Reporter Claims Game Pass Is 'Absolutely Detested' By Some Xbox Studio Leaders

It’s not about what they want — what matters is what players want. And honestly, without Game Pass, some games wouldn’t sell well. We have to be honest about that. Of course that’s not the case for games like Fable, Gears, etc., but I’m thinking of games like Avowed which, to me, is a success because I loved it — but I’m not sure that many players would have tried it if it hadn’t been on Game Pass.

They should think a bit further ahead! The Day One games on Game Pass are good for the Xbox ecosystem, and therefore indirectly for them as well. A weak ecosystem would be disastrous for them in the medium term, and it would be worse than not selling their games directly. And don’t forget that Xbox always gives players the option to buy the game, whether on Xbox or on Steam. So in the end, if the game is good, it will still sell. I really don’t see what they’re complaining about.

Removing day 1 would be an instant unsub for me. Its the best feature by far.

Xbox has hit a homerun with gamepass and day 1 needs to remain the central feature.

Not shocking. Game pass has greatly hurt Xbox

The consumers aren't happy with the constant price increases for six year old consoles so we all have stuff to be unhappy about 🙂
I'm sure they would get a big shock if they got rid of it now and that monthly payment from gamepass users!
They would change there tune then I think!

Day one sales work so long everyone is on the same page for budgeting and accreditation. If Doom Dark Ages gets 3 million players but few of them are sales, GP revenue for the month should be accredited to it.

If this model drops (and it seems it has based on Doom “underperforming” claim) then the model breaks.

It’s like claiming every Netflix show is a flop because they didn’t sell enough aftermarket Blu-ray’s. If they won’t treat it that way, they may as well phase out the Ultimate tier.

Edit: personally don’t care that much about Day 1 games, just feel it’s a differentiator AND fills a market hole that vanished when rental (Blockbuster/Redbox) died. Not everyone can afford buying games and being able to effectively rent these games is likely huge for many of these consumers.

I don’t subscribe to GP outside the tier that lets me play games online.

Game Pass was bad for the developer/publisher, but good for the consumer

In much the same way of how Spotify is on the music scene

This is it now catching up that it was pro-consumer and they need to butcher it into profitability

Day 1 for smaller (not XGS) titles that want the financial certainty that comes with a game pass deal, not day 1 for tentpole AAA titles (but let them drop onto Premium after 1 year)

That's what I would personally THINK is a more sustainable model for the 1st party studio employees. They get to live and die by their own budgets and success (minus marketing, which Xbox can get a LOT better with!)

The new Xbox team is doing the maths and based on that they will change the content and tiers on Game Pass.

It's a difficult topic for us to discuss because we don't have the essential information they do. Of course, we like day one, but maybe it's not the best strategy in the long term for certain titles like first-party AAA games. A big marketing push at launch on Xbox and PC might be more advantageous, mostly because the total number of subscribers seems to depend more on price than content.

@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah Xbox needs to start making blockbuster well received games that sell.
Rather than more avowed or keeper type games that only get a niche type following and don't make any profits.

@Fishmasterflex96
Gotta agree here, it completely injected the mentality of "Why pay full price for a game when i get it for "free" at the cost of my subscription.
It sounded great on paper, especially for the consumer and im sure some small indie devs benefitted from the cash injection it gave them to get their game out there, but for the bigger "AAA" titles? It ***** them to a degree.

For me, personally, I don't need day one releases. Yeah, that's cool and all to be able to check them out, but it really is costing the company money. Imagine if these big movies coming out in theaters but instead of spending like $15-17+ on a movie ticket you can just stream them?

Games need to wait at least 6 months and then after the first wave of people who bought the games has died down then more can play the game and potentially buy it after checking it out (if they go that route). Either way, the company will at least still get an income from Game Pass kickbacks.

There's the door.

People can vehemently disagree and be negative all they want but the REALITY is that Game Pass isn’t growing.

It’s come to a point now that Xbox has to decide whether to persist with it and dilute the sales and profits of their first party games (not to mention exclusives) or get rid of day one inclusion to GP.

I’m for the latter because it will force devs to make great games. If you know that your game lives and dies on sales then you will make the best game possible.

