Everyone’s favourite candid games exec, Phil Spencer, was in the news last week discussing the concerning ‘lack of growth’ in video games.
He’s said it before and he’s not wrong. It’s one of the two big factors behind the industry-wide layoffs we’ve been reporting on (the other being the rapidly rising cost of everything). And for Xbox it’s particularly acute, because it’s in the growth areas where it’s looking to play. In a console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo, a mobile market ruled by Google and Apple, and a PC business controlled by Valve, Xbox has been trying to disrupt things, grow things and widen the market… go to places its rivals are not.
And the results have been mixed. Game Pass has clearly disrupted things, but it’s not transformed the business in the way subscriptions have in movies and music. Streaming isn’t quite there yet. And the Series S, which is designed to be a low-cost entry-level point to a new console generation, hasn’t succeeded in expanding the audience.
