Although Xbox Game Pass usually gets all the plaudits for its incredible value, questions are often thrown around about its ability to be sustainable. While Phil Spencer recently told the world that Game Pass is indeed profitable, the service seems to be growing at a slower pace than Microsoft had hoped for.
In a new financial filing, via Axios, Microsoft has revealed how its Game Pass growth has fallen quite a bit shorter than the company wanted. To sum things up, Microsoft set a huge goal of growing Game Pass by 73% in the fiscal year leading up to June 30, 2022, yet it only managed 28% growth. This was part of a performance incentive for Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, as well as other executives within the company.
While that still means the service expanded its user base in the past year, that number is quite a way off Microsoft's target. Still, 28% seems steady to us, and 73% looks like a pretty ludicrous number considering that Game Pass only grew by 37% the year prior.
Microsoft will be hoping that 2023 leads to a stronger year for the service, and we have every reason to believe that should be the case. 2022 has been an especially quiet year for Xbox Game Studios, whose titles launch day one on Game Pass and help bolster the overall library.
We know of Redfall, Starfield, Forza Motorsport and Minecraft Legends launching in the first half of next year (hopefully!), and there's a lot more in Xbox's pipeline beyond that. Maybe scale back those targets a bit next year, Microsoft?