How does Game Pass sales even work?

[Grimno]

So Avowed will be on Game Pass day 1, so if you're paying the $11.99 a month subscription fee you can play it.

But how does the studio profit? Like this has always confused me.

Like say for instance hypothetically no one buys the PC version, but 5 million people play it on Game Pass.
Is that a success? Is that a failure? How is that determined?

There are 35 million Game Pass users.
Does Microsoft just give Obsidian a big bag of money and then just suck up all the money back from game pass subscriptions?
Do they count new game pass accounts being opened when a game comes out and go off that as a success or failure?

Is the game physically unable to fail because Microsoft already paid?
How can it fail? How can it even succeed? So confused man...

How come "We are the media" guys never report on this stuff? Never even any insiders explaining how this all works.

[Quillithe]

I'm betting it's complicated.

Probably some amount based off player count and playtime.

Probably a substantial credit if it's the first/main thing people play after subscribing, possibly renewing.


Definitely kinda a mystery though

[Grimno]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

I'm betting it's complicated.

Probably some amount based off player count and playtime.

Probably a substantial credit if it's the first/main thing people play after subscribing, possibly renewing.


Definitely kinda a mystery though

Like seriously someone needs to actually look into this.
Cause like... yeah I could pay $70 for it.
Or pay $12 and play it through, finish it, and then cancel the subscription because I'll be playing Pirate Yakuza and then Monster Hunter Wilds after and since it's a single player game I don't really need to beat it twice.

And Microsoft has been pushing for more Game Pass subscribers so like, this is what they *want*.

When it releases this will technically mean 35 million players now own the game.
So... massive success?

It's just so confusing.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Grimno:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

I'm betting it's complicated.

Probably some amount based off player count and playtime.

Probably a substantial credit if it's the first/main thing people play after subscribing, possibly renewing.


Definitely kinda a mystery though

Like seriously someone needs to actually look into this.
Cause like... yeah I could pay $70 for it.
Or pay $12 and play it through, finish it, and then cancel the subscription because I'll be playing Pirate Yakuza and then Monster Hunter Wilds after and since it's a single player game I don't really need to beat it twice.

And Microsoft has been pushing for more Game Pass subscribers so like, this is what they *want*.

When it releases this will technically mean 35 million players now own the game.
So... massive success?

It's just so confusing.

Thing is probably 90% of people don't cancel and just end up paying $12 a month for a year or two.

Even people who weren't actually going to buy the game.

[Grimno]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by Grimno:

Like seriously someone needs to actually look into this.
Cause like... yeah I could pay $70 for it.
Or pay $12 and play it through, finish it, and then cancel the subscription because I'll be playing Pirate Yakuza and then Monster Hunter Wilds after and since it's a single player game I don't really need to beat it twice.

And Microsoft has been pushing for more Game Pass subscribers so like, this is what they *want*.

When it releases this will technically mean 35 million players now own the game.
So... massive success?

It's just so confusing.

Thing is probably 90% of people don't cancel and just end up paying $12 a month for a year or two.

Even people who weren't actually going to buy the game.

Yeah so are they counted? Are they not?
Is a portion of the monthly fee given to them? Could they just ride that?

It makes it feel like the business model they set up can't really make it fail.
And I'm wondering if that's why Outer Worlds 2 is already being made. Like Microsoft gave them all the money to Obsidian for Avowed, bag secured, and now they're working on Outer Worlds 2 with that money.

[DrZann]

How does the studio profit? I bet they don't. Subscription services appear to have become some sort of fools errand. But as long as MicroSoft and point to rising subscriber numbers at there next big shareholders meeting then mission accomplished.

[DrZann]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by Grimno:

Like seriously someone needs to actually look into this.
Cause like... yeah I could pay $70 for it.
Or pay $12 and play it through, finish it, and then cancel the subscription because I'll be playing Pirate Yakuza and then Monster Hunter Wilds after and since it's a single player game I don't really need to beat it twice.

And Microsoft has been pushing for more Game Pass subscribers so like, this is what they *want*.

When it releases this will technically mean 35 million players now own the game.
So... massive success?

It's just so confusing.

Thing is probably 90% of people don't cancel and just end up paying $12 a month for a year or two.

Even people who weren't actually going to buy the game.

Right. Can't count how many times I've fallen into that trap.

