Microsoft confirms that Xbox Game Pass negatively affects sales

When Xbox Game Pass was first introduced, many interested parties showed concern for the health of the video games industry, fearing that offering such a subscription service would cannibalise sales. At the time, the company claimed the opposite – though we now know that titles coming to Game Pass statistically do in fact negatively affect sales.

Back in 2018, Phil Spencer claimed that titles coming to Xbox Game Pass would lead to an increase in sales, not a drop, saying at the time “When you put a game like Forza Horizon 4 on Game Pass, you instantly have more players of the game, which is actually leading to more sales of the game.”

It seems either this was never actually the case, or at the very least it is no longer the case. As reported by Gamesindustry.biz, The UK Competition and Markets Authority released a provisional report pertaining to the lengthy and arduous Activision Blizzard acquisition.

As part of this report, the CMA revealed that “Microsoft also submitted that its internal analysis shows a [redacted]% decline in base game sales twelve months following their addition on Game Pass.”

While this is not surprising to see, it does run counter to Xbox head Phil Spencer’s previous claims, and so it will be interesting to see how the long-term performance of Game Pass affects the industry.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest revelation? Are you surprised? What do you think the redacted percentage is? Let us know down below.

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