Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was also added to Xbox Game Pass on March 10. It received several awards at the end of 2021, with most of the praise being directed towards the story and characters. Most AAA single-player games are set in an open world, but Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy offered a completely linear experience, and many players considered it to be a much-needed change of pace. A new report now reveals how much Microsoft may have paid to get Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy on Xbox Game Pass.

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An industry analyst named David Gibson claimed that Microsoft paid $5-10 million to get Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy on Xbox Game Pass. He mentioned that the game sells for around $29 at retail, and Square Enix reportedly receives only $2 per game as a part of this deal. In a follow-up Tweet, Gibson stated that he has been covering Square Enix as an analyst for around 15 years and maintains regular contact with the company. He then confirmed that he has based these estimates on talks with Square Enix and other developers.

David Gibson revealed this information while discussing the economics of Project Spartacus, which is set to be announced this week. Spartacus is a multi-tier subscription service that will reportedly combine PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now, and it will also offer a selection of classic games. However, unlike Xbox Game Pass, fans will not get access to Sony’s biggest first-party games on day one.

In its financial report, Square Enix stated that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy underperformed in sales, and several reasons could be attributed to its disappointing performance. The audience was already disappointed by the release of Marvel’s Avengers the year before, and the initial reveal of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy did not seem to grab many gamers’ attention. While subsequent trailers were well received, the game’s marketing was nearly non-existent, which was surprising given the draw of the Guardians of the Galaxy name. Square Enix had to reduce the price for sales to catch up, but word-of-mouth has been extremely positive, and fans can hope that Eidos-Montreal will be able to work on a sequel.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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Source: VGC