Last week, we reported on the news that Furi developer The Game Bakers had decided to drop DLC support on Xbox. At the time, the team said that low interest levels on Xbox had led to the decision, and a new interview with VICE now links those interest levels to Xbox Game Pass.
In short, the developer believes that it's becoming difficult to get noticed on Xbox if games, especially indie ones, aren't included in Game Pass. Ultimately, Furi has never been included as part of the service, and the fact that it didn't sell well on Xbox led to the DLC not launching on that platform.
"Game Pass is such a fantastic platform for players [...] so there are possibly more Xbox players than ever interested in indie games. Unfortunately, without Game Pass, it is also very hard for many indie games to be visible on Xbox."
The interview also broke down the sales stats for Furi, and another of the team's games, Haven, across all platforms. Haven has been a part of Xbox Game Pass, which hugely increased its reach on the platform. However, without that Game Pass support, the Switch version is the most popular console platform by a good margin.
Furi on the other hand has been on PlayStation Plus, and the sales breakdown for it shows PS Plus has a similar effect to Xbox Game Pass, at least in this instance. If you take Plus out of the equation, PlayStation sales of Furi only accounted for 7% total, compared to 5% on Xbox.
Unfortunately, Furi never made its way to Xbox Game Pass, seemingly because any request for it to be added was too far away from the game's launch period — Furi launched on Xbox One before Game Pass was even a thing.
"We talked to the team at Xbox to see if there was a way to get some support, but Furi didn’t align with the Game Pass strategy focused on new titles, [...] This is why we took the decision not to bring the DLC to Xbox at launch: the chances the investment was not going to recoup were high."
It's unfortunate that a lack of Game Pass support led to dropped DLC, but it's understandable, given the dev's financial situation. PlayStation Plus did seem to have a similar effect though, so the challenge indie developers face seems to be related to subscriptions generally, rather than just Xbox Game Pass.
Do you think Xbox should continue to focus on indies around launch? Or provide more support for older titles? Let us know down below.
[source vice.com]
Comments 14
So they have their answer then? Put it on gamepass....
If porting DLC on an already developed game for that console won't give you a return on investment, maybe your game isn't very good. Because, that is a very small investment.
It couldn't have been on Game Pass day 1, as it launched about 3 months before GP did.
Guess they mean Xbox prefer new games when it comes to indies (most on the service seem to be day 1 or shortly after) so they've struggled to get it into the service later on...
Wonder if all this is an attempt to get Microsoft's attention so it can go on Game Pass now?
@UltimateOtaku91 They tried but Xbox weren't having it. Which is a shame, I enjoyed what I played before I got stuck, there's definitely an audience for it.
I can see Xbox releasing gamepass tiers one day…probably the day they drop gold. The premium tier including dlc from these games. Maybe that’s when these older indie titles will get pushed more on gamepass.
It’s still a pity games like Mortal Kombat 11 aren’t the ultimate edition on gamepass
@themightyant @SplooshDmg So devs can't put in requests for their old games to be on gamepass? I get the feeling if this was some AAA Studio Microsoft would do it in an heartbeat, also isn't this war of mine coming to gamepass this month, pretty sure that's an old game as well
I’m a huge advocate for game pass but I still buy games. Indie and AAA.
@SplooshDmg so all they need to do is make a furi directors cut with the dlc included and they will be added to gamepass, sorted lol
@UltimateOtaku91 Microsoft are VERY selective about what appears on Game Pass, most that apply don't make it. To be honest that is a good thing, as their curation is excellent. On the whole they seem to prefer new titles as Day 1 exclusives especially for indies. They do make exceptions for some games - Death's Door, and The Forgotten City spring to mind - but these were award winning titles.
I think Furi is a good game, but it's not in the same league as those, also being on PS+ FIRST may have hindered it's chances.
EDIT: This War of Mine is a new repackaged version releasing day 1. It's not that they don't let older games on, they will for the right title, it's just they seem to prefer newer ones.
@Widey85 Pretty sure being PS Plus game would have prevented that during that time frame.
To the everyone
Honestly a lot here is being missed. The game was a PlayStation timed exclusive. By 2020, it had sold 700k copies 40% were Steam and the other 60% split between the consoles. It had 2.8 million PS Plus downloads but less than 280k sold on that platform (40% for 700k).
It’s really hard for me to side with a dev that’s made two games and both of which have showed up on sub services. Haven their latest game was on GP.
But I’d like to point they though 700k copies sold was “okay” despite the fact larger AA studios like Marvelous flip over 500k.
Again, they’ve received cash bags for both of their games and there are Indie devs that haven’t gotten one. I don’t take anything they say as gold.
The answer for Furi then is to put it on Game Pass - whether its a 'new' release or NOT. I have probably purchased less than 10 'Indie/Arcade' digital Only games in my life across both Xbox & Playstation so would incredibly unlikely to buy Furi.
If an Indie/Arcade game was on PS+/GwG, then I may end up trying the odd few that appealed but more likely to be playing a AAA game and if I have money for a new digital only game, I have money to buy a AAA game on sale so again not going to buy Furi.
Point is, if its on a Subscription service, I'm much more likely to play it because otherwise, I'm investing money into the AAA's (new or old) for my game time.
If they don't get the reach or get noticed, then that should dictate the 'best' way for their studio to 'compete' in this market and use that to their benefit...
I literally didn't even know the game existed. I have every platform and the game just completely went by unnoticed.
Pretty sure there is a lot more to it than just game pass. Some more outright exposure would have probably helped. I was completely aware of haven when it was announced. Not my type of game but it was talked about at least an showed up here an there.
imagine my surprise when i learn of furi an that its an older title from these same people i only just became aware of because of haven and only became aware of furi from this "not bringing the dlc" over.
The more I read of this, the more it sounds like they just screwed themselves with the launch strategy and now xbox players are paying the price for that.
I'm confused. They say the sales were bad because the game wasn't on Game Pass? But Game Pass wasn't a thing when this game launched?
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