Er Game Pass egentlig en rentabel forretningsmodel for henholdsvis Microsoft, men også de udviklere der lader deres spil indgå som en del af abonnementet? Det er det store spørgsmål, der fortsat aktivt debateres blandt fans og udviklere selv.
Spørger du Xbox-chefen Chris Charla skal Game Pass dog ikke umiddelbart ses som en slags erstatning af det egentlige marked, men som en tilføjelse. I et interview med GamesIndustry beskriver han forretningsmodellen således:
"I wouldn't describe it as disruptive, because I don't think it is in the way that like Uber came in and got rid of all the taxis in that industry. It's additive. People still buy a lot of games and they still buy a lot of games on Xbox. They buy games through Game Pass at a discount, which is what they get as members. And so I don't think Game Pass has been a disruptive business model, it's been additive in a really positive way. And we as an industry needs to look at more of those additive business models. A bit like digital distribution, that may have been somewhat disruptive to the retail space, but it was ultimately additive because not every game needed to be of the size to justify being on a disc."
Der er, igen, delte meninger om abonnementsmodeller, særligt med stigende omkostninger ved at udvikle spil. Hvad tror du fremtiden byder på?