Adding Guardians of the Galaxy to Game Pass Could Have Cost Microsoft $10M
An industry analyst has revealed how much Microsoft could have paid to have Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy appear on PC and Xbox Game Pass. It could have been as much as $10 million.
PC/Xbox Game Pass service appealed to gamers so much that Microsoft offering it may soon get some competition from Sony. Average "code eaters" are happy, because they can check out new titles for relatively little money, and this form of game distribution apparently pays off for the Redmond giant, although since the launch of this subscription it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing fees.
Details of the various agreements are usually secret, but it's possible that thanks to David Gibson - an industry analyst who has been studying Square Enix for the last 15 years - we have the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes. Based on discussions with employees of SE and other companies he estimates that Microsoft paid between $5 million and $10 million to have Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in Game Pass.
The amount is quite impressive, even if we take into account that the subject of the alleged transaction was a new game that has received very good reviews. Guardians of the Galaxy debuted on October 26, 2021, and hit PC and Xbox Game Pass services five months later, namely on March 10, 2022.
It is possible that this had to do with the unsatisfactory - at least for Square Enix - sales of the game at launch. And while we've seen time and again that the company has extremely high expectations, it seems that there may be a grain of truth in this story. President of SE, Yosuke Matsuda, mentioned that:
"[...] the sales initiatives we [Square Enix - ed.] began in November 2021 and continued in the following months have resulted in increased demand for the game, so we intend to make further strides to make up for its poor start."
Such a step could have been the release of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy on Microsoft's service. Its subscribers have played 40% more titles than other fans of digital entertainment. This is important because this group is also 50% more likely to spend money on game not available through subscriptions and/or microtransactions. So SE's goal may have been not only to find a new audience for Guardians of the Galaxy but also other games from the company's portfolio.
