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Report: Microsoft spends $1bn a year on Game Pass titles

Report: Microsoft spends $1bn a year on Game Pass titles

Tech giant Microsoft reportedly spends $1 billion in attracting third-party titles to its Game Pass subscription service. 

That's according to a Bloomberg interview with Xbox president Sarah Bond (pictured), which says that the Big M offers a flat fee of "millions of dollars" to smaller publishers, alongside a portion of subscription revenue. That's on top of exposure to a new audience. 

Bond says that Game Pass is about a steady stream of revenue from different titles rather than focusing on huge hits. 

“There’s a difference between managing a network effect and maximizing the value of a single game,” Bond says, adding that this meant risking undermining its business model before Game Pass came about. "[But] if we don’t do it, someone else is going to.”

Game Pass now has over 34 million subscribers since its 2018 debut. 


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.