Publisher Thunderful Reiterates Positives Of Xbox Game Pass Releases

Enabling developers and creating "great business"

by Liam Doolan Fri 27th Oct 2023

We've heard debates about Xbox's Games Pass model and how sustainable it is, but one company that's all in is The Gunk publisher Thunderful Games.

In a new interview with Windows Central, Thunderful's Chief Games Officer (and former ID@Xbox guy) Agostino Simonetta has reiterated how this relatively new model can have a positive impact on both bigger and smaller developers - making titles accessible to the masses and resulting in "great business" for companies:

"When we launched The Gunk, it was so fantastic for the team to see hundreds of thousands of people playing immediately... Some indies have been able to deliver their vision, and launch their product as a result of support from Game Pass... Any business model that enables a company like Thunderful, or bigger or smaller, to have a great business is more than welcome."

As for the Activision Blizzard King acquisition, Simonetta believes Xbox is now in a "better position than ever" to reach billions of players and thinks developers of all sizes will still continue to have a strong relationship with Xbox. This obviously includes Thunderful:

"From Thunderful’s perspective, this does not signal the beginning of the end for indie publishers working with Xbox, we have a strong relationship with Xbox as well as other platforms and have zero doubts regarding Xbox’s commitment to independent games and development teams. Independent games are part of the fabric of the games industry, gamers love them, and are a huge source of innovation that no platform can ignore."

Simonetta has mentioned previously how "instrumental" Xbox and Game Pass were when bringing The Gunk to market.

Yesterday the PowerWash developers FuturLab announced Ikaro: Will Not Die in partnership with Thunderful Games during Xbox's Partner Preview showcase. You can learn more about this upcoming release for Xbox Series X|S and in our previous coverage here on Pure Xbox:

Have you tried out any Thunderful games on Game Pass? Do you play indie games often on this service? Tell us below.

[source windowscentral.com]

Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. He's also got a soft spot for Sonic the Hedgehog.

1
GamingFan4Lyf
Fri 27th Oct 2023

I really enjoyed The Gunk!

It was a pretty polished experience, and I really loved the visual style.

I'd recommend giving it a try!

2
Bleacdemon
Fri 27th Oct 2023

The Gunk was a great trip. Loved every bit of the game.

3
BAMozzy
Fri 27th Oct 2023

I enjoyed the Gunk too - certainly wouldn't have played it without Game Pass...

4
Mephisto2869
Fri 27th Oct 2023

Great for smaller studios,not so much for the big hitters

5
Foxx_64740
Fri 27th Oct 2023

I've loved The Gunk, such a fun well polished game.
Gamepass has been great for smaller and bigger studios as well. Since it's beginning I've been hearing that it's bad for bigger studios (most from ps fans) from then on I've seen games from Sega, square, rockstar, EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, CD projekt red and many other big studios coming to gamepass, many of them at day one

6
themightyant
Fri 27th Oct 2023

Really enjoyed The Gunk as a short, simple 'one and done' and glad their game reached more players through Game Pass.

@Mephisto2869 Exactly this. It's not 'one size fits all'. It's fantastic for smaller studios and those that need some additional marketing to find a player base, but we've see the estimated costs for large AA and AAA games, that's not a good deal for Microsoft unless absolutely necessary.

7
Nic-Noc20th-C
Fri 27th Oct 2023

I would love Thunderful to publish Steamworld Heist or its possible sequel on Xbox !!
Pretty please.

8
MinervaX
Fri 27th Oct 2023

@themightyant @Mephisto2869
Starfield managed to snatch the 7th best selling game spot of the whole year being on GamePass, that’s keeping in mind it was not on PlauStation. Lies of P also sold crazy numbers for a new IP despite being on GP.

I’m not sure “it’s not good” in this situation translates to “it’s bad” in any way. These games prove that should a game be desired enough, it will sell well regardless if it’s in GP or not. This does not mean every triple-A title out there can launch on GP. Big TripleA titles launching on the service cost MS a huge bundle of cash, they can’t afford paying for too many such deals.

