Xbox Game Pass, Game Pass Ultimate now Includes EA Play! [XGP, GamePass]

[Deleted member 11852]

So, I'd contend that as with Microsoft 1st Party titles that are on GP at launch, it being on GP didn't hurt sales. But I'm sure there will still be people that think it would have sold even better if it weren't on GP. However, much like MS' experience with putting their 1st party titles on GP at launch, it might have led to greater than predicted sales on Xbox.

I didn't follow this. Are you suggesting that the only people who played MLB on Game Pass would never have bought it? If so that's raises an interesting question on the perceived value of the value of games in Game Pass. If people would never have bought those games, how is Game Pass good value, as in saving people money? Are people are giving money to Microsoft to play games they would not have bought?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I didn't follow this. Are you suggesting that the only people who played MLB on Game Pass would never have bought it? If so that's raises an interesting question on the perceived value of the value of games in Game Pass. If people would never have bought those games, how is Game Pass good value, as in saving people money? Are people are giving money to Microsoft to play games they would not have bought?

No, there are people playing it on GP that would have bought it. There are also people playing it on GP that might have bought it. And there are people on GP would wouldn't have bought it.

The first category may or may not represent a lost sale depending on whether it's a person that plays these types of sports games over a long period of time or not. IE - if they are afraid of it leaving GP at some time in the future they may decided to buy it after seeing how good it is.

The second category would be the people that are interested in it, but not enough to necessarily buy it without trying it. After trying it, they may decide it's a title they wish to own.

The last category represents people that wouldn't have bought it due to budget, skepticism about how well baseball translates to a console experience, etc. And again, trying it could lead them to consider wanting to own it.

Of course, not all people that try it or play it on GP will convert that experience into a sale. But at least with MS' experience with 1st party titles, they've gained more sales from titles on GP than they thought they would lose by putting the titles on GP, leading to an overall net gain in sales over their projections for a title.

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 11852]

No, there are people playing it on GP that would have bought it. There are also people playing it on GP that might have bought it. And there are people on GP would wouldn't have bought it.

The first category may or may not represent a lost sale depending on whether it's a person that plays these types of sports games over a long period of time or not. IE - if they are afraid of it leaving GP at some time in the future they may decided to buy it after seeing how good it is.

I don't follow this. The people who would have bought, actually may not have bought it?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I don't follow this. The people who would have bought, actually may not have bought it?

The people that would normally buy it if GP didn't exist. So, if they are someone that plays it over a period of greater than 6 months, there's a variety of scenarios where they would buy the game even though they got to play it on GP. Like, for instance if they were on a 1 USD trial. Or a 1 month sub through Bing rewards. Or they subbed for 1 month just to try the game out. Or the aforementioned fear of it leaving GP.

Regards,
SB

 

[AlphaWolf]

I didn't follow this. Are you suggesting that the only people who played MLB on Game Pass would never have bought it? If so that's raises an interesting question on the perceived value of the value of games in Game Pass. If people would never have bought those games, how is Game Pass good value, as in saving people money? Are people are giving money to Microsoft to play games they would not have bought?

The question should be, will it generate more revenue by being on gamepass than it would if it weren't on the service.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The people that would normally buy it if GP didn't exist.

So, trying to reconcile that with your first post, are you saying that MLB being included in Game Pass did or did not impact sales?

The question should be, will it generate more revenue by being on gamepass than it would if it weren't on the service.

That is a more interesting question. Unfortunately, Microsoft are unlikely to share numbers of people who tried a game while on a limited Game Pass subscription then bought it. It would surely be cheaper to renew Game Pass than buy the game because it seems really easy to pickup cheap Game Pass subscriptions. I got what I thought was three months with m Series X but was actually six months, and got two more three-months for $5 a pop so I have a year got $10.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

So, trying to reconcile that with your first post, are you saying that MLB being included in Game Pass did or did not impact sales?

That it did not impact sales negatively. I suppose I wasn't entirely clear on that in the original post.

Regards,
SB

 

[Rurouni]

That it did not impact sales negatively. I suppose I wasn't entirely clear on that in the original post.

Regards,
SB

We can't be 100% sure about that. It can be that it does affect the sales negatively. On Sony platform, MLB is no.1, on MS it is no.2. For a platform that deprived of a good baseball game, and we are talking about US sales here, it probably would top the sales on MS platform if it weren't for its inclusion in Gamepass. Of course it also depends on how much Sony got from MLB inclusion in Gamepass.

Looking at it from another angle, it is an extra sales for the franchise, thus more money, probably without negatively affecting the sales on Sony platform.

 

[BRiT]

On Sony platform, MLB is no.1, on MS it is no.2.

Number 2 when not even including digital sales. Likely pushed to number 1 when digital sales are counted.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Square Enix says putting Outriders on Xbox Game Pass has "worked in its favour" [Eurogamer]. Square don't qualify if they mean from a revenue perspective of getting attention for a new IP.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

We can't be 100% sure about that. It can be that it does affect the sales negatively. On Sony platform, MLB is no.1, on MS it is no.2. For a platform that deprived of a good baseball game, and we are talking about US sales here, it probably would top the sales on MS platform if it weren't for its inclusion in Gamepass. Of course it also depends on how much Sony got from MLB inclusion in Gamepass.

