I mean, not really. Let me give you an example of why I do it. When I first got PS+, and I played a lot of Resogun, I was content enough with the subscription. And then I found other games I liked, like Don’t Starve, for example. Then my year was up. And I started up the PS4, and I couldn’t play Resogun. I couldn’t play Don’t Starve. That sucked. Resogun was on sale, I bought it. Don’t Starve was on sale on PC, I bought it. I later subscribed for another year of PS+. This time I found Galak-Z, and the first thing I wanted to do was to buy the game. If it’s good enough that I want to play it, I want to keep playing it, I don’t want to stop and not have access anymore when my sub runs out.
Similarly with GamePass, when I wasn’t on Ultimate yet because of the Gold conversion that suddenly made GP a long term thing, I used to think of it as a monthly thing. I want to subscribe during one month. If it’s a game with a linear story, like an Uncharted game, then sure, just play through it and you’re done. But if it’s a systems based game, and you like it, you buy it. You don’t worry about whether you have access to it later when it’s Thanksgiving and you bring your PS4 over and everyone says “where’s Resogun?”
Oh I totally agree, I don’t subscribe to any of these services. With the $1 deal I could have picked up Game Pass Ultimate for like 3 years for <$200 and I still didn’t bite.
I’m subscribed to Game Pass and I have purchased several games that are on the service. If I loved my time with them I want permanent access to them and I want to financially support the devs.
You purchased a game when you already had access to it on the game pass? I would imagine that’s pretty rare. You could always buy it later if you choose to unsubscribe so the only reason to do that really is to support the developer/studio.
I can see someone buying a game as a gift for someone else without XGP to play multiplayer.
I can also see someone using a discounted month or 2 as an opportunity to demo a lot of stuff, buy what they liked, and cancel.
But, I do think a bunch of those sales are simply attributable to enhanced visibility. People are underestimating this in the current marketplace, is that it’s so damn hard to get attention, and being on XGP can get your game attention from streamers, forum commenters, and podcasters. A couple of the gaming podcasts I listen to have someone who makes a point of trying to play something on XGP every week & discuss it.
Sure it’s worth something in visibility, but the game pass is $10/month and the game costs $25, so you do have people choosing to buy it rather than subscribe.
I’ll admit I wasn’t interested in adding another sub after Netflix and Hulu and Spotify and probably another one I’m not remembering, but XGP won me over.
But, dammit, the next one is really going to have to be something special to break through my resistance.
Oh yeah, Prime and Audible and Kindle Unlimited. Guess I’m a sucker.
I am enjoying the game pass service so far. Lets me get a taste of games I might be interested it, and if so I add them to my Steam wishlist for when they hit a deep sale price.
Like all WH40K games, I had to look up Space Hulk: Tactics to see which one it was. I started skimming through the mixed Steam reviews and came across this excellent analogy.
To be fair, if video game purchasers were rational then you wouldn’t have so many people complaining about backlogs that would take several lifetimes to complete and other not totally rational behavior you see.
For all of our intelligence humans make a lot of irrational decisions :).
Yeah, if I’m going to buy DLC for a game then I’m going to be sure I own the base title. I don’t want to see the title disappear from Game Pass and therefore lose money spent on DLC.
Meh, the other side of the coin is I’m more likely to buy DLC since I didn’t have to spend any (extra?) money to buy the base game. I rarely buy DLC but I bought it for the Surge because I was enjoying it so much and I didn’t have to pay for the base game.
I also rarely replay a game once I finish it so owning the base game has zero value for me (as long as I beat it before it leaves GP).
