Here's Some Sense Of How Much Money Microsoft Pays For Day-One Game Pass Launches

gamespot.com:

Microsoft reportedly expects publishers to ask for millions and millions to put their games on Game Pass at launch.

By Eddie Makuch on

The big Xbox document leak has revealed many things that Microsoft never intended to be made public, and one of those is how much money Microsoft might pay a publisher to bring games to Game Pass on launch day. Game Pass getting day-one new releases is a major perk and incentive to encourage people to sign up and stay subscribers, and Microsoft might pay top dollar for this.

Xbox vice president Sarah Bond sent an email to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and Xbox CFO Tim Stuart (among others) detailing what it might cost to secure major third-party games coming to Game Pass on launch day. It's important to note that the prices mentioned below are not actual prices paid by Microsoft, as many of these games never came to Game Pass, nor are they even negotiated or necessarily discussed with any of the companies in question.

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They seem to be only expectations of what a deal might cost from Microsoft's perspective. And even beyond payments, there would surely be a range of other factors at play for a company when deciding whether or not to launch their new game into Game Pass.

With those caveats out of the way, the document mentions what's described as the «expected partner ask» for a range of games in 2022 and early 2023, as well as games already released. The spreadsheet also included columns for «likely to close» and «wow factor.»

For GTA V,