@MrStark The day one thing was always gonna be a gamble. Like you say, it simply isnt growing. They cant put the price up as folks will cancel. If they pull day one folks will cancel, but at least you will get sales and quite possibly better games.

think it has taken away the value from all games in general just as a service, and has been a detriment to the games industry in those people's views because of how it devalues games

If that's the case then maybe these developers work for the wrong company.

I pay for my subscription and I expect something from the service in return. Developers are paid by Microsoft, what am I missing here?
And what exactly do they mean by devaluing their games??

Once a game is played, or experienced it's inherently starting to lose its perceived value regardless of being on GamePass or not.

There's a reason tentpole films like The Odyssey & Spider-Man: Brand New Day are released first in cinemas before going to streaming & physical media and other films are direct to video.

It shouldn't be so hard for the same principles to work with games - you won't be seeing GTA 6 launching on a subscription service for a very long time, if ever

The problem is many people got into xbox consoles this gen (or stayed with xbox) because of GPU. This was evidenced by a very high attach rate of GP to consoles with only small % in cloud/PC.
Day 1 is why GP stood out and became a force to be reckoned with.

Now as a fan I would say scrap it but millions of casuals who rely on GP wont like it for sure.

The alternative would be something like PS Premium!! No Thank You it's just not worth the money, they give mostly just old tired games you would have bought long ago if you thought they were worth playing and nothing else worth talking about, to top it off if you stop subscribing it's goodbye cloud saves as well!! They charge for Cloud saves!!!.

The Free stuff you get on PC is better than Sony's subscriptions, if it ever ended up in a situation like that I would go completely over to PC.

I'm just one guy, but I said in an article recently that I would have had to pay over 100 AUD for Halo when ti launches if it didn't come to GP day one. But it is so I'll sub for the month play it and then unsub and save myself like 80 bucks.

I know me I would have paid full price because I can't help myself with AAA games, but I don't have to and that's great for me.

@Mr-Cage problem is, alongside the blockbusters, Xbox needs the smaller games to flesh out GP (I’d argue Sony also need more small games)

But those smaller games need to be ones people are interested in. Stuff like Kiln let’s be honest who is the audience?

Where’s the kid friendly games? (As an example) get those next purchasers into the platform.

I am a big supporter of Day 1 Gamepass being done away with for big games they want to make an event out of. Being able to post excitement about people being willing to pay for a game and loving it is a big morale boost rather than "I will try it on Gamepass" and oh we had 10 million people try a game and bounce right off. Gamepass does seem to lessen the feel of a big games release, I hope it does not for Gears E-Day as that is my most anticipated game in a long time and I hope to see big sales numbers for it and lot's of excitement.

I cherished Game Pass and specifically day one games since it became a thing but it’s now undeniable that it did more harm to Xbox than good, it didn’t grow Xbox’ overall user base, it didn’t make people switch from PS or Nintendo to Xbox, it didn’t grow Cloud gaming nor ate into Steam’s PC market share, it didn’t make any of their studios more profitable, even the biggest gaming franchise of all time barely moved the subscriber base, all while conditioning many if not most of the Xbox fanbase to not buy their games anymore, but rather ‘wait for it to be on Game Pass’, which is the most challenging thing for Asha coming up, they will lose some diehard fans who are still religiously supporting the service but for Xbox to be profitable on its own (without multiplatform revenue) most day one games needs to stop.

Hot take : GPU at 30 made sense. First of all, no half measures - COD is there and it means any other game is there. It has all subs/collabs/etc. People who actually play enough games still extract value from GPU even at 30 its equivalent of 4 full price games per year and GP had more than 8 or so (between 1st party and partners) in the past 3 years.
Secondly, sure many casuals, who were ok with $20 but 30 was a lot, unsubbed as we have seen but it could been offset by whoever stayed because revenue per user is increased. Also likely the price point was designed for GPU to break-even. Whoever unsubbed likely went with GP premium or core that were profitable for MS. So all 3 (+PC) tiers were likely profitable or break-even at worst.
Basically they were shifting audience from GPU to mid-tier premium, getting more sales from folks on premium AND getting enough monthly revenue from those on GPU. Motto is either sub for mid-tier and buy games or if you want day 1 be ready to pay a high premium for that.
They could go further of keeping the price of GP premium while increasing GPU price as necessary down the road making it a "hardcore fan" tier for those who play all 1st party games and overall plays a lot and specifically in GP.

