On Game Pass Becoming Uncool & The Addictive Nature of Survival Games - GUI 127

This week Mike & Alex discuss the media’s shifting opinions on Game Pass: a sacred cow has been torn down, with varied outlets lining up to take pot shots at what they had advertised for free months ago.

Also including a discussion of V Rising & the addictive nature of survival games: what is it that makes them such an engaging experience? Have the boys come to prefer them over sacred cows of their own (JRPGs & soulslikes)?

[Flawlessmic]

I think the change in perception is 2 fold

1. Gamespass's biggest selling point and the thing everyone constantly trumpets and is the reason i also subscribe is day 1 first party releases. These have been far and few in between which is the big problem.

The rest of the content is indies and the good 3rd party games they do have are popular old titles which majority of people already own. For example guardians, mass effect trilogy, hitman trilogy great additions but i own them all so most people like me are left with indies. Iv had raimbow extraction which was decent and now sniper elite 5, both fine games but not exactly setting my world alight with excitement

2. People are worried, as we all now the cost of creating games has risen exponetionally and the games we all want costs upwards of 50- 100 million now if not more. 1st party games sales will be severly impacted sales wise due to being on a sub service there is no way around that. So the question people have is, is gamepass really bringing in enough to not only make back that budget but also make a profit for multiple high cost games and if not, does that mean we will start to get a lesser experience, more mtx or dlc to try and make up for it.

[TheGreatGazoo30]

1) Gamepasses value isn't just first party day and date launches, it's all day and date launches. There have been a ton of nonexclusive launches on GamePass. Im currently playing Crusader Kings 3, Weird West, and Eiyuden Chronicle Rising, and MLB the Show. I just finished tunic and Sable, and am looking forward to loot river and dreamscaper. Those titles alone justify the $15/month for an entire year and I didn't mention the PC only games.

2) People are dumb (I want to be clear I don't mean you, your comment are well thought out. I mean people in general). Subscription models are like printing money for companies and provide predictable monthly revenue. MS is an almost 3 trillion dollar company and people said moving to subscption models for office and cloud would ruin them. They've got making money figured out.

[Flawlessmic]

Agreed bud 👍