Recently revealed court documents not only leaked Microsoft’s console plans and game lineups in recent years, but also some “shocking” comments from Xbox President Phil Spencer, who said that if Game Pass subscriptions don’t grow enough by 2027, Microsoft will get out of the gaming business. will get out of the gaming business.
FTC attorney James Weingarten displayed the following internal Xbox Game Pass slide in front of Spencer, questioning whether he agreed with the prediction that there are more than 100 million members of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service between FY2029 and FY2030, largely from a surge of users in the PC and cloud markets.
Spencer made it clear that if this prediction turns out to be true, then Microsoft will get out of the gaming business. Microsoft needs the light green and blue parts of the chart (PC and cloud) to grow considerably by 2027, and if not, then it will get out of the gaming business.
He said, “I don’t believe this is what the Xbox business will look like in the future. This is a presentation that our devices organization made to the gaming leadership team, so this is how our team that’s responsible for building the hardware sees the future of the business.
I can say with certainty that if we don’t make more progress in the console space, we’re going to get out of the gaming industry. If that turns out to be the case, I don’t believe we’ll still be in the business.
I expect that by 2030, the majority of our customers will come from our own hardware. So when you ask me if I agree that the lighter greens and blues on this chart have to be bigger, sooner. I would say that by FY26 or FY27, we should be at that level, or we’re going to have to make different decisions about the business.”
Microsoft is forecasting sales of 56-59 million Xbox Series consoles by 2027, a number roughly comparable to the Xbox One.