Why Xbox should stop releasing games simultaneously on PC and console?

It has been a couple of years since Xbox had an exclusive game on its consoles, which has affected its sales. The company is also keen on growing Game Pass subscribers, and the console maker promised to deliver day-one availability of AAA games on both console and PC. However, the strategy backfired, as it not only failed to stop the declining console sales but also resulted in decreasing game revenue.

The consoles are usually sold on low profit/high volume and rely on earning revenue from the games. Thus, fans believe stopping day-one releases on PC should help elevate console sales again. Let's discuss how that may benefit Xbox.

Note: This is an opinion-based article and mostly reflects the writer's opinions.

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The continuous decline in Xbox console sales

The Xbox Series S (Image via Xbox)

Microsoft's recent FY24 Q3 earnings report shows that the sales of Xbox consoles are down by 30%. They were already down 30% even before the report was made public, which fueled rumors that the company might be exiting the console business.

X user @keenansComments shared sales splits for various platforms, where Xbox stood at a mere 9% while Switch and PlayStation stood at 51% and 40% respectively. They stated their concerns regarding the continuous decline of Xbox's market share, believing that to be the reason why multiple Final Fantasy titles are not on Xbox.

Another user, @dave_warhammer, blamed the lack of exclusive games as the reason behind the declining sales, and some users agreed.

To reassure fans, Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, posted on X that the company would reveal more about Xbox's future in an upcoming business update.

Fans blame the lack of games and development for the declining sales of the Xbox consoles, and they are probably right. Sony and Nintendo are all about developing first-party titles available only on their consoles, which are so good that users are forced to buy their consoles to play them.

Compared to them, Xbox has no exclusive games, and since all of its games are also available on PC, users can simply play them there. Essentially, a user has no incentive to buy Xbox over PlayStation or Nintendo Switch.

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The Game Pass subscription on PC is not helping the situation

Currently, Game Pass is hurting console sales (Image via Xbox)

Console games don't enjoy the same level of discounts PC users do on Steam or Epic Games Store, and players usually have to pay the full price for the game. The Xbox Game Pass subscription provided a solution to that by delivering popular titles for free on day 1, so long as you are on the subscription. It was a brilliant strategy that, unfortunately, didn't pan out as well as the company hoped it would.

The Xbox Game Pass program was expanded to PC to add more subscribers, but the console maker once again failed to get its desired subscriber numbers. Currently, Game Pass has 34 million subscribers, but according to Xbox's documents submitted at court back in FY 2022, the company needs at least 110 million subscribers by 2030 to remain profitable.

It's almost the end of June 2024 currently, and Xbox has achieved only one-third of that target. From 2022 to 2024, the console maker added 9 million subscribers and if this slow adoption rate continues, it will never reach its target.

Releasing high-budget AAA games on day one to Game Pass' smaller subscribers is not profitable. This has probably drastically affected the revenue of Xbox's internal studios, leading to three first-party studios being shut down on May 7, 2024.

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Xbox must stop day-one releases of its games on PC

Game Pass should be limited to consoles (Image via Xbox)

Whatever Xbox tried has failed to bring the necessary change needed to boost its sales and grab more market share from Sony and Nintendo. So, it is high time the company listens to its fans and brings back exclusive games.

Since this is a highly competitive market, Xbox needs exclusive games to attract users and gain more market shares. It doesn't have to be a permanent exclusive either. The company just needs to adopt Sony's strategy of timed exclusives of two years, eventually releasing them to PCs.

It has the potential to increase console sales, so long as they are not on Game Pass. As it is, Game Pass is hurting Xbox sales more than it is helping. A more profitable tactic would be to make Game Pass exclusive to the console. If gamers want to play the latest games for cheap, an Xbox console would be the only way forward.