going to explain what profit was, but thanks to you I don't have to.

Terry_B20d ago

Realism is really not your strength.

TheEroica20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Oh man, the Sony Defense Force is gonna come at you hard for your treasonous comments... How dare you have fun with day 1 bangers.... You really want Concord, duh.

andy8520d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Yep. Let's highlight the worst game in probably 20 years of exclusives as that's all they have. Forgetting all the other GOTY nominees 😂

andy8520d ago (Edited 20d ago )

That's a terrible number considering there's supposedly 30 million subs isn't it? It works out at $3 a month and we all know gamepass isn't that price. And a lot of prople use the rewards program to get free gamepass. Inflated sub numbers?

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 18d ago
Lightning7721d ago

Those were in the dry years of Xbox. Plus their games are on PS now. Studio growth/health means more money to the studios means more GP grow also means more games for xbox ppl and PS ppl.

Knushwood Butt21d ago

'means more GP grow'.

How is GP supposed to grow when xbox sales are tanking?

MS has a target of 100 million subscribers. Will be interesting to see what the current numbers are, although oddly MS hasn't provided an update for a long time.

Lightning7721d ago

They're definitely not hitting that 100m subs. I don't know why they even said that.

Maybe not so much growth in terms of subs because they're not selling any consoles though the PC they've seen growth. Sustainability is what they're achieving. Because those games selling on PS will definitely help the studios immensely.

That or Increased GP prices which nobody wants but I think they're gonna do again anyway.

originaljohn20d ago

GP doesn't only exist on Xbox, they push it on PC, mobile and TV's via cloud. Those devices have a far wider reach than a standard console. I ultimately cancelled my GP sub as I simply wasn't using it and therefore had no need but don't be thinking GP and consoles sales are 1:1

ravens5220d ago

I would love to know the number of people who actually use gamepasss on mobile or tv.

ABizzel120d ago

They’re not getting to 100m subs without coming to Nintendo and/or PlayStation, or being forced to create some free version / extremely cheap version with limited features.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 20d ago
UltraYZU20d ago

Even if that was profit and not revenue that would be so little.

But lets assume that 25% of that is profit is would take them 140 years to pay back ABK. Of course there is plenty of reason to believe that Game Pass is unprofitable and losing money.

And now we can mathematically see that Microsoft is misleading people about subscribers, they aren't quoting concurrent subscribers but total number of people who have ever subscribed, So if a person subbed in 2017 but canceled they are part of that 35m number Microsoft quoted

Much like in the 360 days when they would throw around subscriptions numbers and all the press for years kept saying it was Live Gold paid subscriptions until Microsoft finally revealed that it was total subscriptions including silver unpad subscriptions.

20d ago
Reaper22_20d ago

You dont know what you're talking about.

cloganart20d ago

The question should be how much does it cost Microsoft to maintain Game Pass. Servers etc.

While there is money lost from individual sales of games, the library is so large that that may not matter.

lodossrage20d ago

@cloganart

Your comment is EXACTLY why I said people need to stop cheering about revenue until they start talking about profit first.

To be fair, nobody should be "cheering" a company in the first place, but that's a different argument.

But it's like some of these people don't realize that not only do they have to pay to maintain gamepass itself, but they have to pay for the maintenance of EVERY game on the service. And the newer the game is, the more it will cost, including their own published games. Which is why the Day 1 part of the service was a bad idea. Which even Microsoft realizes and that's why you can only get "day 1" games in the ultimate package now instead of everyone getting them like they initially said they would.

I don't expect people to be financial wizards on a game website, but a bit of basic economic knowledge WOULD be nice.

attilayavuzer19d ago

"But lets assume that 25% of that is profit is would take them 140 years to pay back ABK. "

That's not how investments work.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 19d ago
Reaper22_20d ago

Gamepass is profitable and a successful service. They are expected to make over 5 billion this year. Time to move on.

