NBA 2K24 was added to Game Pass, and Microsoft might be up to something with it
However, it will leave the platform in August 2024.
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NBA 2K24 was also recently added to Game Pass, earlier this week, on March 11, and Xbox users can access this game on consoles, but unfortunately, it is only going to be available on the platform until August 2024, as per the official X post (formerly known as Twitter).
The Redmond-based tech giant might be trying something with it, and let us explain.
Microsoft, through Xbox, has been releasing dozens of sports video games lately, with the most recent one being MLB The Show 24, which is going to be released to Xbox Series S, and X, next week, on March 19.
Game Pass also has FIFA, UFC, and Madden that can be accessed with the Ultimate version of the subscription: all of these games are sports games.
It seems Microsoft might be trying to benefit from the interest shown in sports, to boost up its Game Pass numbers. People indeed watch sports: according to Variety, the top 50 MOST-WATCHED PRIMETIME TELECASTS OF 2023, only 3 of them are non-sports related, while the rest of the 47 were all sports events.
But are they playing sports games to the same degree? According to one of its recent blog posts, Microsoft currently racks up an impressive, yet modest 34 million Game Pass subscribers. Why modest? Well, the company only managed to add 9 million subscribers in the last 2 years, compared to, let’s say, 2020 when in just a matter of months, it added more than 5 million subscribers.
So the company might add sports games to the Xbox Game Pass to attract those casual gamers who are not really into games of any sort, except sports video games: what is a better option than letting them have access to an entire collection at once?
We’ll have to see if this really works, and we’ll have to check out the numbers of new Game Pass subscribers in a few months, or maybe a year, to see if indeed this is the point, but Microsoft will nonetheless amass more subscribers in the meantime.
However, with NBA 2K24 leaving Game Pass at the end of August 2024, Microsoft might need to look up for other sports games to add to the platform.