9
themightyant
Fri 27th Oct 2023

@Tharsman To be clear we are talking about third party games on Day 1 here so Starfield doesn't apply as Microsoft gains subs/mindshare, it's a different equation.

Lies of P falls into that "smaller studios and those that need some additional marketing to find a player base" category. It's made by a relatively unknown Korean studio on a limited budget, they didn't have a big marketing campaign, so Game Pass helped with that. It's a good fit for the service and being on Game Pass probably HELPED it get more sales overall.

But that won't be the case for all games, especially expensive AAA's.

EDIT: It was telling, from the leaked emails, that even though Microsoft KNEW they had a massive gap between first party releases, and even did the due diligence to investigate how much it would cost to put third party AAAs on Game Pass day 1 (up to $300 million), that they didn't. It wasn't a good deal for either party. Microsoft wouldn't pay what AAA studios would want in exchange for lost Day 1 sales.

That's all we are saying.

10
MinervaX
Fri 27th Oct 2023

@themightyant I did basically say that its not ideal for MS, due to limited resources. But the Game Pass model does work for big publishers and studios. EA and Ubisoft both do their own Game Pass day one services.

The only thing holding MS from getting big Triple A from big publishers (the size of the studio itself is less relevant because almost no studio is "big" enough without the backup of a publisher) is the size of GamePass. At some point they might reach the subscriber base needed to be able to actually offer 300 million cash up front to a big publisher to put some big known IP on the service. In the meantime, even big publishers, despite having great marketing track record, have proven to be more than willing to put new IP triple A on the service. (Outriders, Exoprimal). GamePass "markettiong" potential can help boost even large publisher titles.

11
themightyant
Fri 27th Oct 2023

@Tharsman I still think there is a big difference between the single digit millions Xbox seems to be paying for games (from leaks) and the ones for hundreds of millions they posited. It would need a LOT more subscribers to cover that and Xbox would, sensibly, rather spend that money developing their own games. But I suppose it's possible in future if numbers swell sufficiently.

Something like Outriders and Exoprimal are great examples of the sort of the games I am talking about. They may be from slightly larger studios but they are mid-budget, pretty average, games and likely benefitted from the boost that being on a subscription service like Game Pass gives.

Would Outriders have made the splash it did without Game Pass? or disappeared into obscurity like many other 7ish/10 games like Atlas Fallen, Immortals of Aveum etc. Game Pass is a great place for these games to find an audience. Perfect "I might like it, but I don't want to drop hard cash on it" territory.

12
Kienda
Sat 28th Oct 2023

The Gunk is a great game and Game Pass is a great service.

If it wasn’t for Game Pass I wouldn’t have even tried this game and I ended up rating it as one of my favourite for the year it released.

13
ozkrmz
Sat 28th Oct 2023

I enjoyed The Gunk, that is why I bought it afterwards with no hesitation. I played it on my xbox one s (via game pass). For higher resolution enjoyement I bought it for pc (on steam). Works even better with more eye candy way.

14
ozkrmz
Sat 28th Oct 2023

By the way;
Music was suprizingly good in The Gunk...
It is another reason why I bought the game after I already fully completed it, on game pass.

15
electrolite77
Sat 28th Oct 2023

The Gunk was really good. Wouldn’t have played it without Game Pass but really enjoyed it. That applies to quite a few games really.

16
NeoRatt
Sat 28th Oct 2023

I think GamePass is just one of a number of business models to fund the creation and delivery of games. There is still room for all the other models. People like to think that one model is the best, but in reality there is no one size fits all. I love GamePass, owning digital games, and I play the odd F2P (even though I refuse to pay in F2P).

17
GeraltWhiteWolf
Sat 28th Oct 2023

I Love game pass, it has let me play a lot of games. I would not have the opportunity to play all the the great games that come to it day one or later down the line. Gunk was an awesome short indie that I enjoyed.

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