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Arkane Studios' Dinga Bakaba - Xbox Game Pass Will Allow us to Remain Creative

DonJorginho

Banned
With Bethesda now officially a part of Microsoft, Xbox has suddenly added a bunch of incredibly talented studios to its first party portfolio, and one of the most exciting among those is Arkane. The studio behind the likes of Dishonored and Prey, Arkane’s teams have consistently put out excellent games built on unique ideas that are executed with near-perfection, and the prospect of seeing more of these on Xbox in the future is an exciting one.

Of course, as it the case with all Bethesda studios (and really, any Microsoft first party studio), Arkane’s primary goal moving forward is going to be to provide compelling new content for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and the studio itself is quite excited about that. Speaking recently with Press Start, Dinga Bakaba – director of the upcoming Deathloop – said that being part of the Game Pass ecosystem will allow Arkane to remain creative and keep making the kind of games they like making.

Dinga Bakaba, Director on Deathloop

“Being able to be apart of the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem makes things a bit different for us, because we can occupy a space in that service, and we will continue to make the kind of games that we make and make them well,” he said. “If you’ve looked on social media, you’ll see that games like Prey and Dishonored 1 and 2 coming to Xbox Game Pass, a lot of people are saying that you need to play these games and have no excuse not to, so it’s been very encouraging.

“It’s a service that will allow us to remain creative and have the audience and build that relationship over time and that’s really exciting.”

Microsoft has often spoke about wanting to let its studios remain creatively independent, which, under the right circumstances, should mean that Arkane will continue to release exciting new games in the future. We’ve also heard about how the development of major first party releases such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, Tell Me Why, Gears Tactics, and Bleeding Edge has been affected by Game Pass for the better, so it should be interesting to see how Arkane is impacted going forward as well.

Arkane’s Deathloop will launch for PS5 and PC on May 21. The studio is also working on a couple of new unannounced games, one of which seems to be a new fantasy IP.

 
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jhjfss

Member
Shaun The Sheep Movie Ok GIF
 

saintjules

Member
maybe this is focused at developers?

Sounds like it. Using a Developer to talk about the benefits of GP is a good way to entice other Developers to look at the service an have their games on it. Maybe it helps more indie Developers too.
 

speedomodel

Member
It's interesting that there's a concerted push to proselytize Gamepass. I think the gamers themselves are already onboard, maybe this is focused at developers?
A couple people have said that there's actually a waitlist to get your game onto Game Pass. Some developers have been trying for months to get their game in. I'd imagine this is more in every interview these studios are being asked about Game Pass. It seems like the low-hanging fruit of interview to ask each developer their opinion on the business model.
 

Mmnow

Member
It's interesting that there's a concerted push to proselytize Gamepass. I think the gamers themselves are already onboard, maybe this is focused at developers?
Developers probably won't benefit from this unless they're bought up by MS or have their games funded through Xbox.

Gamepass takes the pain out of selling a game. You don't have to justify a $70 purchase if a significant number of your playerbase can just hit download. That means no forced stealth sections or tower defence mini-games where they don't fit, just because it's the hot thing.

With a game like Prey, there's no barrier of entry, so there's no risk of releasing an awesome game that people just don't bother playing. Someone out of that 20m will hit download just because.

Obviously third parties - especially AAA publishers - have different priorities here. There's still benefit from being in the service, but they can't rely on the subscription to make their game work.
 

Derktron

Banned
I mean in reality it does make sense, they can explore their creativity and add it to Gamepass as a test run to see how well it goes with gamers, I think that’s smart.
 

Chukhopops

Member
If you look at Grounded, it’s a good example of how you can use GP to make some kind of early access process, test a concept, gather feedback, iterate etc without the pressure of having to sell immediately.

It makes this kind of risky concept a lot less risky basically.
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
Nothing says creative like MS. Like whatstheirname making Gears sequels after Ms killed thier project, Rare making avatars, Halo/Forza on endless loops. etc. etc.
 
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