Phil Spencer: Game Pass and Players More Important Than Console Sales
During a recent interview for BBC, Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox brand, revealed the company's strategy. He believes Microsoft does not pay attention to console sales results and focuses on taking care of players' needs by developing services such as Xbox Game Pass.
Yesterday, the head the Xbox brand, Phil Spencer, gave an interview to BBC, in which he shared the company's strategy and a few curiosities related to the functioning of gamers during the quarantine. It shows that the company is not focused on console sale results. Instead, its priority is to ensure the satisfaction of the community focused around the brand.
Satisfying the needs of players is to be expressed mainly by developing services and subscriptions. In this case, the Xbox Game Pass is at the forefront, offering access to a constantly growing game database for a small fee. However, this is not the only such offer. It is also worth remembering about Smart Delivery, which will enable us to transfer some titles from Xbox One to Xbox Series X. In addition, we were assured that the current generation of the console will continue to be supported, even after the release of its successor.
"Our strategy is centred around the player, not the device. If this is not the year when a family wants to make a decision to buy a new Xbox, that's OK. Our strategy does not revolve around how many Xboxes I sell this year."
Interestingly, Spencer revealed that Xbox Game Pass subscribers are more likely to buy games. According to him, subscribers buy as much as 40% more games than other people. Exactly the same information was provided in October by ID@Xbox boss Agostino Simonetta. So most probably this is the information that is to emphasize the profitability of the service.
The interview also brought some minor curiosities about the functioning of communities during the pandemic. We learned from it that the quarantine period brought a total of 270 million new friendships made in Xbox Live. Phil Spencer also boasted of Minecraft's results. The game recently recorded its best month in terms of the number of active users in its entire history (a month ago it was also reported that the title sold over 200 million copies).
So as you can see, Microsoft's strategy is to build a community around Xbox by offering attractive and accessible services to the gamers. Time will tell if it was effective.
