Xbox CEO: Consoles are a 'good, established business' and a 'really healthy part' of Game Pass

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Console gaming might not be growing, but the platform remains an a foundational bedrock to Microsoft's subscription plans.

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In the FTC v Microsoft trial, we heard Xbox executives lament the sluggish growth of the console market. The segment appears to be saturated--at least in Xbox's case, and dwindling hardware sales may suggest saturation--leading Microsoft to try break off-platform and decentralize its games and content through widespread services, not circumventing console necessarily, but adding new ways to access games. Xbox Cloud Gaming and PC Game Pass are the biggest expansions of this plan.

But what about consoles? Many speculate Xbox will stop making consoles altogether and go the way of SEGA. That isn't likely, though, especially given Microsoft sells billions of dollars worth of games, content, and services on Xbox consoles. These systems are simply too lucrative to cut out entirely--a sentiment I have repeated frequently.

Now we have more affirmations on the health of Microsoft's console gaming segment as it pertains to Xbox Game Pass; in short, consoles aren't going anywhere because they are valuable endpoints for all forms of Microsoft's games business, especially Game Pass, where console users remain entrenched.

In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer said the following about consoles and Game Pass:

I'll start with just how many people are playing games. And I've always thought about Game Pass as just another option for somebody who wants to play. We have many business models for people playing from free to play, buying games, discounted games, Game Pass is an option.

So when I'm looking at Game Pass, I want to make sure the hours that people are playing continue to go up, that new people see this as a way for them to find and build their library of games, and we remain focused on that.

Our biggest areas of growth right now are PC and Cloud, which makes sense, since consoles, all up, are a good business, they're an established business, but they're not really a growing segment in gaming.

So we've got good growth on PC, we've got growth on Cloud, in terms of users and hours. And console continues to be a really healthy part of Game Pass. But there isn't a unique need for Game Pass to be the only way for people to play. If everybody who's a Game Pass subscriber instead decided to buy their games, that's good for the business as well.