Gamepass has me endlessly conflicted. It’s unironically a really good value for a lot of people. However I can’t help but feel this is fueling the pump and dump release cycle.
Edit: typing this out I realized my thoughts on this are far less organized than I expected. I would love to see some deeper analysis in what is going on behind the scenes
I’m against it. Microsoft has for years been trying to move everything to subscription based. This is how they kill standard game ecosystems. Its like a walmart going in. They function at a loss until they kill all competition. Then they corner the market and dramatically raise prices. They want office 360 for games and in the end we all suffer because they get to decide which games are on the pass and how long.
I wouldn’t say that I’m against subscription models as an option alongside a traditional purchasing paradigm for games, but if what we’re seeing now is simply a trojan horse for a wholesale upheaval of that traditional purchasing model sometime in the not-so-distant future then I’d happily see it fail. Just in general the constant push toward an all-digital gaming future consistently concerns me.
But I’m old. I’d be willing to bet that most young people and teens gaming today probably couldn’t care less about that prospect since they’ve never experienced this medium during a time before digital distribution, day 1 patches, etc.
I’m honestly a fan. I don’t play games that often so I’ll usually just get a month or two at a time, play a bunch of stuff I missed and then just cancel for 6 months when I’m busy again. The last time I got it was when halo infinite came out. I’m about to turn it on again.
I subscribed to it but never used it because for me personally, I realized I’m only interested in games I want to play.
Searching for something to just play (like Netflix) to kill time doesn’t really appeal to me.
I think you make an interesting point and this is my fear as well. Publishers will no longer have the incentive of the game having to be great to get sales if they’re paid just to have it exist in a sea of options on Game Pass
