• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Is Game Pass Genius or am I overthinking it?

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Yes i do. But i know i don't own those films. The picture quality is lesser and thus not a suitable replacement for me. Same with game pass. Games can suddebly disappear, you don't own anything or streaming is of lesser quality by lag compression artifacts or just gaving to be at the whim of a long download before anything can be played. I do understand why people like it but the picture implies ownership.

well the option is exactly the same then. you can buy a Bly ray or you can wait for it to come on Netflix. best of both worlds, same with gamepass. you can still buy the games you want or you can wait for gamepass to have them. remember not all games are gonna be on gamepass
 
Imagine this scenario - Gamepass, it's great. People love it. Loooooove it.

Suddenly, Microsoft begins to release 23 Stellar, Quadruple A, 5 Star games on this platform a year. Games with a critical Consensus of 10 or 100% Ratings across the board.

They begin to release 23 titles like this every 2 years, all Games with 80+ Hours of Gameplay Held to nothing short of Critical Acclaim on the GamePass platform.

But then 2 year's later those 23 games are slowly replaced by the previous 23 games (which you were also addicted to) that were also rated just as extravagantly.

And suddenly all First Party Games on GamePass are Considered must own titles for any gamer.

Suddenly, GamePass is no longer the bastion of 100's of games to play for the Hardcore gamer - As that Hardcore gamer will only ever possibly be able to invest his time into completing perhaps 7 Stellar titles a year through GamePass if they are in fact this good.

Meaning the incentive to buy games has returned... as GamePass is no longer home to all 23 of those critically acclaimed games released 2 years before.

And Suddenly, GamePass... to the common gamer who want's to play the best titles and also sample all titles - is only good to play about 7 games a year not because you wouldn't play the other games on offer - but why??

Those 7 titles are all you could possibly sink your time into - since they are so good - due to this - GamePass loses it's utility as the Netflix of Gaming.

Gamer's are again forced to buy games, as there are too many GamePass games and they are all better than any title that came before it... too many to choose from.

Too many to ever play within the 2 year release window it takes Microsoft to swap out it's roaster.

Or maybe, they just put all titles on there anyways knowing no gamer could ever possibly play more than 7 games a year in totality... because they are all soooo long and all stellar must play experiences.

Imagine.

Or maybe, you will be forced into buying more games than you ever considered possible... as GamePass got you addicted to a particular set a games but has replaced them all with an new set of 23 stellar offering's... all of which you are also getting addicted to.

Imagine.
 
Last edited:

Pasedo

Member
Lots of companies are pushing subscription models now. I'm no expert but there must be more financial benefits other than creating an ongoing base and collecting peoples data. I suspect getting more revenue upfront allows them to fuel their profits made from investment portfolios and leveraging time and markets better. Not to mention provide better cash flow. Not that they need it but when you don't get your base operations right that's how large companies fail. So yes I do think it's genius.
 
And? People play games for the experience. Is that experience diminished by not owning the game?
Yes. I can't hold my game or catalog the box art or talk about how Victor Ireland delayed Lunar on playstation because he didn't like the ribbon on the manual.
 

CeeJay

Member
I have over 700 blu rays phyically. So no not like netflix.
What a waste of money...

People build these media collections like they are some kind of family heirloom. You might think your collection is valuable but when you are gone and your kids are clearing out your artic all those plastic disks are going straight in the trash, you do realise that don't you?
 
What a waste of money...

People build these media collections like they are some kind of family heirloom. You might think your collection is valuable but when you are gone and your kids are clearing out your artic all those plastic disks are going straight in the trash, you do realise that don't you?
Don't have kids. This is for MY enjoyment. Plus netflix doesn't have my horror movies. Just watxhed a blu ray a day this Halloween to reminisce about my younger days.
 
What a waste of money...

