Xbox Game Pass is profitable, Phil Spencer says, comprising rough around "10 to 15 percent" of Microsoft's gaming revenue. However, growth is slowing, and price increases may be on the way.

In a Wall Street Journal Live segment reported on by journalist Tom Warren, Spencer shed more light on the subscription service and said that it is currently profitable. However, Game Pass may be reaching a saturation point with users.

"We're seeing incredibly growth on PC... on console I've seen growth slow down, mainly because at some point you've reached everybody on console that wants to subscribe," Spencer said.

Phil Spencer confirms at WSJ Live that Xbox Game Pass is profitable for Microsoft. It's around 15% of gaming revenues for Microsoft

"I think it will stay in that 10-15% of our overall revenue, and it's profitable for us."

1/2

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 26, 2022

Spencer also hinted at possible price increases, whether on Xbox Game Pass or on the consoles themselves. While Sony recently raised prices on the PS5 in many territories, Xbox has held back from following suit.

"I do think at some point we'll have to raise the prices on certain things, but going into this holiday we thought it was important to maintain the prices," Spencer said. "We've held price on our console, we've held price on games... and our subscription. I don't think we'll be able to do that forever. I do think at some point we'll have to raise some prices on certain things..."

Spencer's quotes were part of a wide-ranging discussion, with topics including the future of Call of Duty and the Metaverse. It follows Microsoft's recent earnings report, which saw Xbox report healthy sales despite supply chain issues. Xbox has mostly declined to reveal subscription numbers or revenue from the service, but some outlets have reported that it could be as much as $3 billion.

All of this is against the backdrop of Xbox's ongoing attempt to push its Activision Blizzard deal through various regulatory bodies around the world, most notably the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority [CMA]. If it goes through, it's expected to go through sometime in 2023.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Xbox Game Pass is profitable, Phil Spencer says, comprising rough around "10 to 15 percent" of Microsoft's gaming revenue. However, growth is slowing, and price increases may be on the way.

In a Wall Street Journal Live segment reported on by journalist Tom Warren, Spencer shed more light on the subscription service and said that it is currently profitable. However, Game Pass may be reaching a saturation point with users.

"We're seeing incredibly growth on PC... on console I've seen growth slow down, mainly because at some point you've reached everybody on console that wants to subscribe," Spencer said.

Phil Spencer confirms at WSJ Live that Xbox Game Pass is profitable for Microsoft. It's around 15% of gaming revenues for Microsoft

"I think it will stay in that 10-15% of our overall revenue, and it's profitable for us."

1/2

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 26, 2022

Spencer also hinted at possible price increases, whether on Xbox Game Pass or on the consoles themselves. While Sony recently raised prices on the PS5 in many territories, Xbox has held back from following suit.

"I do think at some point we'll have to raise the prices on certain things, but going into this holiday we thought it was important to maintain the prices," Spencer said. "We've held price on our console, we've held price on games... and our subscription. I don't think we'll be able to do that forever. I do think at some point we'll have to raise some prices on certain things..."

Spencer's quotes were part of a wide-ranging discussion, with topics including the future of Call of Duty and the Metaverse. It follows Microsoft's recent earnings report, which saw Xbox report healthy sales despite supply chain issues. Xbox has mostly declined to reveal subscription numbers or revenue from the service, but some outlets have reported that it could be as much as $3 billion.

All of this is against the backdrop of Xbox's ongoing attempt to push its Activision Blizzard deal through various regulatory bodies around the world, most notably the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority [CMA]. If it goes through, it's expected to go through sometime in 2023.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Callisto Protocol director Glen has addressed his tweet where he proudly celebrated his team crunching towards the finish line on The Callisto Protocol. The director now says it was his fault for putting the team through crunch.

In September, Schofield in a now-deleted Tweet said he was proud of his team working "6-7 days a week" and after hours in order to finish The Callisto Protocol, a new survival horror game from the studio.

"The truth is, I messed up," Schofield says in an interview with Inverse. "We're a small-ish team and we were so good about it through the entire development, but at the end I messed up and we worked more than we should have. That one got away from us," Schofield admits.

