It’s a bit like Netflix. They need to offer enough original content to differentiate the service. MS will still have AAA titles, but they need a broader range of offerings to maximize appeal.
So Netflix is literally throwing everything and anything at the wall right now. There’s like a new series every week. For every high-end, big-budget series, there’s a bunch of stuff that isn’t as expensive. But there’s always something for someone, which is why you don’t cancel your Netflix subscription after you finish a series.
You can’t really do that on the same scale with games, but if you give InXile and Obsidian creative freedom and a healthy budget, you could get some titles that will draw in RPGers.
They still will, but they’re betting most people will see the value in just signing up and keeping the subscription instead.
Subscription services are the way of the world. Just look at the TV space. Entire new generations are going to grow up in that world, and they’re going to be accustomed to paying a subscription.
Yes I fully understand Netflix’s approach, but they don’t release their content outside their service. You can’t buy The Cloverfield Paradox on blu-ray.
So really this is the approach they’ve always taken, get exclusives on their platform. Except now it’s platforms. And yes of course that enriches their game subscription service too.
It’s always about exclusives. They’re not going to release these games on PS4.
But you’ll have a choice of buying them on as a digital download or doing the subscription service, just like right now.
How many exclusives did MS release last quarter?
I can’t think of any. Maybe a new Forza?
Yet…
Original story (24/10/2018): It was a quiet first quarter for Microsoft’s gaming division, but that didn’t stop it from posting a 44% year-over-year increase in gaming revenue anyway.
Yes, that’s why I said MS’s previous quarter must have been terrible.
Oh was my timing off re RDR2? They were running other bundles with $100 off any Xbone over the past couple of months. Basically made the XboneS cost $200 out the door, which is an attractive number.
Well, with certain Netflix features, like their films helmed by auteur directors (e.g. Scorsese and the Coen Brothers), will premiere at top of the line festivals and open for very limited theatrical runs in big cities weeks ahead of their debut on the streaming service in order to qualify for awards consideration. Maybe that will change when the Academy and its pairs update it’s rules, but for now it’s fairly standard.
That said, I doubt Keighley’s show will ever get big enough to have any influence over Microsoft release strategy!
Don’t use VGChartz for your arguments - their MO is “make stuff up and hope no one notices,” and has been so long that sites like ResetEra have a ban policy in place for people attempting to use it as a source.
I think it’s an open question as to whether this approach is financially viable over the long term. Netflix itself is in a deficit spending streak that seems endless so we’ll have to see how patient MS will be.
EG have a good interview with InXile’s Brian Fargo up:
I’m looking forward to hearing more about that upcoming project and what the added headroom will bring to their games.
I also like the idea that it makes inXile a bit more like sister companies rather than competitors and some good stuff might come from collaboration between the 2.
