Mike Amory writes: "Game Pass and similar services offer an inexpensive way to play games, but the subscription model could mean dire consequences down the line."
The service needs a big year, and some big games, if it's going to shape Microsoft's future.
I don’t agree with ‘make or break’ at all. Very sensationalist headline. It’s already pretty successful as it is. Not to say more big games wouldn’t help of course but hardly going to break the service if they aren’t there.
One year can be great but the next year could hurt it . It’s needs to make money long term and 1 year won’t make too much if a difference in the end . MS has had a a decent year here and there just to screw it up for a few in a row adlfrer that . MS needs 5-10 good years in a row
lol right when they already knew a huge game from Bethesda is coming to the service day 1, they came up with this atrocious article. there is no such thing as make-or-break for a service like GP with the backing of MS's wallet. they will just throw money at it because this is the basket that they've decided to put all their eggs into going forward.
The Steam Deck is one of 2022's greatest pieces of gaming hardware, but its integration of Xbox Game Pass is severely lacking right now.
It would be nice to have indeed, the issue is just how exactly they would be able to do it. Microsoft wouldn't require developers to make sure their games are compatible with Proton, meanwhile, they themselves wouldn't do that work and Valve definitely wouldn't either.
So the only thing that I could see happening is a streamlined app for the cloud version.
I've thought about this a lot. I doubt it'll happen though. Valve loses money on each deck sold. They recoup that money with software sales. Adding other platforms natively to the steam deck would cut into their profit. Just my thoughts of course. :)
High on Life creator and Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland appeared on the Xbox Podcast last week.
Roiland explained that he did research on how Game Pass would help make the new game, and help his studio work on future projects.
High on Life has had one of the biggest launches in Game Pass history since its release on December 13.
In a recent episode of the Xbox Podcast, High on Life creator Justin Roiland joined Larry Hryb, Xbox’s Major Nelson, and explained why he chose to join the Game Pass line-up after having done “a lot of research” on the service.
“Before we decided to pull the trigger on it, I spoke with a handful of other studio folks who did Game Pass,” Roiland explained. “And I ultimately came to the conclusion based off of what I had heard that it is– it’s a value-add. Because essentially, there’s a lot of people that would otherwise not have picked up the game and played it.
“And those people, if you believe in what you’ve made, and you really you feel confident that you’ve made something special, or different– and we do with our game– those folks can become evangelists in a way for the title.”
We announced yesterday that High on Life has become Xbox Game Pass’ biggest launch of 2022, the biggest 3rd party Game Pass launch of all time, and the biggest release of a single player-only game in the service’s history.
"Because essentially, there’s a lot of people that would otherwise not have picked up the game and played it."
A lot of folks told me that non-Game Pass games that they ship versus Game Pass games, [they get] 7x sales.”
That's impressive to say the least. Very impressive. We're talking actually sales not just players either.
Exposure+ play time = profit. Plus digital sales that weren't on gamepass were apparently really good as well. 60$ is a very hard pill to swallow for me personally. Like I said the gameplay is just not doing it for me personally but I'll try and finish it.
Also. This game was the biggest gamepass launch ever. It makes you think, how will Starfield perform? Surely this game HAS to outdo this game?
Justin uses a lot of words to say he wanted the security of a upfront check. Putting games Day 1 on Gamepass is a gamble. If the game blows up, you are missing out on hundreds or possibly millions of sales. On the other hand, if your game flies under the radar. That upfront check definitely will help to break even on the budget of the game. A plague tale requiem is a good example of Day 1 on Gamepass being a good thing. The game flew under the radar. Im sure that upfront check to launch day 1 on gamepass was the smart move in the end.
GP upfron check is definitely a safety blanket, but if your game bkows up .. you're missing out on them mio. of moneys.
thats what he basically said, they wanted the money from GP incase it bombs.
mkis0079h:
"So then why are not all games launching on game pass if it's such a slam dunk? Seems it would be no brainer if that were true and not just a tricky marketing ploy."
I don't think all new releases are right for GP. For some of the really big releases it probably doesn't make much sense as they already have a built in audience. The only time those work is if they are MS first party or if MS is willing to pay a lot of upfront cash. Even those can work sometimes as expansions and add-on's are not free and players are more likely to spend on those if they didn't have the upfront cost of buying the game at full price. Even for big games it can make sense to add after a period of time as most time the game is already discounted and it can result in a bump in overall sales.
I think the bottom line is it is a good thing for some devs and not for others. It is their choice.
What does "biggest game pass launch of 2022" even mean? Did it bring in the most new subscribers of 2022? Was it tried out by the most existing subscribers in 2022? Was it the most completed game pass game in 2022? Was it the most hyped game pass game in 2022? What? What are we even talking about? It's an ok game if you appreciate the humour ( which reaches it's limits ) but it's not even close to the AAA games promised years ago ( from first party nonetheless ) every QUARTER for this service. And after a whole barren year this....THIS....is what Microsoft cheerleaders are praising?? As some kind of milestone?? Yet they all scratch their heads wondering "uhh duhhh....why ek bok no got game like god of war and spooderman". Look in the mirror....that's the reason.
Not to be mean, because there are some valid potential concerns here, but....welcome to the discussion of 10 years ago.
Another article about this?
I dont disagree with the first point of starting a lot of them and not going back.
Thats only the case for games i didnt fancy or werent that interested in though.
Please no episodic games though thats the worst idea ever.
All i would say is there is a lot of junk in between the good stuff. Id prefer to have a lot less games on gamepass and have the money go towards bigger better titles.
Sure there would techinically numbers wise be less to play but really you would be playing more because the games that are there are really good.
For instance hades is amazing then u have something like lake or that indie rally game forget the name.
We need more aaa games and top tier indie games and less of the more mediocre stuff.
Smaller catalogue but better quality.
I have Gamepass but I hardly use it because of the lack of current AAA games. I do like Indie games but there are very limited current Indie titles on the service that captures my interest. Imo most of the Indie titles are mediocre or junk titles. I never played a Sniper Elite game & I see the latest game SE5 has good reviews so I'm going to try it out on GP.
Game Pass is a great way for a studio to mitigate their risk of being overlooked, because plenty of great games are overlooked at full price (especially indie games). But, they also mitigate their success by limiting their initial sales potential in favor of a guaranteed check to be part of a sub service.
As long as Sony and Nintendo don’t start trimming down games to make them affordable to “give away” day 1 via a sub service, and as long as Sony and Nintendo’s audience continue to be willing to pay $70 for their AAA exclusives, the quality of the medium will continue to progress.
The only ones that will lose are the audiences that choose to sub to services that need yo restrict game development costs in order to continue to deliver on their content roadmap promises without blowing up their sub cost. I fear Game Pass and Xbox will go that way, but M$ can also afford to bleed a lot to remain competitive. And they have very, very strong brand loyalty. That is uniquely valuable for a sub service.