Microsoft are to "change strategy" with a mission to have Game Pass "on every screen"

Nintendo Life wrote:Microsoft and Xbox have mentioned on a number of occasions how they want to make gaming more accessible than ever before, and during a recent appearance at the Wells Fargo TMT Summit earlier this week, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart reiterated this.

While he admits it's a "bit of a change of strategy" compared to Xbox's approach in the past and there's nothing seriously happening right now, the mission is to bring the company's "first-party experiences" as well as its subscription services to "every screen" that can play games. Here's what he had to say, courtesy of GameSpot:

"That means smart TVs, that means mobile devices, that means what we would have thought of as competitors in the past like PlayStation and Nintendo."

Source: Nintendo Life / GameSpot

A bold statement, although something that is probably a number of years away in terms of becoming a reality.

I thought that already was their strategy tbh!

I'm not against the idea of Game Pass being on other formats - I'd love to play Starfield on my PS5! - but I struggle to see how it'd work on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. The consumer would have to pay an online/membership sub to Sony or Nintendo plus the cost of Game Pass to Microsoft; and presumably that latter cost would be higher as the platform holders take a big chunk of the fee.

Video Games Chronicle are also reporting the story, with some additional detail of what Phil Spencer has said in past years on increasing Game Pass access.

OrangeRKN wrote:I thought that already was their strategy tbh!

Yep, has been for a while now.

The only thing keeping Game Pass off PS or Switch is Sony and Nintendo. There would be no necessity for them to take a cut because it should work through a browser app - just like I can download iplayer or netflix apps for free on my PS5. Obviously Sony and Nintendo don't want to support that!

more heat than light wrote:
OrangeRKN wrote:I thought that already was their strategy tbh!

Yep, has been for a while now.

I guess that it's interesting to hear other Microsoft heavyweights talking about the target rather than just Spencer; maybe more so to see the PlayStation and Nintendo brands name-checked.

As I posted above, I kinda like the idea but I can't see either of those "rival" platforms allowing it right now. If the market percentages change in the coming years then their stance may differ.

Maybe they'll reach a compromise where only Microsoft first-party games can feature as part of GamePass on PlayStation and/or Nintendo, much like EA and Ubisoft's own services do now.

My new Xbox setup :datass:

BREAKING NEWS Phil etc have been saying they want Game Pass on everything for years.

Can't wait for millions more people to join the queue to play cloud games.

Monkey Man wrote:BREAKING NEWS Phil etc have been saying they want Game Pass on everything for years.

I guess that it's building upon the foundations laid out by Spencer and repeated earlier this month.

Phil Spencer wrote:Just as we think of ROG Ally and Steam Deck as part of the Xbox community, we need to think of the many Nintendo Switch and PlayStation users as part of the Xbox community in the future.

I think the only way Sony would agree to that is if MS get out of the console hardware business. So we might be on the last Xbox.

Playing an RTS on a smartwatch is going to be lifechanging.

I always do the monthly play this game quests using the cloud service instead of installing. Last night the queue to join a game was 15 minutes. I'm not sure Microsoft quite have the scaling yet to put this on every device.

I'd be very surprised if Game Pass ever came to a Sony console, a while back the Switch always felt like it could happen, but I do wonder how much the leaked documents over Microsoft/Xbox buying shares in Nintendo until they have enough to do a hostile takeover of them will have harmed the chances of it now.

This has been their strategy for a while now though and while I know deals take time, it doesn't seem to have advanced much really, thought it might have appeared on a lot more as the cloud side of it continues to improve.

Phil Spencer in a interview yesterday -

On Xbox Game Pass "coming to other platforms," innovation in future Xbox console hardware, and keeping Xbox fans excited

I asked Phil Spencer about Xbox CFO Tim Stuart's recent comments regarding Xbox Game Pass. Stuart, in a presentation with Wells Fargo, said that Microsoft's aim was to bring Xbox Game Pass to any screen that can play games, including Nintendo and PlayStation. Many Xbox fans took that to indicate that Microsoft is preparing for an industry where Xbox hardware no longer exists, since Xbox Game Pass and its exclusives are a primary value driver for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One hardware.

"I'll start by saying we have no plans to bring Game Pass to PlayStation or Nintendo. It's not in our plans. But I think you hit on the right point of 'what it means to own an Xbox.' The thing I want to be focused on is how do we continue to innovate for people who've made the commitment to our hardware platform? And how do we continue to make sure that they feel great about their investment in what we've built.

I'm obviously going to have my own point of view on our hardware. But I think our hardware teams did a great job with the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S this generation, giving value and performance in the hardware line. When I think about investments in things like Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, cross play, and cross save, and ID@Xbox, all of these things — I want us to continue to innovate, so people on our console feel like we're making investments in console that matches their commitment they're making to us.

Game Pass was one of the things you know that over the last five years we built, and we continue to grow, it's on PC, it's on cloud. It's an important part of the Xbox console identity. And I think it will continue to be that. And we will continue to look at future ways for us to innovate across our game portfolio and our platform."

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/p ... rview-2023

That seems a bit odd; as others have said here, Spencer has said in the past that he'd like to see Game Pass on PlayStation and Nintendo and Tim Stuart had repeated this these past few days.

I suppose that, naturally, Sony and Nintendo are extremely reticent at the moment and so MS are backing away from the story a bit.

Microsoft are to "change strategy" with a mission to have Game Pass "on every screen"

Who is online

Affiliates