That Sea of Thieves was a commercial success as well as online audiences, making it one of the best selling titles for Microsoft despite the presence of the game in the Game Pass, was well known. Now Phil Spencer however officially confirmed during E3 in a video interview with Giant Bomb , in which he explains that the title of Rare sold many more copies than Microsoft itself had expected.

And the same happened with the recent Spencer continues, State of Decay 2 , whose studio Undead Labs was recently acquired by Microsoft; the game surpassed, in terms of digital and physical sales, expectations of the House of Redmond.

This information seem then debunk the preconception that entry into the Game passes a game in "kill" the real sales, indeed it seems the Tom-Tom effect that produce the many players in possession of the game through Pass entices people to sales. We wonder whether, given that, in the future other editors decide to launch their AAA titles in the Game passes; for now we will have to "settle" the titles first party Microsoft and some quality indie.