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Gears 5 outsells Gears of War 4 despite being part of Game Pass

Gears 5 outsells Gears of War 4 despite being part of Game Pass

Despite being available as part of Xbox's Game Pass subscription service, Gears 5 has outsold the franchise’s previous title Gears of War 4.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Microsoft’s vice president of gaming Phil Spencer (pictured) explained that the company wanted consumers to have the choice of buying the game as opposed to it just being available on Game Pass.

“Gears 5 sold well for us. It sold better than Gears 4. And we feel good about it. If people want to make the choice of buying Gears, that's an option we want to give them. I'm not trying to funnel everybody who wants to play Gears into the subscription,” said Spencer.

“It's about giving gamers choice. Certain players will make the decision as part of Game Pass that they'll either want to start to subscribe, or they're already a subscriber and they stay subscribed.”

Overall, spencer is happy with how Gears 5 has performed. Xbox Game Studios has taken feedback to further improve the Gears experience down the line.

Spencer added: “Hey, how do I judge if Gears 5 has been a success? What I will say is we're incredibly happy with Gears 5.

“It did review well. It has a tonne of players. We're taking feedback on certain things. The economy - I see the feedback on the game as well.

“But I thought it was a great release in the Gears franchise and it drove a tonne of players who wanted to go play, and that's awesome.”

Within its first week, Gears 5 managed to attract three million players - reportedly, Gears 5 also saw the most successful PC Xbox Game Pass launch. The PC version of the subscription service was launched in May 2019.

Gears 5 is currently available as part of Project xCloud, the streaming service - currently in preview - is getting an extra 50 games including Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.