For years, it has been debated whether the Xbox Game Pass model is profitable for Microsoft. As of February this year, the service had 34 million active subscribers and the number is expected to grow significantly in the coming months, thanks to the arrival of Activision Blizzard games to its catalog.
Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, is very optimistic about the future of Xbox Game Pass. In recent statements, he said that the service will be a success and will grow significantly over the next decade to many millions of subscribers.
Michael Pachter is confident about the future of Xbox Game Pass
Pachter believes Activision Blizzards games will be critical to the future of Xbox Game Pass and its growth. The analyst thinks the service will surpass the 200 million subscriber barrier within the next 10 years.
"I do think the number is going to be 200 million plus subscribers. Ive been saying that in the next 10 years, I think itll get to 200 million and Ill make that bet with anybody," the analyst stated.
From his perspective, Microsoft still has plenty of alternatives to add subscribers to its already popular service. He believes that the companys latest big purchases will be very important, especially with the future arrival of Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.
Pachter also stressed that Xboxs new strategy is the right one, as he thinks that exclusive releases are no longer the best alternative for the industry. This despite the fact that Nintendo and PlayStation made it work for decades.
From his perspective, what makes the most sense is for Xbox to distribute its games everywhere possible. That way, it will guarantee its profits in the long run. For that reason, he thinks Xbox will only have timed exclusives that will sooner or later make their way to competing consoles.
"Microsofts going to have timed exclusives. Theyre going to put some content on PlayStation and Switch, theyre going to put some content exclusively on Game Pass, and theyre going to tweak it and figure it out," the analyst added.
