200 million subscribers? Michael Pachter turns back in forecast about Xbox Game Pass

The Xbox Game Pass has been available on the market for years, standing out as the best game subscription service, delivering excellent value for players, but is the service growing as expected?

Usually Microsoft does not disclose updated data on the number of subscribers. However, in April 2024 analyst Michael Pachter shared his forecast on the service, which could reach 200 million subscribers in 10 years.

Now, about 1 year later, Michael Pachter decided to speak up and went back with his forecast. He even notes that “they are not even close to it,” the increases and other factors are blaming.

“Even though it is super lucrative, Activision arrived a time when Microsoft was trying to change its focus: no longer relying on the sale of consoles and giving priority to prioritize game Pass signatures.”

“I have already said publicly that I thought they would have 200 million Game Pass subscribers in 10 years. But they are not even close to that. Why? Because they continue to develop games the same way they have always done, and Game Pass has not evolved since it was released.”

“Recently, they made a bad decision to increase the price of the game pass to the console to $ 20. On the PC, it’s still $ 10, but before it was around 15 on the console. They climbed the price without significantly increasing the content. Result: a lot of people gave up buying Xbox, signed the game pass just to play Call of Duty and then canceled.”

Not only is the increase in service, but Michael Pachter also mentions releases on PlayStation, noting that Microsoft needs to completely rethink the strategy.

“For example, they have a lot of free content that could be in Game Pass, Candy Crush, Diablo Immortal, Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty Mobile.

“I don’t think who pays $ 20 a month in the game pass going to play Candy Crush, but the mother, wife or son of that person may want. It makes the whole family participate, which makes it easier to sell the signature.”

To attract more subscribers, he suggests focusing on mobile games such as Immortal Diablo and Candy Crush.

Fonte: YouTube