Xbox Game Pass: Microsoft Will Continue To Offer Free Games from Day One, Analyst Says

The Research Director Piers Harding-Rolls thinks that some types of games are very likely to continue to make their way into Xbox Game Pass on launch day.

For quite some time, there has been increasing speculation that Sony is working on a product that competes with the Xbox Game Pass. While it is not known whether it will actually be some kind of PlayStation Game Pass or whether the company will put together a combination offer, remains to be seen.

Over the past few months, there have been several arguments about the long-term viability of subscription offers of this type. But for the developers of certain games, the Day One launch in Xbox Game Pass can minimize the risk. According to Piers Harding-Rolls, Research Director at Ampere Analysis, this is especially true for new IPs and projects that are unlikely to generate high sales.

“Those titles that are not top-tier in sales volume terms or that are based on new IP — i.e., do not have an established audience — could be solid candidates for day one releases,” said Harding-Rolls in an interview to Inverse site.

If it later turns out that the games meet with great interest, there is still the possibility of getting them back from the Game Pass. In addition, the games in the subscription offer can be monetized at any time with additional content.

“For some titles, launching day one into Game Pass is an increasingly risk-averse strategy: It secures a payment upfront, offers an engaged audience of over 18 million subscribers that can still be monetized through in-game spending, and there is the flexibility of removing the title to boost premium sales at a later date if required,” says Harding-Rolls.

Harding-Rolls said it would be worth paying large sums of money upfront from Microsoft’s perspective to secure Game Pass releases of key games as the company is focused on the long-term growth of the service rather than short-term profits.

“Microsoft is not thinking about short-term profitability as it continues its aggressive content and subscriber acquisition path for Game Pass. Competitively, the optics of this move are strong, and it keeps the Game Pass momentum building.”

What do you think about the statements of the analyst?