Xbox Game Pass seems to be a good way of engaging players in the long run, according to the latest findings shared by Agostino Simonetta of Microsoft’s Xbox team. The data Microsoft has collected from their subscribers suggests that they are far more engaged than non-subscribers.
Furthermore, it seems that signing up for the Game Pass also correlates with subscribers buying games more often, and also that they are far more interested in trying out games that they wouldn’t have otherwise installed.
“People that join the subscription are way more engaged,” explained Simonetta, adding that subscribers are “way more engaged outside the subscription. They go out to stores and buy more games than they did before they joined.”
According to the same set of data, up to 91% of subscribers said that they’ve played games that they otherwise wouldn’t have played, and their choice of game genres shows a 30% difference compared to pre-subscription data. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine these same statistics would transfer to the upcoming PC version of the Xbox Game Pass, at least to some extent.
One of Simonetta’s main takeaways was that, because Game Pass subscribers are more likely to try out niche releases, this means every genre is a potential goldmine: “For us, there’s no genre that is not relevant because we really want to offer a great menu where customers can decide, ‘You know what? I want to try something new’.”
Another point worth noting is that, somewhat unexpectedly, Game Pass subscriptions boost regular game sales: “We’re seeing a massive spike in certain categories, but generally when a title goes into Game Pass, we see an average of six time increase in usage for all the games in the Xbox Game Pass catalogue.”
Time will tell how these findings translate to PC, but we look forward to sharing them with you.
