In a new report, it was revealed that Microsoft’s popular subscription server Xbox Game Pass subscriber growth target has fallen short yet again.
Journalist Stephen Totilo recently shared in a new report that the subscriber growth for the Xbox Game Pass service has not reached its target yet again. This is the second time that this has happened after it exceeded its target two years ago. This was revealed in a new financial filing that was tied to CEO Satya Nadella’s pay.
Microsoft has recently planned to target a 73 percent growth rate for its subscription service for its fiscal year which would end on June 30, 2022. When the filing was revealed, the service only reached 28 percent growth, which was really low and now this is the second miss. Note that Microsoft has not shared these details with the public, but the filing that the Xbox division has delivered said that there were “over 25 million Game Pass subscriptions.”
Microsoft’s Head Phil Spencer recently said in an interview at a Wall Street Journal tech conference that Xbox Game Pass was profitable but “limited.” Media outlet The Verge reported that Spencer revealed that the subscriber service’s growth was incredible on PC but has slowed down on the console. He said that it has already come to a point where it has already reached everyone on the console that wants to subscribe. There were only a few new players who wanted to subscribe to the service this time around.
There have been very few major releases too, which has also contributed to the slowing down of Xbox Game Pass’ growth. Compared to PlayStation and Nintendo, Xbox only released very few big games.
It is interesting to note that Xbox Game Pass is the only gaming-related performance target in the executive pay package. If the target misses, then the CEO’s payout is lower than initially planned.