3mo ago

Arkane Studios founder calls Game Pass "unsustainable model", and one which is "damaging the industry"

4 comments

And he is entirely correct
I’m bad at defining irony but I think it’s ironic that this guy hates game pass but the only reason I’ve played any of his games is that they’re on game pass
I think the concept of Game Pass works best for older or smaller games. Charging $60+ for a game makes people expect a certain level of quality and amount of content.
Putting games like that on it though? Especially day-one? Of course their sales are gonna take a hit!
Hi-fi Rush would be my example of a super polished game with a solid amount of content. It reviewed incredibly well; so much so that I bought the game on Steam because of the hype. But most people with game pass just played it there… and they ended up shutting down the studio.
I think for brand new releases, some kind of demo or limited access could work. Give players the Call of Duty campaign, give us the opening chapters of story-driven games, or give us a limited selection of levels for games formatted like that. Leave some incentive, though, for players to buy the game, especially if it’s a good game that players would be convinced to buy by playing a bit.
- It's also people can see they are in the grow phase of the Enshittification life cycle. Once they control the market they make the terms and by that point you won't have a choice. This goes for consumers and developers.