Posted May 10, 2024
timppu: Interesting read.
If I understood it right, partly it is MS trying to figure out how to make enough money from GamePass subsciptions? I have no idea how the pricing model goes and how much money publishers get from GamePass exposure, is it similar like Spotify where the artists constantly complain they get peanuts from the service, like Weird Al Yankovich revealing he got a couple of bucks from people playing millions of times his song(s) on Spotify, or some weird shit like that?
idbeholdME: Pretty much yes. A game being on Game Pass from day 1 kills its regular sale window and the Game Pass revenue is shared between all the games on it. If I understood it right, partly it is MS trying to figure out how to make enough money from GamePass subsciptions? I have no idea how the pricing model goes and how much money publishers get from GamePass exposure, is it similar like Spotify where the artists constantly complain they get peanuts from the service, like Weird Al Yankovich revealing he got a couple of bucks from people playing millions of times his song(s) on Spotify, or some weird shit like that?
So drastically reduced normal sales and very low income from being on Game Pass. By the time a game leaves Game Pass, a big chunk of people has already moved on and will never actually buy the game. There is also a trial you can use, which costs $1 for a month. And I don't think there is much preventing you from just making new accounts and doing that any time there is something interesting to you on Game Pass.
So the games have basically no chance of actually turning a profit that way, being doomed to financial failure. Most of the companies, for some reason, seemed to assume the covid boom would last forever. The rude awakening is now happening and it's basically all starting to crash down, with layoffs, studio closures etc. Not just in this case, but the industry in general as everyone is trying to stabilize from the over-inflated numbers going down.
A "good behavior" would be for companies to reduce some of the high-ups salaries to maintain developers jobs for them to finish their current work until the market stabilizes again.
That would not happen the way it works right now though.
One high-up suit only salary is enough to pay many developers job for years.