People build these media collections like they are some kind of family heirloom. You might think your collection is valuable but when you are gone and your kids are clearing out your artic all those plastic disks are going straight in the trash, you do realise that don't you?
Dude why do you care how many movies he owns? Did your parents choke on a Blu Ray and die? Calm down man lol
 

Kokoloko85

Member
XkDR3pA.jpg
 

Greeno

Member
I was always wondering this :
Do MS choose what game go in GP? If i am a developer eg MS approaches me and tells me that my game will be on GP ? How much am i getting paid ? Can i say no, my game wont enter GP ?
Of course, the same questions apply for the 2 free games of PS+ too
To my understanding, it is a "case-by-case basis" situation. You have to make a deal with Microsoft. Some developers choose to get paid only on entry to the service, some choose to get paid in percentage of 1 subscription per month, some choose to get paid in hours played, etc.
 

CeeJay

Member
Yes. I can't hold my game or catalog the box art or talk about how Victor Ireland delayed Lunar on playstation because he didn't like the ribbon on the manual.
And how many people that you talk to care about that kind of shit?

OK, it's good that you are a collector, I am glad someone is doing that so the kids of tomorrow get to see this stuff in a museum. For me though, games are there to be played and that is where 99% of their values lies. In fact for me, I hate having loads of plastic clutter around the house taking up space. I have boxed full of old audio cassettes, VHS videos, cds, books and dvds in my attic that are worthless. If I can avoid that situation by not owning these things but still getting full enjoyment out of them then bring it on.
 

Mmnow

Member
What a waste of money...

People build these media collections like they are some kind of family heirloom. You might think your collection is valuable but when you are gone and your kids are clearing out your artic all those plastic disks are going straight in the trash, you do realise that don't you?
I have thousands. Are you telling I'm only going to get a single lifetime of enjoyment out of them?

If only you'd have been here to give me this message 20 years ago...
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
He does not own any of those games. The guy on the right owns his game.

what I would also add by what a lot of people say on here, most people trade games and if you buy a new game the loss when tradings in is uaully what gamepass costs a month. which is more financially friendly for the consumer?
 
And how many people that you talk to care about that kind of shit?

OK, it's good that you are a collector, I am glad someone is doing that so the kids of tomorrow get to see this stuff in a museum. For me though, games are there to be played and that is where 99% of their values lies. In fact for me, I hate having loads of plastic clutter around the house taking up space. I have boxed full of old audio cassettes, VHS videos, cds, books and dvds in my attic that are worthless. If I can avoid that situation by not owning these things but still getting full enjoyment out of them then bring it on.
I stream everything. I'm healing the earf. Are you rubbing your nipples as you spout this?

You seem to think i don't play what i own. I do. Before covid i had regular game nights and movoe nights. Just got a projector and a 150 inch screen to start watching this stuff outside. Netix compressed as hell shit is gonna look like ass at 150 inches.
 
And how many people that you talk to care about that kind of shit?

OK, it's good that you are a collector, I am glad someone is doing that so the kids of tomorrow get to see this stuff in a museum. For me though, games are there to be played and that is where 99% of their values lies. In fact for me, I hate having loads of plastic clutter around the house taking up space. I have boxed full of old audio cassettes, VHS videos, cds, books and dvds in my attic that are worthless. If I can avoid that situation by not owning these things but still getting full enjoyment out of them then bring it on.
Your house must be emptier than an insane asylum. I can imagine you bringing a girl over and she's like "Where's all your stuff?" and you reply "POSSESSIONS ARE FOR THE WEAK" while foaming at the mouth as she runs out of your place crying.
 

FeiRR

Banned
what I would also add by what a lot of people say on here, most people trade games and if you buy a new game the loss when tradings in is uaully what gamepass costs a month. which is more financially friendly for the consumer?
Owning a game and deciding what you can do with it. It's like one of those boxed diet subs: you save time but you eat what they give you, not what you want. I value my freedom of choice much higher than $15 a month.
 
Everything is disposal these days, so fewer people care if they "own" the games. Probably not genius in terms of raw profit but it's about more than that and MS are in a position to do this, both economically and as the least popular brand with nothing to lose.

Can't expect the old model to work forever - just look at the music business, but I wonder if this could be harmful in the long run.
 
