Microsoft’s ultimate plan with Game Pass is to bring the subscription service to “every screen” it possibly can—including console rivals PlayStation and Nintendo.
Game Pass is currently available on Xbox consoles and Windows, providing a vast back catalog of games to play for no additional fee as well as the benefit of being able to play Microsoft’s first-party titles immediately upon release.
Although Microsoft has traditionally lagged behind Sony and Nintendo in the console wars, it appears this does not concern the company at all and, instead, it’s actually keen on working with its rivals in the future to make Game Pass available to all.
As reported by GameSpot, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart said at the Wells Fargo TMT Summit that a “change of strategy” has been adopted and the intention is to bring Game Pass to “every screen that can play games”—providing smart TVs and mobile devices as examples, as well as PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.
Game Pass is a huge focus for Microsoft and, along with first-party games and advertising, are areas that the company wants to expand into significantly in the future—and the recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard has provided a jumpstart to those ambitions.
Though Microsoft is seemingly open to working closely with Sony and Nintendo to bring Game Pass to other consoles, it’s not clear whether the feeling is mutual. Sony has its own subscription service, PlayStation Plus, while Nintendo has a similar subscription service that gives access to game expansions and a backlog of titles from the likes of Nintendo 64, Game Boy, and Sega Mega Drive.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard does mean that the rival companies will have to work together in some capacity in the future if they want to continue to receive Call of Duty titles, which Microsoft has vowed not to make exclusive, and the threat of potentially having games not release on their platforms could be telling.
PlayStation players likely didn’t feel the hit of not being able to play Starfield as much this year with the likes of Spider-Man 2 to keep them occupied, though there’s a long list of future titles that, as it stands, are expected to be Microsoft exclusives—including Fable, Elder Scrolls 6 and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