MS went with short-win instead with $23 for GPU which is not bad. However, the problem is not fully resolved. Now fully removing day 1 (and likely GPU tier as it is) is a risky move now. Keeping it as is also sounds like a problem with these back-to-exclusives strategy

The day gamepass is discontinued, or day one games are no longer available, is the day I unsubscribe after being a subscriber since day one and very likely means the end of owning an Xbox altogether for me.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I definitely agree with you on kid friendly games we need more on gamepass I'd be thinking of my daughter on that not enough kiddie games in Xbox full stop!
But toys for Bob are working on a new Spyro game at least there's that.
And it's a perfect opportunity for Xbox to invest in the indie developers to pad out gamepass with quirky title's.
I love myself a good indie game and in fairness gamepass has had a good few this year already.
Shotgun roulette is a recent one I really like.

@Fiendish-Beaver

Of course, the problem is at Microsoft's end, and if the service is not offering them value for money, then they have to make changes, even if we don't like it

I respect your view. But if Microsoft decides to do away with day one releases, it will mean that I'll no longer be able to justify my subscription even though I've been there from day one.

The Indies, variety (which now has a big question mark following the studio loses) and XGS day one games are what keep me. It's also the main differentiation from competing subs and it would go down pretty badly with the Xbox community, my opinion of course.

Game Pass has reached that Spotify peak moment - good for the end consumer, bad for everyone else.

Microsoft have pushed themselves into a corner with GP and there seemingly no way out that doesn't end badly in one way or another.

@Sol4ris

Hey, there! Completed unrelated, but I wanted to get back to you on South of Midnight, as promised.

I'm really enjoying it.

Your view on the combat being a bit ropey I can totally see, but I don't have a real issue with it myself. It serves the purpose.

Anyway, yes, it's a very enjoyable romp with lovely aesthetics and quality music throughout.

I think this sentiment is due to the fact we're still in a transition period. I don't think many people would say that music, series or movies have been devalued by now being streaming and part of services. But there are music events and cinemas while struggling keep bringing a lot of revenue. Gaming is probably going to follow a similar procedure where a balance is struck. But I don't agree that being on Game Pass automatically devalues games.

@Millionski The amount of people who gave up entirely on their subscription with the price increase, or the amount of people going to lower tiers was very likely higher than they expected and even with higher costs, they probably weren't making enough revenue. Otherwise they wouldn't have decreased the price so soon after. Same with the increased price of games which they went back on.

@GlasgowGuy It won't be missed but when it does inevitably end up on game pass I may consider it then.

@NishimaruX

Glad you're having a good time. I loved the game myself, ropey combat and all🙂

I’ve wondered if for premiere Day 1 releases they do some sort of voucher system where you get to choose X number of titles to play over a period of time. It would better tie subscriptions to specific titles driving the service and allow them to pare back the sales losses while still maintaining an option for Day 1 on those titles for those who are interested.

How about they do something nobody has considered, like eliminating the 1 month GP sub and making the minimum you can subscribe 3 months instead? People jumping into the ecosystem for the brand new day one addition would then better off set that game’s loss of purchase with a 3 month sub price. Early finishers may then have to look at the rest of the catalogue to make the most of their sub length and end up boosting other games etc

I want Xbox to survive, and if that means eliminating day 1 releases for BIG 1st party games, so be it. 3/6/12 month delayed releases onto XGP is fine.

Just something to undo the unbelievable flood of blood Phil Spencer caused AND steered the ship down over the last few years.

Here is what Game Pass does, it's just one of a few examples for me. Short version... I downloaded Darktide. Never would have purchased it. I loved it! The feel, the lore, the Heretics! Now, I buy every expansion, have read four 40k novels, painted a dozen or so minis, and purchased some hardcover lore books. It opened a door, now they have a fan for life.