The process of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard continues to be evaluated around the world, and in Brazil it is no different. Recently, a document from the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) in which the Brazilian government questions Sony on the subject has been publicly released — and some answers are quite interesting, including some about the Xbox Game Pass.
Although the subject of the questionnaire is the impact of the transaction between the creator of Xbox and the publisher of games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, some of the questions touched on another subject: the subscription services market. In the case of Sony, there has recently been a change in the format of the PlayStation Pluswhich now has several plans with different price and benefit categories.
Even offering a catalog with hundreds of games that made PlayStation history, including some of its top exclusives, not even the new PS Plus seems to be a match for MS’s subscription service. After all, Sony itself was quite categorical in admitting that it still it’s gonna take a while enough until someone to be able to face the Game Pass.
Sony says it takes many years and investments to create a true rival for Game PassSource: CADE/Reproduction
When asked about an estimate of the time it would take for a company to enter the digital game distribution market, Sony stated that “it would take several years to a competitor – even with substantial investments – create an effective rival for Game Pass“. The service would be thriving “even without third-party essential/AAA content” by accumulating approximately 10 million subscribers in 2020, the equivalent of “more than $1.2 billion in annual revenue of signatures”.
Also according to the creator of PlayStation, Microsoft’s service almost completely dominates the world market. “Over the past five years, Microsoft’s Game Pass has grown to capture approximately 60-70% of the global subscription services market“, says Sony in the document. In Brazil, this participation would be even greater, with the company saying that “Game Pass represents approximately 70-80% of the market of subscription services for PC”.
It is interesting to note that Sony believes it is possible to rival Game Pass, although the task is complex, expensive and time consuming. The company believes in the possibility, but reinforces the need a lot of time and investment to achieve that objective.
