OK. Calm down. That's been some big news today. Activision Blizzard is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft, an absolutely massive deal that should see the developer's immense back catalogue, which includes the likes of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Crash Bandicoot and those games about that skateboarding guy, all (hopefully) landing on Game Pass in the not too distant future.
It's a huge announcement, for sure, but Microsoft also let slip that its Game Pass service has hit the 25 million subscriber mark, a figure that's sure to increase quite rapidly as they add some Activision Blizzard titles to the mix in the coming weeks and months.
As Microsoft put it in today's announcement;
"Upon close, we will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog. We also announced today that Game Pass now has more than 25 million subscribers. As always, we look forward to continuing to add more value and more great games to Game Pass."
The most recent official figures for Xbox Game Pass were provided back in January of 2021, during which time the service was said to have 18 million members. So, that's another seven million new subscribers over the course of a year.
Ridiculous, really. Has there ever been a better games subscription than Xbox's Game Pass? It just seems to keep getting better and better.
What are your thoughts on these figures? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source news.xbox.com]
Comments 16
Well the Activision acquisition is absolutely going to make that number increase even faster now. The audiences for those franchises are absolutely huge and imagine knowing that you only need to pay €10 to play the next Call of Duty on Game Pass. A lot of people are going to flock to Xbox now. Insane.
@LtSarge I think there will be a sharp increase to gamepass price now.
Given how Cod is a tentpole in the UK alongside fifa; the chavs are about to defect from PS to xbox (gamepass) in force!
Is this counting free trials?
@Alduin this is what worries me. I enjoy many of the games Xbox provides but they are only a third of console gaming out there. Say this did end Nintendo/Sony as most people here would love. To me that 2/3rds of gaming lost and one of my hobbies weaker for it.
I thought it would be bigger to be honest.
I am sure that this may well encourage a few more to subscribe, I don't think that it will have a 'big' impact. We all thought that the 18m in January would 'explode' after acquiring Bethesda, but a year later, its added 7m more despite MLB21, Outriders, Flight Sim, Halo, FH5 etc all coming.
Maybe when the 'fruits' of these purchases are releasing exclusively on 'Game Pass' (that includes the Xbox Console), then we will see increases. Right now, every Bethesda game can be played on PS - inc Deathloop and soon, Ghostwire: Tokyo so not feeling the impact of MS's purchase. It's when they start bringing 'new' games straight to Game Pass that will see them signing up...
that's why you don't need to increase prices, you just increase the customers, like Amazon's long tail
@Alduin Sony make incredible high quality exclusives because they can make the money back due to having such a large install base - but if that disappears then they won't be able to fund these high quality games which is my concern. At no point in this announcement do I feel like I will be getting more games but it feels like more potential to be losing games.
And I would expect the price of GP to go up for obvious reasons. And when I don't play activision games that price rise will be for no direct gain for me so generally feel like this is a lose lose situation.
Of course there will be a lot of happy people who buy GP & COD games so may potentially save a little money over all.
@Chaudy It's unlikely to be sharp or soon. But it will likely happen.
Netflix is an interesting one. They 'only' raised their lowest tier by $1 but effectively devalued it by not giving it all the features. (480p video and 1 stream)
I'd expect similar in a few years IF Microsoft can increase this to a larger share. 25 million is a lot, but also not enough.
My guess would be
Give it a few years. I'd LOVE to be wrong.
@StonyKL that's a good point if the price goes up because of these acquisitions then the value decreases for those who aren't interested in EA, Bethesda or Activision games. On your point about sony going bust in teh long term then their studios would be sold off so the games would still be around just on a different platform and under a different owner such as giving naughty dog, Guerilla games and insomniac to EA, ubisoft or Square.
Also another possible outcome is sony partner with Microsoft to create a console or ecosystem where all their games can be played on and split the money 50/50
Thats about to become 25 billion. Even newborn babies and dogs will be subscribing now with this deal
@StonyKL anyone who thinks the death of the competition is a good thing is not a true gamer in my opinion. Comeptition breeds creativity. Always should be about games not platform. Platform is your preference to play the games. This mad mentality of "us vs them" serves more purpose and those that advocate it seemed to have lost sight of what it means to be a gamer. If I was to side with a single platform I would miss out on great games like Ori or God of War. My preference would be all games available anywhere so I can choose where to play not what to play.
Has there ever been a better games subscription than Xbox's Game Pass? ,depends on what games you want to play & how much your willing to pay I subscribed to ps now because it had more games I was interested in playing & was only £25 for the year
I'm thinking 25 million is only the beginning.
As long as I can keep using reward points to pay for game pass and play for free, I'm good.
@WCB stack up three years worth and keep it topped off!
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