Xbox Turns To Sports Titles To Combat Dwindling Game Pass Subscriber Sign Ups

Well, this is interesting. As part of our many posts about the cord-cutting trend that has been on the increase over the past decade or so, I have long made the point that the only thing keeping cable television looking even remotely like it did twenty years ago has been live sports. With the advent of more streaming options and partnerships for sporting events, even that last thread has started to unravel, though overly tortured fracturization has kept cable television out of the grave, for now. But the point is that the draw of sports titles was something of a lifeline for traditional cable television.

In an interesting parallel, Xbox has seen a slowdown in new subscribers go its Game Pass product. And it sure is starting to look like part of the plan to combat that slow down is sports titles.

With little warning, Microsoft surprised folks and announced that NBA 2K24 was coming to its video game subscription service, Game Pass. More games being added to Game Pass is always nice for its subscribers, and this latest addition continues a trend that indicates that Microsoft is looking to rely on sports to help keep numbers up and consistent.

With the addition of NBA 2K24 on Xbox Game Pass on March 11, Microsoft has secured another popular sport for the service. NBA 2K offers up professional basketball, MLB The Show provides folks the chance to play pro baseball, FIFA lets you play the biggest soccer game in the world, UFC is there, too, and Madden of course offers football fans a chance to digitally win the Super Bowl with their favorite team. Oh, and cricket is on Game Pass as well.

This makes some inherent sense. One of the things people complain about with sports titles is that each yearly iteration too often comes with little more than roster updates and a gameplay feature here or there. Spending $60-$70 for that year after year gets quite frustrating. But if you can suddenly play the updated titles as part of a larger subscription service like Game Pass, suddenly it all becomes more reasonable.

There are loads of people out there who might only play a few sports games a year. Previously they had to pay $60 a pop for these titles. But with Game Pass they get the next Madden, MLB The Show, etc for one monthly fee and get access to a ton of other games they might want to check out like Forza and Halo. If Microsoft can keep these customers around with steady, consistent sports offerings, it could be a way to make sure the numbers don’t drop too much between big releases or the holidays.

So while Game Pass isn’t in a freefall in the way the cable television market has been, perhaps this is a combination that just makes sense. Sports games get complaints about having to buy them full price every year without a lot of new stuff in them, but with Game Pass it all just comes along for the ride.