2023 has been a historic year for the world of video games for multiple reasons, many of them interrelated. Without a doubt, the great news is the purchase of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft, the largest in the history of video games with a disbursement of 69,000 million dollars.
The commitment of the company led by Satya Nadella cannot be understood without another of the elements that have been definitively consolidated in 2023: cloud gaming and the subscription model that the company has implemented with GamePassa service through which you can play hundreds of console and computer titles in exchange for a monthly payment and that works on dozens of devices, from televisions to computers.
Increasingly, the world of video games is betting on ways that allow us to avoid the entry barrier that the expense of a high-performance computer or a console can mean for many people.
As has happened with the world of series and movies, More and more users are more comfortable with this subscription modelin which, for a modest monthly payment, it allows you to enjoy a wide catalog on demand and does not have the obligation of amortizing the cost of a console.
However, it is not a bed of roses. In its 2023 annual report, the consulting firm Newzoo has set as one of the challenges for next year that these types of models have, baptized as gaming as a service, is to prove that they can be sustainable over time.Microsoft It is allocating more than a billion dollars annually to secure third-party titles for the platform, an effort only sustainable if user growth is prolonged.