The director also says that the backlash that followed his September tweet was "educational' and that he hopes it will serve as a "catalyst for change overall."

Much has been written about the practice of crunch in the video game industry. It is typically defined as when developers are asked to work overtime, in excess, for a concentrated period of time. While previously looked at by some in the industry as a rite of passage, the practice has come under intense scrutiny and is said to be a reason for why the video game industry has such a high-turnover rate among employees.

Schofield promises that crunch is "not a thing that happens in our next project or any future project."

The Callisto Protocol is a spiritual successor of sorts to Dead Space, which Scofield also created. It is set to be released on December 2 and you can read our hands-on preview of the survival horror game on IGN.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Callisto Protocol director Glen has addressed his tweet where he proudly celebrated his team crunching towards the finish line on The Callisto Protocol. The director now says it was his fault for putting the team through crunch.

In September, Schofield in a now-deleted Tweet said he was proud of his team working "6-7 days a week" and after hours in order to finish The Callisto Protocol, a new survival horror game from the studio.

"The truth is, I messed up," Schofield says in an interview with Inverse. "We're a small-ish team and we were so good about it through the entire development, but at the end I messed up and we worked more than we should have. That one got away from us," Schofield admits.

The director also says that the backlash that followed his September tweet was "educational' and that he hopes it will serve as a "catalyst for change overall."

Much has been written about the practice of crunch in the video game industry. It is typically defined as when developers are asked to work overtime, in excess, for a concentrated period of time. While previously looked at by some in the industry as a rite of passage, the practice has come under intense scrutiny and is said to be a reason for why the video game industry has such a high-turnover rate among employees.

Schofield promises that crunch is "not a thing that happens in our next project or any future project."

The Callisto Protocol is a spiritual successor of sorts to Dead Space, which Scofield also created. It is set to be released on December 2 and you can read our hands-on preview of the survival horror game on IGN.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

BioWare has confirmed the Dragon Age: Dreadwolf team has completed its Alpha milestone, meaning that, while there’s still a lot of work and polish to go, the upcoming RPG is now playable from start to finish.

In a post on the Electronic Arts website, General Manager Gary McKay explained that this milestone means the studio is now free to iterate on this playable version of Dreadwolf and is focusing its efforts on visual fidelity and iterating on gameplay features in place.

The team is also using the playable build to assess the game’s narrative cohesion, player progression, and the relationships the main character will build with others in the Dragon Age world.

Alongside all of this, McKay says the BioWare team hopes to be more communicative in the coming months now that the game has taken on a definitive shape.

“The Alpha milestone is an extremely important one for us, but there’s more work to be done,” McKay says. “We also want to continue being transparent with you, our community, and keep you up to date on what we’re crafting. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying our development updates on Dreadwolf this year as we’ll be looking to share more in the future.”

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was first announced in 2018, but wasn’t publicly given a title until earlier this year in June. The title refers to a moniker given to Solas, a party member turned villain from 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, whose story was further explored in that game’s final DLC Trespasser.

More recently, BioWare has been teasing the story through written lore-like codex entries that make reference to long-time figures such as Brother Genitivi, who appeared in Dragon Age: Origins.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077, and covered the entirety of the Dragon Age series back in 2020. It's like, 47 episodes. Listen to it!

BioWare has confirmed the Dragon Age: Dreadwolf team has completed its Alpha milestone, meaning that, while there’s still a lot of work and polish to go, the upcoming RPG is now playable from start to finish.

In a post on the Electronic Arts website, General Manager Gary McKay explained that this milestone means the studio is now free to iterate on this playable version of Dreadwolf and is focusing its efforts on visual fidelity and iterating on gameplay features in place.

The team is also using the playable build to assess the game’s narrative cohesion, player progression, and the relationships the main character will build with others in the Dragon Age world.

Alongside all of this, McKay says the BioWare team hopes to be more communicative in the coming months now that the game has taken on a definitive shape.

