Microsoft Could “Exit the Gaming Business” Without Enough Growth for Game Pass by 2027, as Per Phil Spencer

gamingbolt.com:

Microsoft has recently suffered perhaps its biggest ever leak in the games industry, having accidentally uploaded unredacted documents as part of its legal proceedings with the FTC. In the process, several new details have emerged, including the company’s plans to release a cloud hybrid next-gen Xbox console in 2028, a mid-gen Xbox Series X refresh that’s apparently in the works, a new Xbox controller that will have haptic feedback, Bethesda’s whole slate of upcoming titles, and more.

Something else that’s emerged courtesy of the leaks are statements from Phil Spencer suggesting that without sufficient growth for Game Pass, Microsoft might exit the gaming business entirely. As spotted and reported by Wccftech, during an investigational hearing, when shown an internal Microsoft slide projecting Game Pass growth for the coming years by the FTC (which you can view below), Spencer said that Microsoft was actually expecting much better and much faster growth than what’s shown in the chart, especially when it comes to Game Pass subscriber numbers on cloud and PC, and that if by 2027 the company hasn’t hit its internal projections, it may very well exit the gaming business.

“I do not believe that that is what the future Xbox business would look like,” Spencer said of the slide. “This is a presentation from our devices organization to the gaming leadership team, so this is the view from the team that is chartered with building our hardware on what the future business would look like.

“I can fairly safely say that if we do not make more progress than this off of console, we would exit the gaming business. If this were the outcome, we would — I don’t believe we’d still be in the business.

“A majority of our customers are found off