Your house must be emptier than an insane asylum. I can imagine you bringing a girl over and she's like "Where's all your stuff?" and you reply "POSSESSIONS ARE FOR THE WEAK" while foaming at the mouth as she runs out of your place crying.
Nah. When he grabs a woman and feels inside he's gonna say OMG THERE'S STUFF IN THERE! and his hookup ends right there.
 

Mmnow

Member
Owning a game and deciding what you can do with it. It's like one of those boxed diet subs: you save time but you eat what they give you, not what you want. I value my freedom of choice much higher than $15 a month.
What can you do with it?

Play it. Sell it. Share it. Bin it.

The first one is identical, the second and fourth don't apply. The third is a valid concern if you were still paying £70 a game, but you're not (and you can share Gamepass as a whole).

And you can still choose to buy games that aren't on Gamepass.

Am I missing anything?
 

CeeJay

Member
I have thousands. Are you telling I'm only going to get a single lifetime of enjoyment out of them?

If only you'd have been here to give me this message 20 years ago...
Fuck, if I had thousands I would be looking at that wall of shame and wondering where it all went so wrong. Hoarding is not healthy man.
 

DustQueen

Banned
Probably it is a scam by Microsoft to monopolize the industry in 10-15 years.

But... The value for consumers is undeniable
 

Arun1910

Member
I personally don't like a lot of the stuff on Game Pass, the stuff I do I already played years prior so it isn't for me.
 

FeiRR

Banned
And you can still choose to buy games that aren't on Gamepass.

Am I missing anything?
The point of trying to sell me a thing I won't pay for. Your script doesn't work with me. You need another strategy so have a good day, sir.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
With games going in and out of rotation, it's just a nice rental service at the moment.

Come back to me when third party AAA titles (Like Cyberpunk and COD etc) are available on Gamepass day one. Then it'll be value for money and a genius service.
 

FunkMiller

Member
I’ve always maintained that GamePass is excellent value in every respect... for someone already in the Xbox ecosystem. I don’t see it as something that persuades many to swap over to Xbox from other consoles. New games do that. Nothing else.

The whole conversation about GamePass and subscription services in general is likely to change when Amazon come barging in with their big swinging money dick.
 
Last edited:

hemo memo

Gold Member
I was always wondering this :
Do MS choose what game go in GP? If i am a developer eg MS approaches me and tells me that my game will be on GP ? How much am i getting paid ? Can i say no, my game wont enter GP ?
Of course, the same questions apply for the 2 free games of PS+ too

Per download maybe?
 

CeeJay

Member
Your house must be emptier than an insane asylum. I can imagine you bringing a girl over and she's like "Where's all your stuff?" and you reply "POSSESSIONS ARE FOR THE WEAK" while foaming at the mouth as she runs out of your place crying.
Bring a girl over? I'm sorry, you are mistaking me for someone much younger. The only girls being brought over to my house are the ones that my kids bring.
 
Last edited:

kretos

Banned
Currently game pass has around 15 million subs paying something around $10 a month

i won't read all that shit but you're wrong out of the gate, a lot of people got the 1$ for a year/2 years deal
 

SkylineRKR

Member
He does not own any of those games. The guy on the right owns his game.

So? I own about 20 PS4 games... I beat most of them once and they are rotting away in a desk. If I was too lazy to sell or trade them right after. Some games I like to own, games like Tekken which I play on and off for 3 years. But most of them w/e
 

Warablo

Member
Its great and I have it/did the $1 trick until 2022, but no way am I going to pay the standard price for it per month once the membership runs out.
 

Wizz-Art

Member
150m then substrac off operating costs(servers, salaries, data, etc)

Then marketing budget

Then other costs.

Yes, you do realize however that they own their own servers and are most likely paying a fraction of the cost other companies are paying when renting from other companies like Sony does? Salaries are there, owning operating studios does that, ask Sony and Nintendo.


And then they have to divide the rest for +100 games to pay devs/owners.
They have contracts in place saying, this many downloads grants you this number. This many hours played grants you this number. I reckon their finance department gave their blessing.


