@dushness: You'd think its "no duh", I'm with you, I'm sure it works for some developers who need Epic to drop exclusive cash on them, or Sony to help fund development, but that already happens outside of Gamepass anyway, its not unique to Gamepass. Heck Sony basically funded Shenmue 3 remember? it happens all the time. So yeah, especially smaller stuff, there are examples of Devs getting guaranteed money and it really helps them.
BUT its not a majority of games I dont think - not day 1 releases at least, (I think most games would be better off selling retail for 2 years, then hop onto one of the streaming platforms when sales have dried up).
Ive had this argument with one of the the Descender Devs (or publisher perhaps?). After an article talking about Gamepass HELPING game sales (i said nope thats a lie), he hopped on and said i was wrong, their game sold 4 times as many copies after Gamepass - he argued that since it happened to his game, that it was the same for all Gamepass. I told him he was a fool. I remember when Descender's bubble hit. It hit at just the right time --
There was a huge dearth of games at the time. For about 2 weeks nothing came out on any platform. Content creators were dying for stuff to play. And boom it hit Gamepass. I 100% remember it was Twitch that made that game blow up. Yes being "free" on Gamepass was what got twitch people to try it out to begin with, but it was factually Twitch that made it go viral and the game blow up. Then the sales all came from other platforms, not Xbox. So Gamepass did not help it sell on Xbox (had similar services existed on the other platforms, you wouldn't have seen the sales spike there either). Selling "4 times" as many copies could mean you jumped from 250 copies to 1000. Now I think it did better than that - it did make money for them or they wouldn't defend it so much - and the article basically said the publisher went full into this model for their future releases, jamming them all to Gamepass. But again -I see this as similar to why Geometry Wars did so well on 360, it came out early when there wasn't much else, otherwise that game never would have been as big as it was, right place right time. -- Have this publishers other games doing as well? ive never seen an article saying so, i still only see Descender talked about - years later - i think that is telling in and of itself.
They are small enough though, that having this guaranteed payment plan worked out ahead of time, it might actually benefit them. But their games are small. We dont know if they worked out a better deal than other devs have got (I know when we saw Epics payouts for exclusives the payouts were VASTLY different for different developers). And will they be screwed if Gamepass switches its model or decides to drop them? Has their quality of games dropped? Still lots of unknown factors. Its a lot of eggs in one basket.
I just dont factually logically see a way for Xbox to make its money back on their own big budget day 1 releases, not at this static 30 million subscribers they have. Small indie game? Maybe. Ubisoft or Epic dropping its catalog of dried up sales older games to bolster GP's library? Sure. But day 1 big budget titles? No. Or else you would have seen Saints Row remake (etc) on there day 1.
@blaznwiipspman1: I cant speak for the other person -but I have Gamepass and think its okay, (probably wouldn't renew at a price hike), but if you dont think we have issues with streaming services -- you're insane!!!!! Whos out there saying how much they love Netflix!? No one!
And thats my fear for Gamepass.... Of course during their courtship phase they seem pretty good deal... But 100% I have said the Netflix affect is going to be a huge problem for Gamepass - and I DO have a huge problem with Netflix. I have predicted that Gamepass will follow similar suit -- Netflix produces B and C list material that people will comment "its okay for free" when its absolutely not free, and we shouldn't settle for grade B and C movies and crummy content because its streamed. But we expect more fro ma movie theater like we expect more from a AAA Sony game than we do Gamepass. Even though prices will start to creep up. So issue number 1 - sub par quality content rushed out to inflate content library.
This 100% will happen with unfinished half baked games rushed developments just to have "day 1" content on Gamepass, or smaller indie games being used as filler (like Descender). Why give a dev more time on a game to fix bugs when you literally get no more return out of the product? As long as its "okay" for a subscriber? Need a lot more quality out of a game you need to sell at $70 (hey Halo!).
Secondly the cost - Netflix was supposed to be the money saver over cable! Started at $7.99, its now over $16/mo for me, and they haven't even added the sharing tax yet (will be over $20/mo). Its so expensive now - add in all the other services and I now pay more than I did for cable. Gamepass has never made money, and wont for a decade or so if it ever does - as i said way earlier - and Shawn Layton (ex-Sony) said that to break even you'd need about 100 million subscribers - Xbox has 30 million not paying full price. So if you dont think HUGE price hikes will hit over the next 3 years (or it closes completely) you're nuts!
