Phil Spencer believes buying games won’t be replaced by subscriptions or cloud anytime soon

With this latest generation of video game systems, there has been an increasing focus – especially by Microsoft – to move away from standalone game purchases, with the target shifting instead to creating and cultivating a successful game subscription service. Microsoft currently has this with Xbox Game Pass, but according to Xbox head, Phil Spencer, “people buying and owning their games will be an important part of the business for years and years to come.”

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer recently sat down with The Verge to discuss all manner of topics: from how he became CEO to game delays and more. Spencer also talked about Xbox’s move away from standalone game purchases, instead opting to focus on its Game Pass service. In discussing this, Spencer said:

“We don't have this vision of everybody paying us $15 a month. We think the subscription is an interesting business model for certain kinds of games and for certain customers. I really see it as diversifying how people build their library of games or how creators reach the customers they want to reach with the content that they build. It will always be part of the business, in my view. I think people buying and owning their games will be an important part of the business for years and years to come.”

Spencer concluded by saying “having our customers choose the way they decide to play and how they play is really fundamental when going back to how we make decisions. It's why you don't see us doing exclusive games in the subscription or trying to drive people away from purchasing games. We love it when people purchase their games. It's fantastic. We also like it when people subscribe. The thing that we're really looking at is if we can just get more people to play more games and make it easy for every player who wants to play.”

As mentioned by Spencer, All Game Pass titles are still available to buy standalone, meaning if you did want to own a particular game and ensure you have it forever, you can do so. Still, considering how hard Microsoft has been pushing Game Pass over the past few years, his admittance that it isn’t for everyone is a pleasant surprise.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of Spencer’s statement? Do you agree with his perspective? Let us know down below.

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