Game Pass & Gold (Xbox & PC)

[mfnick]

Knew it was coming but wow! That’s significant, far worse than I was expecting. 
 

I may still end up subscribing. At the end of the day it’s still only a couple of full price games a year. But then there’s all those small and indie games which I love to try which make it so much more valuable. Only problem is they’ve started to shun the Xbox (for good reason) so who knows how many of those will continue to appear on there. 

[Maf]

Weird how the PC version is getting slight price increase and console is basically double. I don’t know how to only have PC Gamepass, it’s just one log in for me.
 

I always said had to enjoy the golden days of Gamepass before it goes away. Think I’ll probably cancel and buy a month here or there when something I really want comes along

[mfnick]

Yep, was amazing while it lasted.

Think that’s the smarter thing to do, just sub as and when. 

[Maryokutai]

The thing with that is that you put yourself into that FOMO situation. I got a month of GP three weeks ago to play Hellblade, but due to circumstances I haven't found the right time to play it yet. So I now have the choice to just force it and run through during my last week despite maybe not being in the mood for it or just ignore and let the month go to 'waste' (not technically true, as I did play some stuff online and also played through Open Roads, which I would have bought otherwise).

 

Also, one small correction as to what @DANGERMAN said: Game Pass Standard (previously Core) never got 1st party stuff on day 1 anyway, so in that sense there's no change.

[shinymcshine]

TBH as we move more towards a fully digital gaming world (through the errosion of physical releases) I'd rather pay to access games through subscription than 'own' them digitally at £70+ a pop (esp. in this digital world of never quite being sure anymore what you actually 'own' iaw the T&Cs at purchase - and several worrying cases where people have lost access to things they thought they'd bought & owned).

[Nag]

I'm good until May next year, after that I'll have to see what the options are... I still play Gears 5 multiplayer frequently though so I've pretty much got to sub to something that includes online.

[DANGERMAN]

16 minutes ago, Maryokutai said:

 

Also, one small correction as to what @DANGERMAN said: Game Pass Standard (previously Core) never got 1st party stuff on day 1 anyway, so in that sense there's no change.

Didn't it? Sorry, I assumed all of them apart from the 'Previously Gold' tier got them.

 

This just seems like a big price to pay (for Microsoft) for getting COD etc. I personally think they'd have been better splitting out the single player to go in to GP or X amount of time in the multi. Really does add weight to the idea Microsoft is at odds with Xbox nowadays 

[Snaggletooth]

44 minutes ago, shinymcshine said:

TBH as we move more towards a fully digital gaming world (through the errosion of physical releases) I'd rather pay to access games through subscription than 'own' them digitally at £70+ a pop (esp. in this digital world of never quite being sure anymore what you actually 'own' iaw the T&Cs at purchase - and several worrying cases where people have lost access to things they thought they'd bought & owned).

Thats okay till they start putting games on them for shorter periods of time. 

 

Inagine a big fame being up for a few weeks before they remove it from the service. 

 

Loads of people then invested in the game and want to pay to finish it. 

 

Thats synical view, id like to say wouldnt happen but never put anything past this industry

[DANGERMAN]

6 minutes ago, Snaggletooth said:

Thats okay till they start putting games on them for shorter periods of time. 

 

Inagine a big fame being up for a few weeks before they remove it from the service. 

 

Loads of people then invested in the game and want to pay to finish it. 

 

Thats synical view, id like to say wouldnt happen but never put anything past this industry

Well, there's a bunch of shows and films you just can't watch now (legally) no matter which streaming services you have. Disney uses to make a big thing about "the vault", and how it was a good thin that you couldn't watch the thing you wanted to 

 

I suppose it depends on the game, something like a Need For Speed or whatever that relies on servers, don't buy that, not if they can just take the game off you. Steam I trust enough for your average game, it's been going 20 years at this point 

[shinymcshine]

TBH I think gaming has gone down the same road as TV & Movies - with companies relying on tried and tested franchises, irrespective of how stale some have become, whilst any new IP teeters on the whim of review scores (and take up) to determine it's fate (sometimes irrespective either way of it's quality).

 

In the same way AAA games & movies have somewhat declined in their quantity - as other distribution models and funding routes are explored (i.e. how the Hollywood model has been challenged by Netflix & Amazon etc is similar to how MS and GP has challenged the gaming norm).

 

Subscription models seem to be the way ahead, but are clearly not without their pitfalls (often seemingly borne by the consumer).

