Microsoft has admitted that Game Pass is “killing” game sales

Back in 2018, the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, assured that the inclusion of the game in the Game Pass service has a positive effect on its sales (however strange this statement may seem). But it took more than four years for Microsoft to finally admit that wasn’t quite the case, to say the least.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, the previous report of the British antimonopoly committee Competition and Markets Authority on Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, among other things, contains information from Microsoft regarding the negative impact of having a game in Game Pass on its sales.

As the CMA noted: “Microsoft… submitted that its internal analysis shows a [redacted] percent decline in base game sales 12 months following their addition to Game Pass.”

Also in the report, there is information that Activision has a negative attitude to the placement of its games in subscription services on any platform because it believes that this “severely cannibalises B2P [buy-to-play] sales, particularly in the case of newer releases.”.

Well, it seems that after this information is released, Microsoft will have a harder time convincing other developers to include their games in its Game Pass service.