20d ago Replies(1)
D2niceforu20d ago

Right this was infancy years. They are making way more now. More subs and higher prices

repsahj20d ago

$1B a year? So you need 69 years to recoup what you spent on the Activision buyout? XD

thesoftware73020d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Repsahj,

That is not how that works at all, but just for the sake of talk.

1.The report is not $1B, it's $2B.
2..They own King games, so tons of money from mobile(Cod mobile as well), candy crush and the like, which btw make more $$ than consoles.
3. Individual games sales on Xbox(not GP)
4. Individual games sales on PS, and PC.
5. MTX, sales on PC, PS, and Xbox
6. CoD makes billions on its own and it's on every system, not just GP..this article specifically is GP making $2B so all other revenue is in addition.

When you factor in all these things you can see that the "$69B" does not rest solely on the shoulder of GP. The fact that they are moving games on almost every platform, including mobile paints a way different picture than your faulty 69 years scenario.

Chevalier19d ago

Sony made $4 billion in a single year on Mobile with just Fate Stay which also branched off into anime, figures, manga and ton of merchandise too. What's your point?

repsahj19d ago (Edited 19d ago )

C'mon brother, that's is why they goin multi-plat because they cant with M$ only.

thesoftware73019d ago

Chevalier,

It wasn't a comparison to Sony at all.

And the point is clear, he cited GP as MS only way for them to make money back to cover the $69B they spent on A/B, which is 100% false. You are a smart person and you know that is false, so instead you made an assanine non factor Sony comment.

"C'mon brother, that's is why they goin multi-plat because they cant with M$ only".

That is my point lol, so clearly it's not all on GP...read my comment again.

Show all comments (60)
50°

The weird hand-drawn physics-based puzzle game "Micromega" is soon coming to PC via Steam

"The Paris-based (France) indie games publisher and developer COVEN, are today super thrilled and happy to announce that their surreal hand-drawn 2D physics-based adventure/puzzle game "Micromega", is soon coming to PC via Steam." - Jonas Ek, TGG.

210°

Days Gone Original vs Remastered – Is The Visual Upgrade Worth Revisiting?

Days Gone Remastered is now available, and if you’re looking to find out how it compares with the original PS4 version, read ahead.

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twistedvoxel.com
Cacabunga5h ago

Huge difference i must admit, but not sure i would notice without 2 screens next to each other.

Not getting this game still, i want a new game and im tired of remasters

Muigi4h ago(Edited 4h ago)

It’s $10 and there are plenty of games out there for you.

Flewid6383h ago

Then its not a huge difference?

Fishy Fingers5h ago

Settings > Graphics > Change preset from medium to high.

Remastered.....

Tedakin4h ago

Sony is now remastering games with 71s on metacritic.

Bathyj4h ago

Like that's a judge of anything
This game got scored before it was released.

andy854h ago

Days gone is 85+. It got heavily marked down at launch for bugs where as others get a free pass for that. It's a fantastic game.

andy854h ago

I spoiled myself by modding this game on my PC. Genuinely one of the best looking games I've ever seen. Whilst this remaster looks nice it just doesn't compare to that sadly. It shows the effort that these remasters could put in if they wanted

REDGUM4h ago

I so hope this game or DLC for those of us who own the original sells well.
Ive said it before, its an underrated game for sure & was unfairly judged upon release.
Please try this game if you haven't already.

For those who say 'i won't purchase digital only' you can pickup a hard copy for 5 bucks here in Australia, then add the DLC and you have a superb game for $20 or so.

Give it a shot, tell me I'm wrong After completing the game.

Game on gamers.

Show all comments (19)
50°
4.0

Review - Steel Seed (PC) | WayTooManyGames

WTMG's Kyle Nicol: "Steel Seed has everything that I love: explosive set pieces, stealth-focused gameplay and souls-like combat. Unfortunately, none of these elements work together here. Each part felt undercooked for an experience that I cannot recommend to anyone. Despite this, there’s a lot of potential there for something greater, and I hope we get to see a more focused game next."

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waytoomany.games