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Microsoft Explains How Xbox Game Pass Differs from Netflix

Explanations about what makes Xbox Game Pass unique
by Luke Luby on March 25, 2021   

Xbox Games Pass has been having quite a positive few months. According to latest figures, subscribers typically spend more money on games, spend more time playing, and are generally more active with their consoles than non-subscribers. With what the platform allows for, many would believe that it's simply the gaming equivalent of Netflix. While a certain amount of that comparison is true, there are multiple key differences between the two.

In announcing the platform's latest data, Xbox executive Sarah Bond has spoken to Forbes about its past few months. Naturally, the topic of how Games Pass is different from similar services came up. One of the main things; gamers tend to spend more money on the platform than viewers would do on the likes of Netflix. As Ms. Bond explains:

"When you subscribe to a channel that enables you to watch a video, like Netflix, that's kind of the end of the monetization cycle that you have with that piece of content, In gaming it's the opposite: there are items that you can buy in the game, there are extensions you can buy, there's a next franchise you can purchase, there are other genres that you can leap to."

Over the past few months, Xbox Games Pass has continued to grow. According to some reports, the platform currently has 18 million paid subscribers. Its catalog of games also continues to expand; most recently, it got 20 new titles from Bethesda, following Microsoft's purchase of the studio. However, one of the main attractions is that users can get first access to Xbox-focused titles, such as the upcoming Halo Infinite.

In the recent Forbes interview, Sarah Bond noted that the company was pushing its xCloud streaming service. In elaborating on what was behind the push, she said:

"There are 200 million people who buy a console, and there are 3 billion people who play games. Today, a lot of those people don't have the option to play many of these amazing experiences and iconic games that you see. When you really look at what we're doing with Game Pass is we're making that possible by linking that to subscription, and putting our streaming into subscription. We're able to make the economics of all that work."

It looks like the Xbox Games Pass' biggest competitor may be from a service within the same company. Regardless, whether xCloud actually takes off remains to be seen.

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