Microsft's planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard is getting messy, and with the UK Competition and Markets Authority looking into the deal we got some insight into game sales and how they are affected by Xbox Game Pass. As expected, adding a game to the subscription service negatively impacts sales.

"Microsoft also submitted that its internal analysis shows a [redacted]% decline in base game sales twelve months following their addition on Game Pass," the UK CMA wrote in its report.

This is particularly interesting because Xbox head Phil Spencer said that Xbox Game Pass didn't affect game sales back in 2018, "When you put a game like Forza Horizon 4 on Game Pass, you instantly have more players of the game, which is leading to more sales of the game."

Turns out this isn't really the case, not to mention this being the main reason why Activision has been hesitant to put any games onto a service like Xbox Game Pass because it would affect sales.

If the acquisition deal is approved, with the chances of it happening anytime soon growing murkier by the day, there's not doubt that Microsoft will add Activision Blizzard titles to Xbox Game Pass - which it sees as the future of Xbox going forward, across console, PC, and cloud gaming.