Austrian retailer delists Xbox One consoles over Xbox Game Pass announcement

Austrian retailer delists Xbox One consoles over Xbox Game Pass announcement

Austrian retailer delists Xbox One consoles over Xbox Game Pass announcement

Earlier this week Microsoft made a surprise announcement, revealing that all of their upcoming first-party titles would be coming for free to users of the Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service that costs £7.99 per month. This service will allow gamers to play upcoming Halo, Forza, Gears of War and other titles from Microsoft Studios at launch at a low price. 

In the games retail market this news didn’t go down well, being seen as a way for Microsoft to capitalise on their games exclusively, giving no reason for gamers to purchase them at retailers. This change has aggravated the Austrian retailer gameware.at enough to delist all Xbox One consoles from their online store. 

In a statement to mediabiz.de, the retailer stated that hardware sales do not deliver much profit to retailers and questions why retailers should sell their consoles if Microsoft is hoarding all of the profit from software sales for themselves. Gaming retailers generate most of their profits from software sales, not hardware, so it is easy to see why they are not happy with Microsoft’s decision. 

 

Austrian retailer delists Xbox One consoles over Xbox Game Pass announcement  

This year Microsoft plans to release Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3 on the Xbox Game Pass service on day-1, offering gamers a lot of value. Pre-orders for Sea of Thieves are currently around £42 on Amazon, which is equivalent to over five months of access to Xbox’s Game Pass service, which is more time than what most gamers will put into a single title.  

Microsoft has always wanted an online focus on their Xbox One platform, harkening back to the console’s original announcement where the console would be “always online” and games trading would be impossible. Microsoft did backtrack on this, but their updated Game Pass system will undoubtedly push people online and away from retail copies of Microsoft-made games. 

This move will also have an impact on the profitable used game market, which only serves to generate money for retailers. Microsoft’s new game pass prevent a lot of gamers from buying retail copies of Microsoft Studio titles, in turn avoiding potential trade-ins and resales.   

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