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Microsoft: "We have as much a shot to build a subscription service as anybody else"

Microsoft: "We have as much a shot to build a subscription service as anybody else"

Tech and games giant Microsoft says it has a big advantage in the subscription business.

That's according to top bod Satya Nadella, who told Business Insider that the Big M has a good shot in the Netflix-for-games service model due to its existing Xbox business. The CEO said that the fact it produces its own games already will give it an upper hand for its forthcoming Project xCloud subscription service.

"We have as much a shot to build a subscription service as anybody else," Nadella explained.

He continued: "We have a huge back catalogue, which is: We have our own games.

Nadella went on: "We have a structural position in that we have both a console business as well as a PC business, which happens to be bigger than the console business when it comes to gaming."

The Big M boss is right in that Microsoft producing content puts it at an advantage when it comes to the subscription business model, but this isn't an entirely unique position. Electronic Arts has a similar offering and is also pursuing the Netflix-for-games Holy Grail with its own Project Atlas scheme. EA also runs across console and PC.

Project xCloud was announced in October 2018 and is set to be out in some kind of beta this year.

In the past, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that a subscription service is how the Big M reaches two billion users as streaming will massively reduce the barrier to entry for consumers to play games.

PCGamesInsider.biz has in the past written that streaming and subscription services are going to change the games industry forever


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.