A journalist and market data expert has suggested that Game Pass launches help boost PS5 game sales more than they help Xbox. Christopher Dring, formerly of GameIndustry.biz, revealed during a Q&A session with Install Base Forum that games launching on Microsoft’s subscription service can lose up to 80% of their expected premium sales on Xbox.
How Game Pass can boost game sales on PS5
According to Dring, multiplatform games that launch on Game Pass result in a player spike on Xbox, which can have “a strong impact on sales on PlayStation.”
“Anecdotally, games that are in Game Pass can expect to lose around 80% of its expected premium sales on Xbox,” Dring said, adding that this percentage is lower in case of major games. “Look at how low Hellblade 2 charted. Or where Indiana Jones came. Or even Starfield. Game Pass clearly hurt sales of those titles on Xbox.”
It was recently revealed by GameFile that Call of Duty games now cost nearly a billion dollars to develop. In the U.S. alone, PS5 and PS4 accounted for a massive 82% of Black Ops 6‘s sales.
It’s no surprise, then, that analysts have long suggested that Microsoft needs revenue from PlayStation to keep its Game Pass dream alive.
