While many love the titles, some are asking, ‘Is Xbox Game Pass bad for the industry?’
Microsoft’s subscription-based service offers gamers day-one titles for just a monthly fee.
But why have developers been coming out against the service, and how can it hurt them?
Xbox Game Pass Bad Long-term
Firstly, understand that the answer for this lies in your position as either a consumer or creator. If you just play a couple of titles every year, then no, the Xbox Game Pass Bad arguments fall short.
Because for a guy that would have to pay 70 or even 80 dollars for COD day one every year, it’s a steal. For 120 dollars a year you get access to hundreds of games – over just 2 fully priced AAA titles a year normally for the same price!
Also right now with the Game Pass you can play Silksong and Gears Of War. These titles literally came out just a few days ago!
Although you do not own your titles after the subscription runs out, you get to play everything on there. Something that may not have been your cup of tea and a 60-dollar loss is now just a 10-minute download waste.
And for many consumers who view it the same as Blockbuster, they simply do not care they never owned it. The almost nihilistic attitude of ‘nothing lasts forever’ (i.e., more than 2 years) really hits home for these guys.
But I cannot blame them because have you seen game prices these days!
Sure, industry veterans may cry about how Xbox Game Pass is bad; please tear it down. However, these same developers allowed the industry to become the hideous beast it is today.
Every title now has some Battle Pass, some micro-transactions, and annoying skins that bloat your hard drive space. If these developers and publishers do not respect your bottom line, then why should you care about theirs?
Faustian DLC
Making games is hard, and anyone who goes through the trials of releasing a decent title should be respected. But what should not be respected is malicious anti-consumer practices that have festered in this art form for near a decade now.
Is Xbox Game Pass bad for games… Sure but why would the average Joe care? The guy playing Madden with no shares in Odd-world sure does not!
However, as much as some developers need the fire under their behinds from the drop of sales, you should think of the Faustian Deal.
Yeah, it really sticks it to them now for making games so expensive. But if everyone hopped on the Game Pass, then not owning games would become standardized and the new norm.
Soon they would make consoles around the idea of never owning your titles to begin with or games for that matter.
Personally, it works more as a try-before-you-buy service. You give something a go on Pass and see if you want to commit to buying it later.
Although one thing I have no scooby about is how Microsoft even makes a profit on this. Doom: The Dark Ages sold like trash due to its day-one release on the Pass, and this affected Microsoft’s own bottom line, with Zenimax being their own publisher.
So yeah, the bigger question would be how can they make money from this service when they are stealing money from themselves?
