~The Game Pass Thread~

Microsoft is spending tens of billions of dollars to keep entire publisher catalogs off Sony hardware.

Lol, Sony getting a taste of its own medicine. You would think after three decades of experience in music and movie industry they would know not to piss off people, guess they got a little arrogant. Not surprised considering they lost market share in electronics like IBM losing the business market in the 90s.

I am enjoying playing Octopath Traveler on Gamespass.

Isn’t that article just talking about console exclusives, which have been a thing for decades?

Well, apparently the source document isn’t clear, but on the face of it they’re just talking about subscription services, not entire console exclusivity. And maybe not exclusivity at all, but sort of reverse exclusivity - not you must only be on our service, but you cannot be on their service.

…which makes a lot of sense since being on Game Pass is like a free giveaway that makes the value of a game next to zero anywhere else.

Nintendo has talked a lot in the past about the race to the bottom on game pricing. This is why their first party stuff retains its value for years and years instead of having quick sales. They believe if you price low (or make it a giveaway/service release), you are effectively saying your games aren’t very good or are rather slight.

Agree or disagree, there is truth in how the consumer perceives games they receive for nothing.

Gamepass is successful because they offer a huge number of good games, for a very low price.

It doesn’t degrade the value of those games… obviously, if the library of games offered was considered to be without value, then the value proposition of gamepass would not be good, and thus it would be less successful than it is.

Does it make it seem silly to pay $60 for one game when you can get that game plus a million others for a lower cost through gamepass? It sure does.

How is this not degrading the value of those games?

I guess on some level it is, although the reason for Gamepass being a good value, is not because those games it offers aren’t worth anything.

They’re just offering more bang for your buck than anyone else is.

Ultimately, consumers buy things because they perceive the value of the offering to be higher than the price they’re paying.

Right, a game someone wants to play isn’t made less desirable by putting it on GamePass, but it can certainly affect what they’re willing to pay for it. Even the possibility that it may come to GamePass changes things.

It’s definitely kept me from buying Judgment. I mean there’s no way it doesn’t come to the service some time in the next three years, right?!

That’s a great example too of how Game Pass devalues even games that aren’t on the service. It’s having a very real effect on people purchasing video games.

I know it’s rare that we post the latest NPD numbers around here, but things are down, fellas. I don’t think that’s coincidence. It’s certainly not the only reason, but there are soooo many free and service-based games right now that anything new is going to be a tough sell, especially when you know it might end up free sooner rather than later.

I completely agree. Game Pass is a game-changer, if you’ll forgive the use of the term. It’s insanely cheap (with the loophole) and offers amazing value. Microsoft is hemorraghing money on the service and it behooves us all to take advantage of that before they make the inevitable 180 and pivot from paying for users to making a profit.

As for NPD numbers, I don’t buy it. There haven’t been many major AAA PC releases lately that haven’t come from Playstation. and everybody who owns a Playstation 4 or 5 already played those.

PC Game sales are a drop in the bucket compared to consoles. Console game sales are down.

It’s important to look at the top 20s. Halo Infinite is nowhere to be found in the top 20 for 2022… because all the Xbox gamers have it for free. Did that drive more service sign-ups? Were those people retained? We don’t really know. What we do know is they didn’t sell a lot of Halo.

Also, according to Mat Piscatella, “Growth in subscription spending could not offset declines in other areas of spending”

Looking at PC sales only as that’s my personal interest, so far in 2022 I count God of War (PS port), Dying Light 2, Elden Ring, Tiny Tina, Spider-man (PS port). Probably Saint’s Row too. On the AA side I’d say Lego Star Wars and Stray count.

Then later on in 2022 we (probably) have Overwatch 2, Midnight Suns, Plague Tale 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Homeworld 3.

Of all the above games, only Plague Tale 2 is on Game Pass.

Halo sales certainly tanked due to Game Pass, no doubt.

That’s cool if you want to have a specific discussion about PC games, but that’s not the discussion most are having here I think. The market is far larger for everything else.

I don’t think we can infer anything about Game Pass from video game sales being down 11% YoY.

“Electronics and appliance stores” which felt like the closest bucket were estimated to be down 9% from June LY (page 6). Discretionary retail/entertainment spending is tightening up with the increased costs for essentials.

It sure ain’t going to help, which is the gist of why Sony doesn’t want things on Game Pass that are being sold on PlayStation.

Of course, MS is hemorrhaging money with Game Pass. If you want to directly compete with GP you need to be willing to get in a hot bath with a razor blade too, and Sony ain’t.

I mean, sure? But… this is kind of intentional?
Microsoft is going with a different business model.

And as a consumer… this is a way better business model, at least for me.