[Blurp]

ive read on it long time ago
basically they get paid for license to have their game on gamepass and get bonuses if they hit activity targets

edit: also to note, gamepass version will not include any preorder bonuses, early access or any future dlcs if they happen

[Grimno]

Originally posted by Blurp:

ive read on it long time ago
basically they get paid for license to have their game on gamepass and get bonuses if they hit activity targets

edit: also to note, gamepass version will not include any preorder bonuses, early access or any future dlcs if they happen

So basically they've already gotten paid for the game, but will make bonuses and essentially profit if it has enough people shown on Xbox actively playing the game?
But any future content would have to be paid for separately?

[Dr.Gloom]

Studio doesn't, MS does. That is a 400m a month from nothing, just renting games. Game Pass is a scam. There are around 400 games on GP, and there is no way you'll play them all. You are basically paying for a few games. Most people will buy the game if they like it(at least I did when I had EA Play), so it's just an extra for MS. I would assume MS would give the studio some bonus if the game is popular enough on GP. But other than that, the studio still has to profit from sales.

[Blurp]

Originally posted by Grimno:

Originally posted by Blurp:

ive read on it long time ago
basically they get paid for license to have their game on gamepass and get bonuses if they hit activity targets

edit: also to note, gamepass version will not include any preorder bonuses, early access or any future dlcs if they happen

So basically they've already gotten paid for the game, but will make bonuses and essentially profit if it has enough people shown on Xbox actively playing the game?
But any future content would have to be paid for separately?

sorta kinda yeah

the one confusing part in it is that obsidian is sub studio of microsoft so it might work a bit different
worst case scenario they shut obsidian down if game's ♥♥♥♥

[DrZann]

Originally posted by Blurp:

ive read on it long time ago
basically they get paid for license to have their game on gamepass and get bonuses if they hit activity targets

edit: also to note, gamepass version will not include any preorder bonuses, early access or any future dlcs if they happen

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[Blurp]

Originally posted by Dr.Gloom:

Studio doesn't, MS does. That is a 400m a month from nothing, just renting games. Game Pass is a scam. There are around 400 games on GP, and there is no way you'll play them all. You are basically paying for a few games. Most people will buy the game if they like it(at least I did when I had EA Play), so it's just an extra for MS. I would assume MS would give the studio some bonus if the game is popular enough on GP. But other than that, the studio still has to profit from sales.

its not a scam, its one of the best options for casual gamers out there
for 12-20$ a month you get access to 500+ games including newly released games (like avowed)

also every store is just renting games, the only one that lets you own it is GoG

[[Heretic]Rivga]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by Grimno:

Like seriously someone needs to actually look into this.
Cause like... yeah I could pay $70 for it.
Or pay $12 and play it through, finish it, and then cancel the subscription because I'll be playing Pirate Yakuza and then Monster Hunter Wilds after and since it's a single player game I don't really need to beat it twice.

And Microsoft has been pushing for more Game Pass subscribers so like, this is what they *want*.

When it releases this will technically mean 35 million players now own the game.
So... massive success?

It's just so confusing.

Thing is probably 90% of people don't cancel and just end up paying $12 a month for a year or two.

Even people who weren't actually going to buy the game.

If you have several games you want to play it becomes an amazing deal, I am usually sceptical about subscriptions but Game pass is solid.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by HereticRivga:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Thing is probably 90% of people don't cancel and just end up paying $12 a month for a year or two.

Even people who weren't actually going to buy the game.

If you have several games you want to play it becomes an amazing deal, I am usually sceptical about subscriptions but Game pass is solid.

Oh sure, I'm not saying it's not a good deal.

But that doesn't change that subscriptions benefit a lot from people buying it for two or three games and forgetting to cancel.

[Grimno]

Originally posted by Blurp:

Originally posted by Grimno:

So basically they've already gotten paid for the game, but will make bonuses and essentially profit if it has enough people shown on Xbox actively playing the game?
But any future content would have to be paid for separately?

sorta kinda yeah

the one confusing part in it is that obsidian is sub studio of microsoft so it might work a bit different
worst case scenario they shut obsidian down if game's ♥♥♥♥

See I don't think Obsidian can get shut down since they're working on Outer Worlds 2 now.
Like I feel like they are absolutely safety netted to be unable to fail if it's true they're that close to Microsoft