Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Oct. 27, Microsoft game CEO Phil Spencer recently appeared at the Wall Street Journal event to discuss the Xbox business. Phil Spencer admits that although there has been no price increase, Xbox may have no choice in the near future. Microsoft's cloud computing spending in Europe has soared to $800 million because of the chaos in the energy market.

In a new interview, Microsoft game CEO Phil Spencer may hint that the price of Xbox consoles or Xbox Game Pass subscriptions may be about to rise.

In its recent financial report, Microsoft acknowledged that energy costs in Europe could push up the cost of its cloud computing services to as much as $800 million. For services like Xbox, which are provided almost entirely by data centers, whether it's selling digital games, content, or streaming games through services such as Xbox Game Pass, these types of expenses are starting to erode profits.

To that end, Phil Spencer stressed that Microsoft "may not be able" to maintain current prices.

"for running a business, we have to look at corporate returns, corporate costs. We maintain prices on game consoles, maintain prices on games, and our subscriptions. I don't think we can do this forever." Phil Spencer also stressed that the price increase may not occur until after the holiday period this year. "I do think that at some point we will have to raise the prices of certain products, but when we enter this holiday, we think it is really important to maintain prices because consumers are more unstable for a long time."

In the same interview, Phil Spencer said Xbox Game Pass did bring profits to the company, despite a lot of speculation to the contrary. Phil Spencer says Xbox Game Pass accounts for 10% to 15% of total Xbox revenue, while acknowledging that mainframe growth has begun to slow. CTOnews.com learned that during the Microsoft earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satyanadella pointed out that PC Game Pass increased by 159% compared with the same period last year, indicating that Microsoft has an opportunity to build a new game business beyond its traditional game console base.

Microsoft is currently trying to complete its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which the company says will help realize its vision in mobile games. Activision is known for mobile games such as Candy Crush Legend and hearthstone Legend, but recent mobile games such as call of Duty and Diablo: immortality have also brought amazing results to the company. As we all know, Activision has several other mobile games under development based on its stable popular franchise, including World of Warcraft.

There are also rumors that Microsoft is preparing to build its own mobile game store against Apple App Store and Google Play Store, although it remains to be seen how they will bypass platform rules and deliver these experiences to mobile gamers. In this case, the Xbox Game Pass-based mobile subscription service seems entirely feasible, although the price problem still exists because of the global energy market chaos and management fees continue to soar.

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