New Xbox CEO Reportedly Told Employees That “Game Pass Has Become Too Expensive for Players”

Riccochet said:
They do add titles quite often. The AAA titles stick around for months, so no rush to finish them. And if I like a game, thinking I'll play it for a significant amount of time, I'll buy it. At a discount with the pass if it's not cheaper on Steam. Otherwise it cost me $30 to try a bunch of games I otherwise would have never had access to or never seriously considered purchasing.
Click to expand...
But how often do they add titles you would pay money for? Why would I pay a subscription to get access to games I'd never even consider buying?

At this point not even years is enough for me to finish some games, I just don't play games 6-8 hours / day anymore, unless it's something I really enjoy. But the last such game was 3 years ago. Games that are still good but not that great to me I'm ever more reluctant to go back to. Often ending up on hiatus for months, then I play a few hours and then its back on the shelf for another 3 months.

Let's do some calculations. I first got games pass as a trial almost 7 years ago. Let's say 80 months. At $15/month (IDK when and how prices were exactly but I think this is a favorable average for them). If I had kept my subscription this entire time I'd have paid $1200. That's 20 AAA games bought outright. MS's catalog is not that good to have anywhere close to that many games I'd want.
 
MadMummy76 said:
But how often do they add titles you would pay money for? Why would I pay a subscription to get access to games I'd never even consider buying?

At this point not even years is enough for me to finish some games, I just don't play games 6-8 hours / day anymore, unless it's something I really enjoy. But the last such game was 3 years ago. Games that are still good but not that great to me I'm ever more reluctant to go back to. Often ending up on hiatus for months, then I play a few hours and then its back on the shelf for another 3 months.

Let's do some calculations. I first got games pass as a trial almost 7 years ago. Let's say 80 months. At $15/month (IDK when and how prices were exactly but I think this is a favorable average for them). If I had kept my subscription this entire time I'd have paid $1200. That's 20 AAA games bought outright. MS's catalog is not that good to have anywhere close to that many games I'd want.
Click to expand...
How often? Quite often. I've only subscribed for 4 months now and there are about 20 AAA games on there that I already own on steam, and about 20 more I would consider buying.

You can look for yourself in the MS Store app. It's no hidden paywalled secret.
 
MadMummy76 said:
I'm OK with buying AAA games that are good, at 60 70 even 80
Click to expand...
guitar-shh.gif
 
Riccochet said:
How often? Quite often. I've only subscribed for 4 months now and there are about 20 AAA games on there that I already own on steam, and about 20 more I would consider buying.

You can look for yourself in the MS Store app. It's no hidden paywalled secret.
Click to expand...
I didn't mean the backlog of games, but how often and how many such games are added? Surely for an ongoing subscription to make any sense at all you must get more games than what you could buy outright with the same money.

DAPUNISHER said:
guitar-shh.gif
Click to expand...
So, paying 80 to buy a great game once in a while is a problem, but paying 20 every month for literal slop you don't even own is fine?
 
MadMummy76 said:
I didn't mean the backlog of games, but how often and how many such games are added? Surely for an ongoing subscription to make any sense at all you must get more games than what you could buy outright with the same money.


So, paying 80 to buy a great game once in a while is a problem, but paying 20 every month for literal slop you don't even own is fine?
Click to expand...
What does ' own' mean with no physical media?
Sure sure in theory you may have access " indefinetly" with steam or similar, and with library access theres the whim of the provider more so, however, both have a huge loss vs. Physical: you cant re sell squat.
This is why i care so much less about libraries and GAS being part of the market big part, small part I dont care. The loss of physical media was the big hit so to speak, everyone in the pc gaming world embraced quite well, though there was some discussion. I guess the evolving nature of windows was always going to yield this result, is not like a console ( much less so now i am fully aware) were you can have physical media, and what is basically the media reader, both can be relatively stable. Yes I know consoles are being evolved out of physical media too, this is the real loss, and its inevitable, and thats why, i have and likely will re-embrace GAS and streaming now, or later whatever.
 
MadMummy76 said:
So, paying 80 to buy a great game once in a while is a problem, but paying 20 every month for literal slop you don't even own is fine?
Click to expand...
False dilemma fallacy. Our choices are not binary. We do not, and should not, choose either of these options. Voting with our wallets is our power.
 
Last edited:
Uvilla said:
What does ' own' mean with no physical media?
Click to expand...
Continued access to the games (hopefully within our lifetimes) and no headache of trying to store a whole library of them offline. With even delisting of games on Steam, the ones who have already bought the games or have older keys may still be able to access them.
 
DAPUNISHER said:
This would go over like a lead balloon with PC gamers . https://www.techpowerup.com/348326/xbox-first-party-game-pass-tier-could-have-other-limitations

How it feels freeing myself of the MS shackles

feels-good.gif
Click to expand...
From a distance it seems MS is being plain stupid, but because we dont know anything about their sales/ profit/loss we will never know.
To me its about getting more and more players, and keeping the margin low. Low margin wide user base.
I dont know how having 50 tiers with 50 restrictions and potentially ads, lead to better profit vs having 2 tiers or 3 at most with a decoy.
Idk, pre price hikes you can read about all this revenue growth, and player base and this and that, then the hike comes, a few explanations that kind of point at maybe things arent so hot? Now this whole mess of new tiers, even ads being mentioned. Its funny 2 months before the price hike and me dropping them for it, I was 100% convinced MS was going to be the real netflix of games mega giant, in a market I viewed as still quite open (open for huge money to fight on, I dont mean open for small fish obviously not possible). Well they may still be, but if they are reversing in growth, that means the library/service market is still open, and no mega giant yet.
 
Last edited:
Theres more news/ comments milling about, logically the cost of developing games always comes up, and its always these horrible figures.
I have to wonder if so many game studios now are serviced by the same laundering funny money hollywood accounting schools. I suspect they are, and this is no good.
Acting as if you havent accumulated assets when you are making Call of Duty 12 the golden shower edition is very hard to believe, said assets surely lowers costs some.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Become a Patron!
Back
Top