Microsoft and Sony’s spend to get games on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus might surprise you

Earlier this week, we finally got an insight into just how much Microsoft earns from its Xbox Game Pass service thanks to some data coming out of Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (or CADE, if you’re fancy). Per figures gleaned from the data, it was revealed that Xbox Game Pass generated $2.9 billion from consoles in 2021 (not including Xbox Game Pass for PC).

But that may have raised the question about how much Microsoft spends on games as it adds them to the service. We know Microsoft’s Chris Charla has admitted to paying developers and publishers “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Game Pass license fees since the subscription service first came to our consoles, back in 2017. But we’ve never really had a specific figure to attach to Xbox Game Pass – or even Microsoft’s subscription service rival, PS Plus.

That’s changed now, though. Over on Twitter, Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach posted a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Snail Games USA – who you may recognise as the parent company of Studio Wildcard, the developer behind Ark: Survival Evolved. And it shows a fascinating insight into how much platform holders are paying to feature titles in their monthly line-ups and services.

We know that Ark hit PlayStation Plus for members to claim for five weeks between March 1 to April 4, and per the information above, we know that Sony secured the game for $3.5 million in that timeframe.

Microsoft, meanwhile, paid slightly less – $2.5 million to feature the game on it on Game Pass for the first half of 2022, and then a further $2.3 million to bring ARK 2 to the service when it launches in 2023.

If you’re wondering why Microsoft paid less, it’s because once the game leaves Game Pass, players will have to pay for it again – even if they have a Game Pass membership. PlayStation Plus Essential subs will be able to play it as long as they keep their subscription, meaning (potentially) less sales overall on that platform for the foreseeable. It seems that discrepancy is worth $1 million to Snail Games.

This is the first time a developer or platform holder has given us a figure for PS Plus and Game Pass fees (intentionally or not), and it’s quite telling: will another company knowing that Microsoft offered Snail Games $2.3 million for ARK 2 alter how decisions are made in the future? Possibly.

It’s worth mentioning that Ark: Survival Evolved, and its as-yet-unreleased sequel, could be outliers for the services and how much money trades hands between publishers and Sony/Microsoft, too, and other agreements with studios and publishers could be much higher – or, indeed, much lower.