“The Alpha milestone is an extremely important one for us, but there’s more work to be done,” McKay says. “We also want to continue being transparent with you, our community, and keep you up to date on what we’re crafting. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying our development updates on Dreadwolf this year as we’ll be looking to share more in the future.”

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was first announced in 2018, but wasn’t publicly given a title until earlier this year in June. The title refers to a moniker given to Solas, a party member turned villain from 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, whose story was further explored in that game’s final DLC Trespasser.

More recently, BioWare has been teasing the story through written lore-like codex entries that make reference to long-time figures such as Brother Genitivi, who appeared in Dragon Age: Origins.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077, and covered the entirety of the Dragon Age series back in 2020. It's like, 47 episodes. Listen to it!

Apple has confirmed it will be equipping future iPhones in the European Union with a USB-C port in order to comply with the EU’s new mandate that all phones sold in its countries must use a USB-C charger.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said the company will "have to comply" with the new mandate, but made it clear it would do so because it had "no choice" in the matter. He also argued charging bricks had largely solved this problem, adding that users throwing out their original Lightning cables will result in a great deal of waste as devices make the switch.

“Governments, you know, get to do what they're gonna do. Obviously we'll have to comply. We have no choice as we do around the world to comply to local laws,” Joswiak says. “But, you know, we think the approach would've been better environmentally and better for our customers to not have a government be that prescriptive.”

The EU’s new law aims to have electronic devices all using USB-C ports by 2024. The goal is to allow people using multiple devices to reliably charge phones, tablets, handheld gaming consoles like the Switch, and other chargeable tech with universal ports and cables, rather than having to use several across different brands. Apple phones have primarily used Lightning cables since their introduction in 2012.

The iPhone 14 launched last month, and IGN called the Pro version "one of the most substantial refreshes" the line of phones had received over the years. For more on that, check out IGN's review.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077.

Apple has confirmed it will be equipping future iPhones in the European Union with a USB-C port in order to comply with the EU’s new mandate that all phones sold in its countries must use a USB-C charger.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said the company will "have to comply" with the new mandate, but made it clear it would do so because it had "no choice" in the matter. He also argued charging bricks had largely solved this problem, adding that users throwing out their original Lightning cables will result in a great deal of waste as devices make the switch.

“Governments, you know, get to do what they're gonna do. Obviously we'll have to comply. We have no choice as we do around the world to comply to local laws,” Joswiak says. “But, you know, we think the approach would've been better environmentally and better for our customers to not have a government be that prescriptive.”

The EU’s new law aims to have electronic devices all using USB-C ports by 2024. The goal is to allow people using multiple devices to reliably charge phones, tablets, handheld gaming consoles like the Switch, and other chargeable tech with universal ports and cables, rather than having to use several across different brands. Apple phones have primarily used Lightning cables since their introduction in 2012.

The iPhone 14 launched last month, and IGN called the Pro version "one of the most substantial refreshes" the line of phones had received over the years. For more on that, check out IGN's review.

Kenneth Shepard is a writer covering games, entertainment, and queerness all around the internet. Find him on Twitter at @shepardcdr, and listen to his biweekly video game retrospective podcast Normandy FM, which is currently covering Cyberpunk 2077.

After a lot of back and forth between Xbox and Sony about Call of Duty's availability on other systems should the upcoming Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard go through, Xbox head Phil Spencer has just tossed another piece of hardware into the mix: the Nintendo Switch.

Per The Verge's Tom Warren, Spencer said today at WSJ Live that not only will Call of Duty be available on PlayStation, but he also wants to bring it to Nintendo's hybrid device.

"Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation. I'd love to see it on the Switch, I'd love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat Call of Duty like Minecraft."

Minecraft, for context, is available on an absurd number of platforms spanning PC and Mac, iOS and Android and Windows Phone, multiple Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo systems, Apple TV, Raspberry Pi, and more. At the moment, Call of Duty has only made it to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and the planned acquisition has had multiple parties questioning whether PlayStation may eventually be shuffled out of the mix.

Last we heard, Sony's Jim Ryan was alleging that Microsoft had "only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends," calling the proposal "inadequate on many levels."

