This week, we've seen some pretty big news regarding Xbox Game Pass and the future of the service. Microsoft has decided to drop Game Pass Ultimate back down to a more manageable cost, whilst announcing that Call of Duty will no longer arrive day one in the service. In the days since, the industry has reacted, with some analysts "not surprised" by this change in direction.
Over at GamesIndustry.biz, the site has been gathering opinions from well-known industry folk to see what their reactions are. Mat Piscatella, from Circana, says that "this change is not surprising at all", whilst adding that the gamble to put the last few Call of Duty games into the service day one didn't pay off.
"It was clear from very early on in the Call of Duty on Game Pass experiment that it did not lead to a significant increase in Xbox console sales or even subscriptions, [...] So, this change is not surprising at all. A little overdue, perhaps. But not surprising."
Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis largely agreed. "The commercial reasoning for pursuing a subscription-first strategy for new releases the size of CoD has not been realised", Harding-Rolls said. Subscriber numbers don't seem to have massively increased since the move as far as we know, although Microsoft rarely talks about Game Pass subscriber numbers these days.
However, COD aside, both analysts reckon that the lower price for Game Pass Ultimate should result in more subscriber numbers. Some customers were seemingly "priced out" of GPU with the most recent price hike - and bumping that back down has a good chance at bringing people back in, even if the cost difference means that might not equate to more money being made for Microsoft.
"I think the price reduction should help subscriber numbers grow," says Piscatella. "Although, I am doubtful it will lead to higher Game Pass spending short-term given the discount. But we'll see. Content is one of the biggest drivers of subs (and cancellations) so perhaps there will be some other surprises that will help drive subscription numbers."
It'll be interesting to see how all of this plays out in the coming months, then, but the industry reaction appears largely positive towards these changes for Xbox Game Pass and the content Microsoft puts in it.