As part of Microsoft’s Xbox business update on Thursday, the company announced that Game Pass has reached a new milestone of 34 million subscribers. Not only that, but Microsoft confirmed that Game Pass will not come to PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch, as some thought it might.
Xbox’s Matt Booty said during the event that “Game Pass will only be available on Xbox.” This might sound obvious, but there was reason to believe this could happen.
In December, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart said Microsoft’s mission is to bring Xbox Game Pass to every screen that can play games, including PlayStation and Nintendo. However, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer later clarified that Microsoft has “no plans” to bring Game Pass to rival platforms.
Spencer has been saying for years that he wants to bring Game Pass to more platforms. In 2018, Spencer said Microsoft’s “longer-term view” was to bring Game Pass to “every device.”
There is a possibility that Microsoft does indeed want Game Pass on other devices but platform-holders are not receptive to that idea. Sony and Nintendo have not commented publicly with their thoughts on having Game Pass come to their consoles.
Game Pass is a paradigm shift for Xbox. Every game that Microsoft itself makes comes to Game Pass on day one, and that includes big new releases like Starfield and possibly Call of Duty following Microsoft’s buyout of Activision Blizzard. A Game Pass Ultimate membership also grants access to cloud streaming, which means you can play Starfield on your phone without a console attached (whether or not that’s a good experience is another question).
In September, all Xbox Live Gold members were automatically converted to Game Pass Core, and this no doubt led to a big growth in Game Pass’s subscription numbers.
One of the next big Game Pass releases is Diablo IV, which hits the catalog on March 28. It’s the first title from Activision Blizzard headed to the catalog following Microsoft’s $74.5 billion acquisition of the company.
