Xbox Live, prices and Xbox Game Pass: what is Microsoft's strategy? Speak Daniel Ahmad
The announcement of a price increase for the service has in fact first unleashed protests from gamers, while the rapid reverse then staged by the team was rather unsettling. In fact, in less than a day, Microsoft has decided to cancel the price increase of Xbox Live and announced the possibility of dedicating oneself to free to play for free, even in the case of online multiplayer. To analyze the story, the well-known analyst of Niko Partners Daniel Ahmad intervened from his official Twitter account. Through a long sequence of tweets, the latter expressed his own interpretation of the Xbox action.
Specifically, the analyst motivated Microsoft's action as a one-time strategy to encourage the passage of users in the direction of a subscription to Xbox Game Pass. Raising the price of Xbox Live would have made the second service's convenience more evident. Game Pass - continues Ahmad - already has over 15 million users, but most of these are also console users: Microsoft would instead like to overcome the constraints of green-crossed hardware to expand the target audience of Xbox Game Pass >
Two obstacles would, however, slow down the process: the widespread unavailability of cloud technology and the absence of a continuous flow and cost of AAAs entering the catalog at Day One. In the short term, Microsoft would like to lead all console users to Game Pass, while in the long run it would like to consolidate the subscription between users who use cheap hardware (reason why - according to Ahmad - there is Xbox Series S) or without consoles. . Given the costs associated with Xbox Game Pass, it would be critical for Redmond to expand the audience base as much as possible.
At the moment, there would be millions of Xbox Live subscribers, but not Game Pass: The Xbox Live price increase was aimed at making the Game Pass Ultimate option more attractive. Furthermore, according to Ahmad, the choice to review the decision demonstrates Microsoft's willingness to avoid the disappointment of the community, also mitigated with the announcement of the free free to play, already in the pipeline for some time and made known for the occasion, the analyst reports. Finally, Ahmad predicts that Microsoft will continue to "focus on Game Pass from now on, and on acquiring IPs for the service".