I could imagine that one launch AAA title costs them full months or more of profits.
So they sell subscriptions, consoles and they allow those games to be outright purchased on Xbox and PC, that doesn't bring in money?

Gamepass is kind of a scam/trick to get something you dont need, it sells the image that you need it.
Ahhh first world problems.., 90% of the stuff you buy isn't needed to survive, welcome to a capitalist world. Nice scam though...

Like "hey, one bag of candy is 2€, but why dont you subscripe and get 200 bags/year for 10€/month? You save hundreds?" Deals
I said it to you already in another thread. If you can't find two triple AAA games a year on the service (lmore then the cost of a yearly Game Pass Ultimate subscription with Xbox Live Gold almost everyone who has a Xbox has XLG anyway so subtract 60 from the yearly price of GPU) you don't like games and frankly should find a new hobby!

On paper it looks that you get lot with little, but in reality most will pay hundreds in a gen and play only 1-5% of what they offer. And in the end you just needed the one bag
Nice concern, numbers are showing people who subscribe to Game Pass actually are playing games significantly more.

GP ultimate is 13€/month = 155€ year. That is fucking expensive as subscription service to many.
It's quite cheap, for that price yoy can't even buy two triple A releases from Sony's own first party, meanwhile you get all Xbox first party and more on day one if you're a subscriber. Some people call this a NO BRAINER!

When looking at statistics, doesnt average gamer buy only like 4-6games/gen?
Maybe on Sony's platform because their games are so expensive? With EA acces included to Game Pass Ultimate the FIFA only crowd get to play every new FIFA on the service and get to try a lot of other games too, win win.


So having hundreds for cheap goes waste if they dont play more than few games year or even month, then it is just cheaper to buy games from sales.
It's cheaper to wait when the gen is over and buy a second hand console and games, but nobody who likes games does that.

Could be cultural thing, but here nobody I know is willing to pay for more than 1 video service or similar.
With all due respect, I'll make it clear for others 'here' is the powerhouse country for games. Finland.

Like netflix only, prime only etc. Multiple are seen as being stupid consumer. And it includes other services too, so people dont want to have multiple subs of any kind, unless they really like it or need it
If you like videogames there is no better deal then Game Pass, I leave it at that.

And people with ps+ pay for one sub, no room for more.
That's why many are switching to Xbox and Game Pass Ultimate for the coming gen. People get smart.

If costs vs what you get would not matter then people would not get the cheap 9.90€/month 100/10mbps internet connection as it is fast enough, they would get the 29-39€ 1000mbps connection.


Im really sceptical that it fucks ups games by lower quality, but we will see in 3-4 years I guess
But you don't even like games...
 
Last edited:

dalekjay

Member
It may be genius I may not be
I may be operating on a loss or not

I know it’s beneficial to me and if MS cut the big benefits or just stop gamepass isn’t hard to just go back to playand buy asI did before.
 

Mmnow

Member
The point of trying to sell me a thing I won't pay for. Your script doesn't work with me. You need another strategy so have a good day, sir.
Jesus christ there's a lot of fragile personalities about.

You made a crap point. I told you why it's a crap point.

If you don't like it, make better arguments than "I don't like Gamepass because I value the ability to do what I want with my game".
 
Last edited:
Get to 30 - 40 - 50 million subs and increase the price a bit and they are in business. Gamepass can easily grow to the point where it is pulling in 5 billion or more a year. Then it can easily pay for all their software development expenditure with room for profit on top.
 
Great for consumers but as a money maker for a business we will see.

xbox just spent 7 billion on a publisher - the Xbox division would take 6 years of profit just to cover that purchase alone.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
I wouldn’t really compare it to Game Pass. :messenger_astonished:
A service costing about 10$/month where you can either download or stream games not tell me what's the difference.
Psnow has about 8 to 900 titles half of which are downloadable or streamable on ps4 the rest need to be streamed (works on PC too).
Gamepass has around 200 games that will be able to be streamed once xcloud is launched globally (and works on pc too).

Besides Ms first party on day one what is the difference ? Heavy marketing push ?
 
Top Bottom