 

Futhermore the perceived value of ownership has given way to convenience (of streaming / downloads) - you only have to see the thousands of £1 DVDs in CEX or racks full seconds hand games to see that the majority of consumers aren't really so bothered about future availability / licencing issues.

[mfnick]

Found a handy chart - hate how we need this kind of thing these days but that’s the way it is I guess.

 

I didn’t realise Cloud gaming was in the highest tier only. That seems insane to me. Surely if you’re trying to bring in the more casual players with Cloud and a Firestick or Samsung Tv then you want to create the lowest barrier of entry. Giving the option of cloud gaming with standard would make far more sense surely? 
 

[shinymcshine]

I suppose though our views might not be particularly reflective either of where the gaming market sees it's income streams anymore.

 

We (probably) aren't the ones spending regularly to buy FUT (or whatever) points, or GTA V Dollars, or new cosmetic skins for Fortnite etc - are these 'casual' gamers, or just people who hold a different value set when it comes to what they want to play & pay for for - as they certainly hold a huge slice of income for the gaming companies.

[Maryokutai]

Aren't those people the inverse of Gamepass though? Instead of paying regularly for a ton of different games, they regularly put money towards the exact same game over the span of a decade. I realise you're making a more general statement, but I don't see how a service like Gamepass would look appealing to a Fortnite guy, considering they only play that one game all day anyway.

 

Also, I misunderstood the quote from last page, I thought they renamed Core into Standard. So weird to have three tiers for this to be honest and I wonder what the point of 'Standard' is. I think you either just begrudgingly pay the bare minimum to play online (Core) or you go full out with Ultimate. Standard seems like a pointless middle ground made for nobody.

[shinymcshine]

They are sort of forced to get GP to play online though, then (for some games, CoD / EA Football) incentivised to Ultimate for early access / Day One releases - whilst, as you said, having little interest perhaps on the monthly churn of games in the GP library.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

imo, the price of the ultimate tier is being pushed to a level where the 'day one' incentive seems less meaningful, cause if it's a game like Gears 0 you're probably going to want to play that game for more than the month it releases in, unless you're a SP only type of person. 

 

I think when you break it down, it looks like MS would actually prefer you do not subscribe to Ultimate and get used to buying these big deal games at launch again. Or alternatively, they want you to sub to a high cost subscription and never own anything. 

 

There's also the other issue where MS's games just haven't been very good lately so paying a premium for their slop seems ill judged, think Hellblade 2 was the most well received one recently other than HiFI rush but then they sacked everyone that made that so clearly it's not part of their content strategy to make those sorts of games

 

As always the way that MS can change the terms of the deal here is what makes these types of things really unappealing to me, but I prefer highly replayable games or lengthy RPGs. There's an element of FOMO with the latter on this service, if I don't pick one up right away and complete it in the period it's on there

[Maf]

Xbox finally have some promising games on the horizon so I’ll probably look in to how I just pay for PC Gamepass and not bother on Console. There is slight differences in those libraries, maybe it gets more different to incentivise getting the all in one deal again, but until then I’ll just stick to the PC version

 

Also very much changes the argument for PlayStation’s subscription as well. I think on the whole Xbox still get better 3rd party games more regularly, but with out 1st party then which subscription gives the better offer at the lowest price would need more looking in to

[Nag]

I'd like to know how long the "added at a future date" actually is on the Standard Tier... and if that'll be set in stone or constantly altered on how they see fit.

 

I dunno... after a banging showcase it just seems like team Xbox are going out of their way to make the console and everything that goes with it as unappealing as possible. 

[shinymcshine]

It always sort of feels that MS are run by a bunch of individual departments who make up their own business strategies without consultation, or even cohesion to an agreed singular business goal - then often come out with these weird contradictory announcements, plans, and decisions.

[mfnick]

1 hour ago, shinymcshine said:

It always sort of feels that MS are run by a bunch of individual departments who make up their own business strategies without consultation, or even cohesion to an agreed singular business goal - then often come out with these weird contradictory announcements, plans, and decisions.

As someone who works for a company which has many different departments within the same space who never seem to communicate with each other leading to humongous fuck ups. I’d bet my house on this being how it’s run. 

[Metroid66]

I only liked the day one aspect of game pass so I'll be ducking this whole thing I reckon. Probably be better for me on the rare occasion I fancy a day one game to just do what DisturbedSwan does, and just buy it and sell it on. 

 

But we're talking just a few games here, possibly only Bethesda and Obsidian games on the Microsoft roster.