Microsoft Paid $600,000 to Add Cooking Simulator to Xbox Game Pass

On August 5, Cooking Simulator, a game developed by Polish team Big Cheese Studio that was originally released on Steam back in 2019, became available in the Xbox Game Pass subscription. 

In a recent report, the developer revealed the amount that Microsoft paid for adding the game to the Xbox Game Pass library. The document states that to add Cooking Simulator to the Game Pass subscription on PC, Cloud Gaming, and consoles, Microsoft paid developers a one-time fee of $600,000.

The studio seems to get an incredible bargain as, according to the report, the sum equals to about 22% of the company's net profit and 17% of its revenue for the past fiscal year.

Apparently, this was quite a good deal for developers, given that since Cooking Simulator's release on PC, its sales might have dipped noticeably as, according to SteamBD statistics, the game's audience significantly decreased over the past years. The team states that the agreement to put the game on the Xbox gaming service should "significantly affect" Big Cheese Studio's revenue.

Publishers often speak in favor of Game Pass, noting that adding games to the service provides a guaranteed success for small studios. However, there are also those who believe that the emphasis on the service system negatively affects the sale of games that are sold for Xbox consoles at full price.

You can find Big Cheese Studio's report here. Also, don't forget to join our Reddit page and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.