In recent years we have seen that the Xbox Game Pass service has become one of the pillars of Xbox, and has sometimes even been called “the netflix of video games”, but for an ex-Microsoft executive this could be something negative, since he compares it with Spotify and how “nobody buys songs” anymore.
In an interview with Xbox Expansion Pass, Ed Fries, who was part of the original Xbox launch team and left the company in 2004, was asked what he would do if he was still a part of Microsoft Gaming. Although Fries did not respond directly, he said he was “scared” of the impact Xbox Game Pass could have, as it could become the dominant model like Spotify for the music industry.
The only thing they’re doing that makes me nervous is Game Pass… When Spotify took off it destroyed the music industry… it made people just not buy songs anymore… because why would you? They are all in your subscription service”.
Related: Microsoft will bring Xbox Game Pass to TVs next year.
According to Ed Fries, his biggest concern is that Xbox Game Pass is what Spotify is to the music industry, since he believes that the video game market is more fragile than people think. “I saw the video game industry destroy itself in the 80s. I saw the educational software industry destroy itself in the 90s…they literally destroyed a multi-billion dollar market in a few years”.
Fries says that from a consumer perspective, he loves Xbox Game Pass, just as he loves Spotify in the same way: “It’s a great deal for the consumer, but it’s not necessarily great for the industry”. However, speaking to VGC, MusicBizWorldwide editor Tim Ingham said that what affected the music industry was not Spotify, but piracy.
Spotify didn’t cut music industry profits in half – piracy did. Spotify, and the cloud-based technology it relies on, actually gave music fans a more convenient, legal and monetized alternative to piracy.”
Read more: Jim Ryan: Why PlayStation Plus won’t have PlayStation Studios releases.
Although Ed Fries fears that Xbox Game Pass will become as big as Spotify, a few months ago PlayStation’s Jim Ryan said he didn’t think video game subscription services could have the reach of Spotify or Netflix, so he didn’t consider them. the future for the video game industry.