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　　At the beginning of this year, Microsoft's $68.7 billion all-cash acquisition of Activision Blizzard shook the entire game industry and the secondary market. It is reported that after the transaction is completed, Microsoft will become the third largest game company in the world, after Tencent and Sony.

　　However, due to the size of the deal, the acquisition is under scrutiny from multiple regulators around the world. Brazil has become the second country after Saudi Arabia to approve the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by the Brazilian Council for Economic Protection (CADE).

　　At the same time, Brazilian officials also disclosed a document containing Xbox-related data to the public. Among them, the revenue of the game subscription system Xbox Game Pass (hereinafter referred to as "XGP"), which Microsoft has been silent about before, was officially disclosed. The document shows that in 2021, Xbox’s worldwide game subscription service revenue will be $2.9 billion, or about 20.8 billion yuan.

　　push the boat

　　According to data previously released by Microsoft, the total revenue of Xbox in the natural year of 2021 is 16.28 billion US dollars, and the software and services revenue is 12.59 billion US dollars. Among them, the $2.9 billion in revenue from XGP accounts for 18% of Microsoft's total Xbox revenue in 2021 and nearly 30% of Xbox software plus services revenue. It's worth noting that this revenue figure only counts the Xbox console side and does not include PC Game Pass revenue.

　　In addition to Microsoft, the relevant data released by CADE also disclosed relevant data on the subscription-based services of the three major game platforms, Sony, Nintendo and EA. However, Sony only disclosed that the revenue share of its subscription services falls in the range of 40% to 50%, and did not disclose the specific revenue.

(The specific income and income proportion of the subscription system of the four game platforms)

　　It is reported that the service scope of XGP includes two platforms, host and PC, as well as three service specifications. In 2017, Phil Spencer, the current head of the Xbox business, launched the game subscription model by referring to the subscription models of online streaming platforms such as Netflix and Spotify.

　　After the announcement of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, upgrading the XGP business has obviously become another business focus of Microsoft's Xbox this year. "With Activision Blizzard's nearly 400 million monthly active players and $3 billion in franchises in 190 countries, this acquisition will make XGP the most compelling and diverse platform in the industry," Microsoft said. .

　　Incorporating Activision Blizzard products into XGP is clearly a key plan for Microsoft. On September 1, Phil Spencer wrote an article pointing out that a number of Activision Blizzard games, including “Overwatch”, “Call of Duty” and “Diablo”, will join Microsoft’s XGP subscription service in the future.

　　As for the gains that Activision Blizzard brings to XGP, investment bank Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter also made a bold prediction. He believes that once Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is completed, XGP's active users will jump to 100 million people.

　　In addition, Microsoft is also further expanding the service scope of XGP and the first-party game library. On June 9, Microsoft announced the "Project Moorcroft" service in a media conference. In this service, XGP users will get a trial version of the game, and participating developers will receive additional financial support from Microsoft. On the 13th of the same month, Microsoft held a game conference for its console Xbox, announcing that first-party new games such as "Starry Sky", "Hollow Knight: Song of Silk", and "Minecraft: Legend" will join XGP on the day of launch.

　　On August 5, Microsoft officially announced the launch of a game membership sharing program called "Xbox Game Pass Ultimate" in some regions. Similar to the NSO Family Plan, a subscription-based service for Nintendo’s console Switch, this plan supports up to 5 users to share an XGP subscription plan.

　　Although Microsoft seldom actively publishes the relevant data of XGP, it is certain that the number of subscriptions has maintained a steady growth trend. The 21st Century Business Herald reporter reviewed the data disclosed by Microsoft in previous years and found that from the third quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2022, the number of XGP subscriptions increased from 18 million to 25 million, an increase of about 38.9%.

　　staking

　　On the other hand, it is obvious that Microsoft's previous decision to acquire Activision Blizzard has brought a lot of threats to its core competitor Sony.

　　The day after the announcement of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Sony’s stock price once fell by 13%, and its market value evaporated by more than 20 billion on the same day. During the review process by Brazil's CADE and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Sony, as one of the respondents, raised objections to the acquisition several times.

　　Among them, Sony has repeatedly raised objections to national censors on the issue of whether "Call of Duty" can still be retained on the PlayStation platform. Sony once said in its reply to CADE that apart from Activision, there is currently no other developer that can create a game IP that competes with "Call of Duty", "and adding it to Microsoft's game library will make other manufacturers unable to compete with it. compete."

　　Regarding Sony's concerns, Microsoft has promised to keep the "Call of Duty" series of games on the PlayStation platform for the next few years. "Given (PlayStation's) market-leading console position, it doesn't make any commercial sense to remove Call of Duty from PlayStation," Microsoft said.

　　In addition to objecting to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Sony is also trying to further leverage Microsoft's XGP market share. In the new generation PS Plus announced by Sony in March, a differentiated membership service similar to XGP was added. In terms of game library, the "Basic Edition" subscription continues the content provided by the original PS Plus, the "Upgrade Edition" adds nearly 400 PS4 and PS5 games, and the "Premium Edition" includes the above-mentioned content and further adds nearly 340 games.

　　21 The reporter noticed that since the beginning of this year, Microsoft and Sony have continuously increased their game subscription system, regardless of cost.

　　In July of this year, Microsoft and Sony released their respective quarterly financial reports, showing that the revenue of the two game businesses has declined to a certain extent. However, neither of the two companies mentioned the specific contribution of the game subscription system that the two sides had focused on adding to game revenue. Instead, the decline in game business revenue was attributed to the decline in first-party and third-party sales. In the data disclosed by CADE this time, it only announced the revenue of XGP, and did not announce the specific profit situation to the public.

　　In addition to competing for market share, what role does the game subscription system play in large game platforms? Zhang Shule, a senior commentator in the game industry, pointed out in an interview with 21 reporters that the game subscription system is necessary for the platform, whether in terms of game IP staking, or in terms of user training.

　　Zhang Shule made a further analysis on how the platform can make good use of subscription-based services, "The core of a game console is not the performance of the console itself, but the massive game library, as well as the strength of exclusive games, first-launch games or highly adaptable games, only a large number of strong games. IP games are only available on their own platforms, or even exclusively, so that gamers have sufficient purchasing power every time the console is iterated or new games are released," he said.