On Spencer's end, he's repeated that while Call of Duty will come to Game Pass, he still intends for it to come to PlayStation on the same day - but he's stopped short of saying how long that will last, or whether Xbox owners might not get other special perks over other platforms.

Still, the throughline in Spencer's past statements has been that Xbox's goal is to bring games to as many people as possible on as many platforms as possible. He mentioned this again in the second half of his quote at WSJ Live, emphasizing what the goal of the Activision Blizzard deal was for Xbox:

"This opportunity [the acquisition] is really about mobile for us," he said. "When you think about three billion people playing video games, there's only about 200 million households on console."

Activision Blizzard's mobile arm, King, has been pointed out before as the primary reason for the acquisition, including with it major mobile franchises like Candy Crush. It's a big get for a company like Xbox, which currently doesn't have much presence in the mobile space.

The acquisition battle has been especially weird lately as multiple governments begin to investigate the massive acquisition for potential antitrust violations. Xbox recently launched a website to tell the public what it thinks are the benefits of the buyout. Meanwhile, Sony has been slamming the deal, saying it has "major negative implications for gamers" and urging governments to look into it.

As for Call of Duty on the Switch? Nintendo's largely stayed out of the back and forth thus far, though back in 2019 there were rumors of Xbox Live on Switch, and in 2021 more rumors hinted that Xbox Game Pass would similarly show up. While that never materialized, we did get Cuphead and Ori and the Blind Forest, previously Xbox exclusives. Maybe talks haven't stalled out after all.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

After a lot of back and forth between Xbox and Sony about Call of Duty's availability on other systems should the upcoming Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard go through, Xbox head Phil Spencer has just tossed another piece of hardware into the mix: the Nintendo Switch.

Per The Verge's Tom Warren, Spencer said today at WSJ Live that not only will Call of Duty be available on PlayStation, but he also wants to bring it to Nintendo's hybrid device.

"Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation. I'd love to see it on the Switch, I'd love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat Call of Duty like Minecraft."

Minecraft, for context, is available on an absurd number of platforms spanning PC and Mac, iOS and Android and Windows Phone, multiple Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo systems, Apple TV, Raspberry Pi, and more. At the moment, Call of Duty has only made it to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and the planned acquisition has had multiple parties questioning whether PlayStation may eventually be shuffled out of the mix.

Last we heard, Sony's Jim Ryan was alleging that Microsoft had "only offered for Call of Duty to remain on PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends," calling the proposal "inadequate on many levels."

On Spencer's end, he's repeated that while Call of Duty will come to Game Pass, he still intends for it to come to PlayStation on the same day - but he's stopped short of saying how long that will last, or whether Xbox owners might not get other special perks over other platforms.

Still, the throughline in Spencer's past statements has been that Xbox's goal is to bring games to as many people as possible on as many platforms as possible. He mentioned this again in the second half of his quote at WSJ Live, emphasizing what the goal of the Activision Blizzard deal was for Xbox:

"This opportunity [the acquisition] is really about mobile for us," he said. "When you think about three billion people playing video games, there's only about 200 million households on console."

Activision Blizzard's mobile arm, King, has been pointed out before as the primary reason for the acquisition, including with it major mobile franchises like Candy Crush. It's a big get for a company like Xbox, which currently doesn't have much presence in the mobile space.

The acquisition battle has been especially weird lately as multiple governments begin to investigate the massive acquisition for potential antitrust violations. Xbox recently launched a website to tell the public what it thinks are the benefits of the buyout. Meanwhile, Sony has been slamming the deal, saying it has "major negative implications for gamers" and urging governments to look into it.

As for Call of Duty on the Switch? Nintendo's largely stayed out of the back and forth thus far, though back in 2019 there were rumors of Xbox Live on Switch, and in 2021 more rumors hinted that Xbox Game Pass would similarly show up. While that never materialized, we did get Cuphead and Ori and the Blind Forest, previously Xbox exclusives. Maybe talks haven't stalled out after all.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.