Earlier in the year they removed the trial offer. Now it’s returned, but worse than before.
I mean, common issues surrounding subscription-based services and the lack of ownership of digital content aside, the full price of $10 a month (for the base rate, at least, I know they have some “Ultimate” package which combines the Xbox and PC programs) is actually a pretty good value on its own, given the size of the selection.
Even if you only play a few games per month on it, you’re still getting pretty good value compared to buying those games individually. For example, once Starfield releases, you could play it for six months on Gamepass before buying it up-front would’ve been a better deal, and that’s if you never play a single other game on the platform.
It’s also nice to be able to try out games without having to commit to purchasing them. I’ve found a number of games through Gamepass that I’ve enjoyed which I never would have tried otherwise.
However, I have a strong suspicion that video game subscription services will end up following a similar trajectory to TV/movie streaming services at some point… Gamepass doesn’t really have any major competitors, and has been priced very aggressively in order to build market share, and it reminds me a lot of Netflix in its early digital stages.
I think it’s inevitable that other publishers are going to try and get in on the action, balkanizing the available content into too many services for consumers to care about, and diminishing the value of each service individually.
I also fully expect that MS will start driving up the base price of Gamepass at some point, once they feel like they have enough market penetration. The reduction of the $1 trial might already be a sign of that, but I’m hoping we’ll still have some time before that happens. I might stay around at $15/month, but if it reaches $20 I’m probably out.
When it reaches $15/20 a month it’ll already be too late.
It’s the exact same model that ruined all the other entertainment industries.
- Offer a subscription for next to nothing, funded by vc money/microsoft infinite money buckrts. The industry doesn’t mind because people are still buying things on cd/dvd/bluray so it’s just extra money for them.
- Oh no, everyone now just subscribes to the super cheap subscription, and the industry can’t afford to produce content just for spotify/netflix/gamepass
- Every content owner pulls content from the incumbent subscription service, starts their own, and you can’t buy the content for money anymore.
- Turns out $15 a month isn’t enough to pay for everything the industry usually makes, content lowers in quality, prices go up. Everyone loses.
Paying into subscription services now is a good deal for you, but it’s gonna ruin everything just like it did everywhere else.
I think it’s interesting that this isn’t working as well in the pc world. Epic giving away games for free doesn’t seem to be affecting sales numbers on steam (thinking of how incredibly well Baldurs Gate 3 is selling). I can’t imagine Xbox games not on game pass are selling as well as they used to. I’m sure there’s impacts I’m not seeing, but on the surface it looks less successful.
It’s funny, my Steam games are like physical items out on my desk where I can see them every day, every time I turn on my computer. The free games I claim on Epic are like physical items in a drawer somewhere, that’s the Epic Games client. Not quite sure what I have in that drawer until I open it and search through it.
Pretty much every good new thing introduced these days inevitably goes to shit at some point, so I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
Or, don’t support the thing killing the industry. I was trying to point that out. That you’re enjoying the good times now, but in doing so you’re actively pushing the industry into the same hellhole that others became.
However, I have a strong suspicion that video game subscription services will end up following a similar trajectory to TV/movie streaming services at some point… Gamepass doesn’t really have any major competitors, and has been priced very aggressively in order to build market share, and it reminds me a lot of Netflix in its early digital stages.
Netflix pricing has always had a lot of pressure on it because the company has no product diversity. All Netflix offers is Netflix, so all of its revenue comes from there. Meanwhile, MS has Office as the world’s default productivity suite, and it rakes in billions from corporate Windows licensing and cloud services. As of about a year ago, gaming was actually less than 10% of their annual revenue. So they can support narrow margins on Game Pass pretty much indefinitely. And they are motivated to do so as the heavy underdog to Sony, whose consoles consistently outsell theirs by a ratio of about 2:1.
