Sarah Bond, Microsoft’s VP of gaming business development, responded to the discussion later in the month with a breakdown of major third-party games expected to arrive throughout 2022 and early 2023 that could make a big splash on Game Pass. Those included everything from Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, including an analysis of how many hours each game was likely to be played on Game Pass, how much it would cost to get the game on the service, and whether the publisher who owned it would be likely to make a deal.
Here’s the full list of estimates:
Lego Star Wars: $35 million
Dying Light 2: $50 million
Cities: Skylines 2: unknown
Red Dead Redemption 2: $5 million per month
Dragon Ball: The Breakers: $20 million
Just Dance: $5 million
Return to Monkey Island: $5 million
Wreckfest 2: $10-$14 million
Baldur’s Gate 3: $5 million
Gotham Knights: $50 million
Assassin’s Creed Mirage: $100 million
Suicide Squad: $250 million
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: $300 million
Mortal Kombat 1: $250 million
Grand Theft Auto V: $12-$15 million per month
Blood Runner: $5 million
Net Crisis Glitch Busters: $5 million
The estimates vary wildly depending on the size of the release as well as whether it would be day-and-date on the service.
I find it odd that something like Wreckfest to will cost 10-14 Mil, but games like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Red Dead 2 are only 5 mil. BG3 for 5 mill seems like a no brainer on that list.
RDR2 was 2 years old at that point and it was $5m/month, $60m/year.
Back in 2020, BG3 wasn’t what we know it to be today. You could have reasonably (but incorrectly) predicted it’d be maybe 20-30% more popular than DOS2.
Really interested in both Lamplighter’s League and Cocoon. And I’ll probably at least take a look at Gotham Knights if I can find the time.
Ooh, that’s a tough bunch of games to be leaving at once, though.
Beacon Pines is my daughter’s favorite game, and I’ve been meaning to finish it – it’s short and story-based, so should be easy to get through by the end of the month.
I’ve been enjoying Last Call BBS quite a bit, but I feel like it works better as a palate cleanser than trying to marathon it. Might just buy that one.
And I had been wanting to check out Weird West but never got around to it. Probably should just let that one go.
The surprising one for me is the $300 mil for Jedi Survivor. I assume that would have been for day 1.
Despite enjoying the first game, I deliberately held off on that because I figured at some point it would show up on EA Play via Game Pass, and I could just play it then.
Almost overlooked Gotham Knights joining Game Pass. I had zero temptation to buy the game, even before people started talking it down, but I do still have some love for the old Arkham games. If this is kind of a GAAS-ified version of those games, I could probably tolerate it for a little while.
Apparently this is/was a planned sequel to Snow Runner, though the version I saw had an estimated release date of March 2023. Not sure if it’s just a code name for Expeditions or what.
It doesn’t feel GAAS’d to death so much as it feels compromised to accommodate multiplayer that I’ll never touch.
Not that there aren’t little things that feel GAASy, like overwhelmingly and needlessly complicated equipment and crafting elements that would feel right at home in a game with a premium currency to shortcut your hunt for the best loot, except there’s no such currency.
I haven’t even started Starfield yet. Was planning to, but then this turned into a month of sad anthropomorphic animals, as I attempted to finish Fuga and Beacon Pines before they left the service.
Having recently bought Ace Attorney, Gotham Knights, and LaD: Ishin, maybe I need to slow down and play the Game Pass instead of hitting the buy button. Ah well.
Whoever mentioned Beacon Pines above…THANK YOU! What a nice, tight visual novel! Finished it in 2 days straight. It’s got the same friendly feel-good vibes as Sea of Stars.
ooo more Yakuza’s! I’m glad I held off buying them! I suspected Sega will keep bringing them to Game Pass. (I bought the 3-5 PS4 box set at full price when it first came out, and it is still sealed, waiting for me to finish 0 and 1 and 2…might not actually happen in my lifetime…)
