Roundup: All The Reveals From February 2025's Xbox Indie Showcase

So so much Game Pass goodness, and a shadow drop!

Moonlighter 2 stole the show for me though! Can't wait!

Good, want to see what all the hype for Balatro is all about.

They casually dropping a AAA game DLC trailer into an indie show? Okay sure, can’t complain as it’s Lies of P - super hype!

@fizban3332 Don't do it! It will take you!

How can Microsoft market Game Pass more / better in order to increase subscriptions?

I have a feeling that in it's current state with it's current subscriber-base, it's unsustainable. The amount of content coming to the service is incredible value for the consumer. Game Pass truly IS the "Netflix of Gaming", but they just can't seem to convince enough people out there of this. And I'm not talking JUST console sales-wise, but IF "This is an Xbox" or "This is an Xbox", then why not a spike in subscriptions?

Not bad. Kinda light on RPGs. But that’s how it rolls.

It's tough; I sometimes will buy stuff I want to support, which I did with Balatro. But if I'd waited, I'd have gotten it on Game Pass! Meanwhile, I was hoping for Animal Well, and no dice there

I hope lots of people will play Balatro here, though, which is also a great way to support both it, Game Pass, and more indie games on the service.

@SleeplessKnight subscribers are going up:

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/01/game-pass-sets-new-quarterly-revenue-record-grows-pc-subs-by-over-30percent

@Cakefish Sounds great in a press release but "up 30% on PC" from what to what? So last I read, estimated GP subs across Xbox and PC combined was around 34 million or thereabouts. So does PC increasing by 30% bring that up to 35 million? 40 million?

That's another problem with Game Pass (and to some extent other subscription services). How many new customers only bought 1-month subs just to play Black Ops 6 during the hot, release window or Indiana Jones to beat the story, then not renew the next month? People do the same with Stranger Things on Netflix or The Mandalorian on Disney+ but they have MUCH larger subscriber bases so losing subs doesn't affect them as much.

@SleeplessKnight gamepass is very sustainable. More than 1 billion per quarter in revenue.

"during Microsoft's earnings call for Q3 2023, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Xbox subscriptions are now bringing in an eyewatering $1 billion dollars per quarter. I've since clarified with sources that this was indeed in reference to Xbox Game Pass, without incorporating things like Minecraft or Fallout 76 subscriptions."

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/is-xbox-game-pass-sustainable

I have to say I wasn't expecting such an explosive indie showcase for Xbox. I was looking at the Xbox Wire recap post and it just kept going. I was starting to think I was trapped in an endless scroll. Crazy good Developer Direct in January and a solid partner indie showcase with IGN in February. Off to a great start.

@SleeplessKnight Based on Microsoft's own comments regarding game pass, it is physically not unsustainable in its current state. They legally aren't allowed to lie to shareholders about this kind of stuff and for some reason it was part of the ABK FTC court case where Sony argued how unsustainable it was and Microsoft argued back (I say for some reason because I really don't know what a subscription service losing money and potentially losing even more money if COD was thrown has to do with anything related to that court case (and judging by her comments neither did the judge)). All we've really seen are price increases which both just match inflation and similar price increases PS Plus had already recieved and the moving of day one to Game Pass Ultimate only. For Game Pass standard part of it was that it finally included core, which people had complained about initially. Personally I dislike the forced bundling and price increase though. Anyway, the price increases thus far largely match inflation and are in line with Xbox and the services growth. Like when day one started we were getting a few first party games a year very inconsistently of varying size and quality. We'd have a year of Crackdown 3 and Gears, a great one with games from Forza to Psychonauts to Halo, and then a complete dud where the best we can get are some really good AA games that are still AA games. Heck when it first started Xbox only owned like 5 studios. They had five first party studios when they promised day one releases initially. Game Pass even predates all the purchases they made in 2018 and Xbox Game Studios forming in 2019. Now they've grown into a complete behemoth and all their studios are consistently pumping out games. Game Pass also hadn't increased following inclusions like cloud, EA play, or even with the base game increases. I expect down the line we'll see PC Game Pass at the very least lose day one games as well and that'll be a sign of them likely hitting the subs they want or PC Game Pass getting enough content.

@WildConcept6 Owning more studios and thus more game franchises also means that the costs of development, marketing and distribution now fall on YOU. IF you're not "selling" as many of those titles as you need to in order to break even or make a profit, largely due to the games releasing essentially "free" day one on your subscription service, then the only other way to make it work is to increase your subscriber base. That really isn't happening, at least not even close to the rate they had hoped or need it to.

