Xbox CEO says everything on Game Pass should also be available for purchase

Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer reassures fans that the titles on Xbox Game Pass should also continue to be made available for purchase.

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Microsoft's core business is centered around software and services, and Xbox Game Pass combines both into one monthly subscription. But Game Pass offers a unique kind of interference to traditional models: the "cannibalism" of game sales, that is to say consumers may buy a month of a lower-cost subscription for $20 instead of paying $70 for a new game. This effect has been documented in the FTC v Microsoft trial.

In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer gives an update on Microsoft's ethos around Game Pass as it pertains to this effect. Following the $70 billion Activision merger, Microsoft basically wants to maximize its chances of making money on video games. That means the full gamut: game sales, subscriptions/streaming, breaking exclusivity on its franchises and selling them on Sony and Nintendo platforms.

This approach aims to do it all in the hopes of absorbing as much revenue and profit as possible. That also means no real exclusivity at least when it comes to delivery methods; everything on Game Pass should also be sold in a store.

That's what Spencer reiterated in the interview:

"For me, I look at Game Pass as a healthy option for certain people. It's not for everybody. If you play one or two games a year, Game Pass probably isn't the right business model for you, you should just buy those two games, and that would make total sense.

"But I want you to have the choice. So we remain focused on everything that's on Game Pass is also available to buy. We're making those games available to buy in more places. And I look at the overall hours of people who are playing on Xbox, playing our games, and that's a number that continues to grow fairly substantially, and that's really the metric I think about for success.

"And Game Pass has been an important part of that, but I don't try to solve for Game Pass specifically on its own. It's kind of part of the equation for Xbox finding new players."

However there's another reason why Microsoft is taking this particular route with Game Pass: The company simply does not want to violate existing merger agreements, nor does it want to give the FTC more ammunition in its internal administrative lawsuit against the ABK merger.

One of the biggest arguments against the Microsoft-Activision merger was that post-merger, Microsoft could make big games like Call of Duty exclusive to its platform or even the Xbox Game Pass service.