Earlier this week, we finally got an insight into just how much Microsoft earns from its Xbox Game Pass service thanks to some data coming out of Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (or CADE, if you’re fancy). Per figures gleaned from the data, it was revealed that Xbox Game Pass generated $2.9 billion from consoles in 2021 (not including Xbox Game Pass for PC).
But that may have raised the question about how much Microsoft spends on games as it adds them to the service. We know Microsoft’s Chris Charla has admitted to paying developers and publishers “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Game Pass license fees since the subscription service first came to our consoles, back in 2017. But we’ve never really had a specific figure to attach to Xbox Game Pass – or even Microsoft’s subscription service rival, PS Plus.
That’s changed now, though. Over on Twitter, Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach posted a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Snail Games USA – who you may recognise as the parent company of Studio Wildcard, the developer behind Ark: Survival Evolved. And it shows a fascinating insight into how much platform holders are paying to feature titles in their monthly line-ups and services.