@BacklogBrad Exactly. I'm really not sure why consumers are so worried about the sustainability of Game Pass. If it really were a dud Xbox wouldn't continue supporting it. People need to remember that Xbox as a business pulls in 20 billion USD in gaming revenue yearly and prior to Zenimax and ABK that was 15 billion. Their business strategy isn't falling apart and I'm not concerned about a company of that size making oogles more money. I really raise my eyebrows at all the people made at Xbox for not making more money or saying the brand is doomed when there's a year over year dip. Like they already make several billion more than the king Nintendo. In a certain sense do we even really want them to keep growing? Like I'm not a Microsoft shareholder. I'm not that invested in Xbox making billions more. I do want them to keep putting out great games and investing in their platforms, but that's it. I'm not that concerned with how much money the subscription service I'm subscribed to is making, because I already know that Xbox could feed a few starving countries with the revenue they earn.

The only thing that's unsustainable were Microsoft's insane goals for subscribers. It's like they forgot how niche console and PC gaming is (or maybe they didn't and I'll get into that). Like what was it? More than a hundred million in only 10 years? Like bro Nintendo and Sony still struggle to just sell over a hundred million in hardware (before the Switch Nintendo sold like 13 million WiiUs and maybe 80 something million 3DSes; the PS4 dominated at less than 120 million total sales after 8 years). And Xbox consoles have never achieved 100 million in sales. I think they just got tricked by the massive uptick in gaming like the entire industry did during COVID. PC is a huge boon but that's largely dominated by Steam and gamers aren't even changing habits for Epic's literal free games (not by the hundreds of millions at least). Xbox would need to shift people to not just using their platform, but investing in their ecosystem and becoming long term consumers, which takes time.

Ratatan is just Patapon and I love that. From back when I liked Playstation

@SleeplessKnight You seem dead set on Game Pass bleeding money to the point you're ignoring multiple people factually pointing out otherwise and to the point of twisting and partly ignoring what I said (I literally only mentioned Xbox's growth in relation to game pass's price increase and change in tiers and day one releases). I'll leave with a reply to an earlier comment I'd already written, but beyond that just, you are a consumer. Presumably a gamer. As mentioned in another comment Xbox is earning money in the billions. Like 20+ billion and game pass itself is pulling in a baseline of over a billion. That alone is more than most gaming publishers. After a quick web search the game pass revenue is more gaming revenue than Capcom pulls in yearly and it's not that far from a lot of other recognizable publishers. Regardless or whether it's sustainable or not, as a consumer why even care? Why do you want it to earn even more money? Enjoy it if you enjoy it and don't if you don't. Tell your friends and family to get into it or don't. Spread it on social media or don't. Xbox will do what it does based on their financials and maybe it all crumbles to dust... and? We're not CEOs getting bonuses based on GP sub numbers. If the service dies then sucks, but there are alternatives. Alternatives with cloud options (Luna, Nvidia, and even PS Plus) and subscription libraries (Luna, PS Plus, EA Play/Access, Ubisoft Plus, etc) and even ones with day one games (Ubisoft+, EA Access). We as consumers don't live or breathe on Xbox Game Pass's success as a subscription service. There are other options in the market (many of which have been made better due to game pass (like initially PS Now was $20 a month for only streaming PS3 and older games with no downloads or PS4 games and PS Plus was a completely separate additional price)). I can't tell you where Xbox Game Pass will be in 10 years, but I will say that Xbox is supporting it now and they aren't pulling back that support or failing to invest in it. There also isn't a sign of it disappearing tomorrow. It is also making more money than many of us will ever see in our lifetime. Microsoft has also gone on record and said to shareholders that it is profitable and sustainable (and if those are lies than Microsoft faces legal litigation). That's reality. Take it or leave it.

@SleeplessKnight (and this is the response to your earlier comment I had already made before I saw yours to mine) I mean is 30 to 40 million subscribers bad when those people are paying a minimum of $5 a month? More realistically upwards of $20 a month? The most unsustainable bit would be the people like me who use MS rewards and took advantage of the initial conversion for 3 years on the cheap. Also a video game subscription is just different. COD is a perfect example. Most people don't buy that just for the campaign. They buy it for the multiplayer and they won't stop playing the multiplayer until the next COD releases. Why would they cancel if they subbed for COD? I imagine there's a small subset who just wanted the campaign or to try it out - and that's not really bad either as Xbox Game Pass stopped free trials leading up and those people probably don't usually buy COD at full price on launch - but they'd be a minority. For everyone left Xbox has also given data that Game Pass gamers spend more in games (Microtransactions), spend more time gaming, and spend more buying other games on Xbox that aren't on the service. As in there are ways Game Pass makes Xbox money beyond the subscription cost. All that said there's a very obvious solution to boosting total subscribers a lot that Microsoft has already made clear. Mobile, cloud, and a cheaper ad based tier. Their goal here would be to breakout into the few billion people in the world who game on mobile and even more who have a smartphone. They've spoken about wanting to directly sell mobile and cloud games on their own mobile storefront as well as bringing game pass to it. However, they've been slow on upgrading their cloud offerings and blocked by Apple and Google's store practices (whose terms would make it unironically unsustainable in terms of profit margins and other ridiculousness like Apple requesting every game has its own listing on the App store). Still based on rumors, I wouldn't be surprised if Xbox soon starts piloting a cloud only Game Pass tier in beta (like they did for PC) before fully releasing XCloud (or whatever they choose to name it... please not Xbox Cloud Gaming) out of beta with the ability to purchase games, make purchases within games, and play game pass games. We'll probably see a base tier to access the service, a cheaper ad tier or time limited tier, and a more expensive tier that comes with game pass, and then ultimate. Similarly down the line if courts properly open up the mobile OSes like PC then we'll see Xbox launch their own mobile store with mobile games and an Xbox Game Pass subscription. These games could also be of upwards higher quality than expected. I mean we've already seen Hades on mobile and Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil. Smartphone hardware will only improve. That's a look at how Game Pass can grow though, but regardless it's clearly something Xbox is invested in and is at least happy enough with that they keep supporting it.