Looking at it from another angle, it is an extra sales for the franchise, thus more money, probably without negatively affecting the sales on Sony platform.

Don't forget that on PS5, the sales data includes digital sales. In Sony's last FY report, digital makes up a bit over half of game sales.

Considering that XBS-S is digital only, digital likely accounts for over 50% of sales on the Xbox platform. For example, I posted in another thread how the XBS-S is the only console that has charted on US Amazon's 2021 (Jan. 2021 - present day) best sellers for video games. That likely indicates it is selling significantly more units in NA than either the PS5 or XBS-X.

And since that was an NPD report, it's relevant to know how well the XBS-S (can only run digital games) is selling in NA.

Hence, why I concluded that if digital sales were also included for Xbox that there's a high chance it would also be #1 for Xbox.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

I'm not sure why people care about the physical sales. The publisher / developer makes a lot less money from them vs digital sales. Pressing , packaging , shipping and retailer cut are all very high. It might be better for a company to go on gamepass instead

 

[see colon]

I'm not sure why people care about the physical sales. The publisher / developer makes a lot less money from them vs digital sales. Pressing , packaging , shipping and retailer cut are all very high. It might be better for a company to go on gamepass instead

Digital sales also remove second hand sales that are enabled for physical.

I don't know if MLB got a bunch more sales from Gamepass, but I would imagine Outriders did. If all of your friends are playing a game, you are more likely to play a game. And if you don't have gamepass, you would have to buy said game.

 

[orangpelupa]

Digital sales also remove second hand sales that are enabled for physical.

I don't know if MLB got a bunch more sales from Gamepass, but I would imagine Outriders did. If all of your friends are playing a game, you are more likely to play a game. And if you don't have gamepass, you would have to buy said game.

that's probably the contributing reasons some pubs refuses to release their games on PC gamepass. As on PC, used sales are practically already eliminated due to physical games are basically only used as installer while the license is tied to a store account and the license cant be moved (sold) to other people

 

[see colon]

Could be. There's also issues with repackaging stuff for windows store, and I think there might be some requirements for controller support. Not 100% on that last part, but I remember reading something about it once.

PC has it's own issues with gray market keys, though.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

The GamePass lineup in the 2nd half of the year is pretty phenomenal value this year.

I talked about 1st party in the other thread, but I've loved the 3rd party offerings since X|S launch like Call of the Sea, The Medium, and I think The Ascent and Scorn look like they will be great as well.

MS is headed quickly to 50 million subs IMO (by 2024 or thereabouts).

 

[see colon]

The GamePass lineup in the 2nd half of the year is pretty phenomenal value this year.

I talked about 1st party in the other thread, but I've loved the 3rd party offerings since X|S launch like Call of the Sea, The Medium, and I think The Ascent and Scorn look like they will be great as well.

MS is headed quickly to 50 million subs IMO (by 2024 or thereabouts).

Call of the Sea, The Medium, The Ascent and Scorn are games I probably wouldn't have purchased for full price. Maybe Call of the Sea, I like adventure games and that one looked interesting enough, but I wasn't 100% sold on it. Back 4 Blood and Dark Alliance though... Those would have had my money. I mean, I guess they might still get it when they get removed from gamepass, but I would have bought those at full price even if the reviews for them were in the 7s.

 

[eastmen]

Call of the Sea, The Medium, The Ascent and Scorn are games I probably wouldn't have purchased for full price. Maybe Call of the Sea, I like adventure games and that one looked interesting enough, but I wasn't 100% sold on it. Back 4 Blood and Dark Alliance though... Those would have had my money. I mean, I guess they might still get it when they get removed from gamepass, but I would have bought those at full price even if the reviews for them were in the 7s.

dark alliance is meh , they had an insider beta this past weekend. But since its game pass i will play it a bit

 

[cheapchips]

Seems that Kim Swift joining is part of a longer strategy on cloud native experiences (the main thread of the article is on diversity).

They have no idea what cloud native experiences look like, so hopefully we get some interesting experiments

Portal and Left 4 Dead developer Kim Swift will join the Xbox Cloud Gaming team as a senior director. Swift was most recently a game design director at Google Stadia. “Kim is going to build a team focused on new experiences in the cloud, something that’s going to support our mission of bringing our Xbox games to connect 3 billion gamers to play our games,” said Wyse.

https://www.polygon.com/interviews/22539158/xbox-game-studios-diversity-peter-wyse

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Call of the Sea, The Medium, The Ascent and Scorn are games I probably wouldn't have purchased for full price. Maybe Call of the Sea, I like adventure games and that one looked interesting enough, but I wasn't 100% sold on it. Back 4 Blood and Dark Alliance though... Those would have had my money. I mean, I guess they might still get it when they get removed from gamepass, but I would have bought those at full price even if the reviews for them were in the 7s.

I was focusing on new games, but I also got a lot out of playing DQ XI, Jedi Fallen Order, Witcher 3, and Streets of Rage 4 over the last few months as well.