PC Game Pass discussion....Easily the best deal in gaming...

[Brian Boru]

Any thoughts on this?

I read the opposite about some other dev, so I imagine both are valid experiences. I've never heard of a service like Game Pass which is either all bad or all good.

Kindle Unlimited is huge for some authors—the bigger names—and quite poor for lesser known authors.
I have no good knowledge about Spotify, but I think I've heard it's similar there—big names do well, small ones are constantly bitchin' about it.

Why are people who pay for Game Pass also buying that many more games than non-subscribers?

Guess: they use GP to test out loads of games, and want to own the ones they like. GP opens them to more purchases than a non-subscriber.

Or it could be to help out a dev they like or admire, recognize good work and vote with wallet for more of the same. Eg when I had more disposably income I bought the Mass Effect and Witcher games, even tho I knew I'd never want to play them—and bought Civ6 on Steam even tho I got it free from Epic… Steam had the expansions, Epic not.

 

[Ryzengang]

I read the opposite about some other dev, so I imagine both are valid experiences. I've never heard of a service like Game Pass which is either all bad or all good.

Kindle Unlimited is huge for some authors—the bigger names—and quite poor for lesser known authors.
I have no good knowledge about Spotify, but I think I've heard it's similar there—big names do well, small ones are constantly bitchin' about it.


Guess: they use GP to test out loads of games, and want to own the ones they like. GP opens them to more purchases than a non-subscriber.

Or it could be to help out a dev they like or admire, recognize good work and vote with wallet for more of the same. Eg when I had more disposably income I bought the Mass Effect and Witcher games, even tho I knew I'd never want to play them—and bought Civ6 on Steam even tho I got it free from Epic… Steam had the expansions, Epic not.

Yea, I buy games that are on gamepass for sure. If I really like a game I'm generally just going to buy it. Gamepass just allows me to try a ton of games and thus still saves me money even I do buy some of the games. Plus, Steam is my preferred platform so if I really like a game I'd rather have it there.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

You get 20% discount buying games and 10% discount buying DLCs and addons through the Windows store if you have a Game Pass.

I still don't get it. If I have a game on Game Pass for the price of the subscription, why would I buy it again if I can already play it without buying it? Are you saying they play the game on Game Pass, but then buy the DLC to go with the game they already downloaded from Game Pass? That would make sense, I guess.

I read the opposite about some other dev, so I imagine both are valid experiences. I've never heard of a service like Game Pass which is either all bad or all good.

Kindle Unlimited is huge for some authors—the bigger names—and quite poor for lesser known authors.
I have no good knowledge about Spotify, but I think I've heard it's similar there—big names do well, small ones are constantly bitchin' about it.

Oh right. Now that you bring this up, I think it was probably Spotify that I heard about, and not Game Pass. I can't remember for sure, but you can probably disregard what I said earlier.

 

[Brian Boru]

Steam is my preferred platform

Does Game Pass have any Steam-like functions for PC—eg Library, Launcher?

 

[ZedClampet]

Here's something to think about. I can't back this up right now, and I'm just going from my memory, which could be wrong. (That means this could all be horse crap, but it might be worth discussing). I believe I once heard a 3rd party game dev say that when their game got put on Game Pass, they were royally screwed, and they don't hardly make any money off of it because of that. Any thoughts on this?

The general consensus is that Game Pass has been great for indies. They get paid up front and it hardly even hurts their sales elsewhere. I'd have to see the quote and know what game it was to comment on this one game.

 

[ZedClampet]

Does Game Pass have any Steam-like functions for PC—eg Library, Launcher?

They have a launcher. The games are all "your" so there's no library function, but the games you've downloaded are listed down the left side.

You can do searched for games or pull them up by categories and sub-categories. Pretty easy to navigate to find games.

They have user reviews for each game, and you get achievements. It's not Steam, but it's farther along than Epic. On the other hand, downloads are very particular about how your drive is set up, which is really annoying. It made me reformat one of my drives for no reason at all, but it refused to write to it unless it was reformatted.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Gamepass does link up very well with GOG Galaxy too. I played Crusader Kings 3 on there for 40 or 50 hours and then bought it on Steam. Played 50 more hours or so and it merges the playtimes so you dont have two copies in the library there.

 

[Pifanjr]

I still don't get it. If I have a game on Game Pass for the price of the subscription, why would I buy it again if I can already play it without buying it? Are you saying they play the game on Game Pass, but then buy the DLC to go with the game they already downloaded from Game Pass? That would make sense, I guess.

Not all the games on the Windows store are free with Game Pass and games can get taken off of Game Pass, requiring you to buy them to keep playing.

 

[Frindis]

Not all the games on the Windows store are free with Game Pass and games can get taken off of Game Pass, requiring you to buy them to keep playing.

I think that could be one of the bigger problems with Game Pass if it turns more into how the movie streaming platform works by more often changing up the games or they could be hiding the "better" games behind a more expensive paywall. Right now we have Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate, but that could change at any time, as could the price for the services also. At least Microsoft owns a lot of game companies, so we might not see too many games exiting Game Pass.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Not all the games on the Windows store are free with Game Pass and games can get taken off of Game Pass, requiring you to buy them to keep playing.

I wonder how long games stay on, and how often they take them off. That would be a big turnoff for me. If I'm constantly worried I'm going to get into a game, and then they remove it, that would suck.