And my 3rd huge problem (not my only 4 problems with Netflix, but these are the big 4), is that nothing comes to DVD/Blu-ray or even digital sales now -- I want to see the new Fraggle Rock on Apple, I dont want to pay for Apple for 1 show -- it is literally not available to buy anywhere else and probably never will be. We see HBO removing digital only shows from the platform means they can disappear forever. How long until a Gamepass only game comes out without the ability to buy it elsewhere? if not here then on Stadia type services? Especially if streaming sticks become the way to play like they had hoped (not sure if that future will hit or not). But Xbox hoarding content is a huge deal and basically the crux of the Activation merger's problems.
Number 4 is cancelling shows. Netflix doesn't care about the consumer being happy, its all just numbers to them. They dont give shows a chance to gain legs or a cult following, most shows know if they will be cancelled a week in, Cowboy Bebop was literally cancelled BEFORE it even aired. Not sure how much that translates to Xbox, but its a Netflix issue for sure. Again, cable had physical sales as well, and these often made up for bad initial ratings (its why Firefly had a chance to make a movie at least, etc).
Oooooph really bad salty take. Didn't know what Sony done did you wrong boy, but yeah no. Bad take. Grind your axe elsewhere. I dont think it was a very strong year overall for any system or the top 20 lists i see -- but all platforms got some hits on them. Any top 20 lists you'll see a ton of PS exclusive + cross platform games. Returnal, Deathloop, RE5, Ratchet and Clank, Kena Bridge of Spirits, Hitman 3, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Solar Ash, Psychonauts 2, Tales of Arise, Far Cry 6, etc etc. If you couldn't find games to play on your PS5 this year then your lying to yourself with some weird point of pride or just hate games. Anyone owning a PS5 system was not any more dry compared to the other platforms.
Very good point - Xbox has said that on top of Gamepass monthly revenue (which is not actually that mush); people still buy DLC and buy the game out right with that (crappy) 20% off sale they offer when a game leaves GP.
How will you stream those purchases after it leaves Gamepass? Very good point. They need an avenue for you to purchase full games still then; or that will be their main source of revenue gone. And with no hard drive how will you download those games? Unless whole library of the store goes streaming... You gave me an extra nugget of something to think about!
@skyhighgam3r: Yeah I was like "Does he know hes just talkign in circles?". "You dont have to buy an Xbox this will be streaming eventually, you can just buy an Xbox controller and subscribe to Gamepass and play that way". Yeah, in 1 year, thats all any Xbox owner will be doing. I have an xbox - im waiting to stream Cloud versions of the next gen games (if it works) on my older Xbox. And I haven't bought a physical (or even digital game) on Xbox now in 2 years because of Gamepass. So yeah -- you literally told them to play an xbox only game the same way any xbox player will be playing. if its not on playsation its not on playsation Mr Greenburg. Don't try to spin it.
but honestly, in this day and age - yeah get a ps4/5 and a PC and Gamepass (and an Xbox) and a Switch. So many good games to play all over. No reason to be console exclusive fans and getting salty. But making franchises go exclusive is crappy. No matter who does it.
@walbo: When you say stupid things like "why should i care about following data and sales", I dont feel like I need to talk to you anymore Walbo. Your input is moot. If you dont understand why Xbox is pursuing subscriptions and Sony isn't - then you are the naive one. PS+ also has like 47.4 million subscribers, and i guarantee more than 15 million of those Gamepass subscriptions are not full price, (I know I haven't paid full price and Ive got 5 years worth bought up), so again, you should probably pay attention to that data....
@laurenriley3332: 100% you are right. Its like little kids or just people who cant follow news/data that say things like "Sony should put first party games out free day one". Why on Earth would they do that. Nintendo wouldn't do it either. Its why these trolls dont run businesses ha-ha
Its a fact - Gamepass does not make Microsoft money, but it also doesn't need to. Microsoft does not care about Xbox. Its a means to an end, and utilizes their servers. Sony on the other hand needs to keep Playstation making money, they cant sacrifice millions in game sales for some subscriptions to a service they'd have to rent servers for anyway. Sony makes good money off Playstation, Microsoft does not with Xbox. its fact, not opinion. And makes zero sense for Sony. Here's all the profit records Sony broke this March:
@cejay0813: Gamepass should cost more and it doesn't, they literally pay 3rd parties for their games. If its a few Sony movies here and there (could literally be like 1 a month) they dont have to pay anyone to drop 1 or 2 onto the service, why do you think the price would go up? If they make a bundle with this, and PSNow, and PS+ i could see it going up, but you can buy up to 5 years at a time, (compared to Xbox's annoying 3 year limit), so just get the $35 a year sale next time its up. Sony services are pretty darn cheap.
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