Austrian retailer delists Xbox One consoles over Xbox Game Pass announcement
Austrian retailer delists Xbox One consoles over Xbox Game Pass announcement
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.Â
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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. Â
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.Â
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. Â
You can join the discussion on the Austrian retailer who has delisted all Xbox One consoles over Microsoft’s updated Game Pass system on the OC3D Forums.Â