Microsoft's Ultimate Plan for This $200 Billion Industry
With a market cap topping $1 trillion, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has seemingly regained its market-darling status. One strategic shift that has driven the software company's growth has been the move from single product sales to subscriptions, whether in its enterprise software or its consumer-focused console gaming division. The next step in Microsoft's plan falls in that latter category, where it's aiming to offer Xbox owners a subscription with so much value that the brewing next-generation console war may be over before it really begins.
During the pandemic, it's really not a surprise that people are looking for a distraction and video games provide a way to escape the current reality. To help subscribers have more games to escape into, Microsoft developed Xbox Game Pass.
Launched in 2017, Game Pass allowed subscribers to download and play more than 100 games for a single monthly $9.99 fee. By 2019, Microsoft introduced Game Pass Ultimate for $14.99, combining access to those games with an account for Xbox Live Gold, which lets subscribers play multiplayer games online.
Source Fool.com