@SleeplessKnight 34 million was the last official number released a year ago. I’d guess somewhere around 40 million now if they’re seeing such high growth rate on PC.

@Cakefish I hope that is true.

Huge mic drop from Microsoft, Xbox is saving indie gaming!

@WildConcept6 Well the reason anyone should be concerned beyond being an Xbox fanboy is the investment they've made in the Xbox ecosystem. IF Game Pass proves to be unsustainable / stagnant and the bean counters at Microsoft decide to kill the Xbox division, specifically the hardware division, I think anyone out there who has invested in and built up a massive digital library would want some way to play those games in the event there is no next Xbox. Some will say "well just play them on PC". I'm talking console-only gamers here. There isn't nearly as much intersection between die-hard console gamers and the "PC Master Race" type crowd as what some think. Just look at sales of Sony's 1st party titles on PC for evidence of this. So, as a console-only gamer what happens to my games if there's no Xbox console? Would Microsoft make a way to transfer your game licenses from Xbox to PlayStation or Nintendo?

So I guess that's what most people are concerned about. Sure some are flat out Xbox fanboys who drink the Kool-Aid and believe every word from Uncle Phil's mouth, so their vested interests are just in unapologetically, blindly propping up the brand. Conversely there are the "Sony Pony" types or Nintendo fanboys who hate Xbox and make it their life's mission to call out or put down Xbox every chance they get. But for the rest of the gamers out there, I suppose they just want to know that they haven't wasted multiple thousands of dollars on something that won't continue on.

The other big one is that I personally don't want to see the Xbox hardware division to go the way of Sega because I don't want Sony to just have complete, uncontested free reign over the high-end home console market.

@Cakefish Your numbers seem to be off by a lot, if a 30% increase in PC took them to 40m then that would mean that PC would have had more subs that the consoles ever had.

A 30% increase on PC would realistically be around 1m more I would reckon.

Can’t wait for Ratatan….I had Patapon on the PSP and loved it so I’m really looking forward to this one

@Ilyn well I’m assuming that console subs also went up. Just a wild guess at the end of the day, I admit I could be completely off base.

Too many folks worrying about gamepass future and not discussing the games, you know what this article is about. Its real simple enjoy gamepass while its good which it is right now for the most part and if that changes then reevaluate at that time.

I wasn't expecting much from this showcase but seeing Balatro on gamepass is excellent. Its one of the very few indie games I have an interest in and nearly purchased a couple of times.

Revenge of the Savage Planet will also be something to look forward to as well. Enjoyed the first one a lot & think its one of those hidden gems that folks might have overlooked

@Titntin You're a prime example of what I've been talking about. You said it and I agree, Game Pass is generally a great value for most consumers. No one argues that point. Is it good enough value for the majority of subscribers to STAY subscribed for the entire year though? Obviously not for everyone, which is again why subscription numbers have been stagnant, with a trickle-down effect of poor Xbox hardware sales.

@Cakefish the problem with this is while subs are up 30%, revenue from subs was actually down.

This means that others have dropped the sub otherwise revenue would increase in line with the sub increase. Not saying numbers have dropped, they are likely still plateaued around the same.

Edit: correction, revenue from services actually increased but only by 2%. So while subs went up by 30% on PC, revenue was 28% less. So they clearly lost subs somewhere or the revenue would show much higher/similar growth. Likely this will be balanced out by folks subscribing short term to play a game and then not resubbing.

Gamepass is still clearly bringing money in, but the 1 billion a quarter is revenue that doesn't deduct costs. Would be interesting to see what the actual figure is with development costs, etc... deducted.

Just for reference: https://gamerant.com/xbox-game-pass-revenue-record/

You don't need to worry about gamepass sustainability people, if it wasn't sustainable it would have died by now

@Weebleman Gamepass is still clearly bringing money in, but the 1 billion a quarter is revenue that doesn't deduct costs. Would be interesting to see what the actual figure is with development costs, etc... deducted.

The cost is often ignored when it suits, its similar to the 70/30 split when games are released on PS / Switch etc. People focus on MS making 70% and don't factor in that they also have to foot all the Dev and publishing costs. It would be interesting to see how muh of that 70% is profit.

Obviously this works both way, its just more a MS issue currently as they move towards a more multiplatform soltuion.