Game pass is bleeding

 

Game Pass is known as 'the greatest deal in gaming' for a good reason. For a nominal fee you get access to a simply obscene amount of games that you can play without restriction as though you were logging into the 'Netflix-of-gaming': as it is sometimes charitably called. And that deal is made all the more exciting by the fact that many of these games are literally day-one releases dropping on the platform and on Gamepass at the exact same moment. Throw into that the fact that PC players can throw themselves in too with the Ultimate edition (although that does necessitate use of the Microsoft storefront which might actually be the single worst launcher on the PC) and there really is nothing like Gamepass. It's a deal that seems too good to be true. And that's because it is. And when a deal is too good to be true, it's only a matter of time before that deal will no longer be true.

What makes Gamepass so utterly ridiculous is the fact that given the price you have to play anyone would be saving almost hundreds for access to AAA tier games, albeit at the whim of Microsoft and their unclear deals which can sometimes line up that one game you were interested in to be pulled off the platform when within the next few weeks when you aren't expecting it. I think most would consider Game Pass to be one of those 'dip in services' to go through a lot of those games that they would otherwise never buy themselves. That was how I got around to playing through 'Lords of the Fallen' and... yeah, I would probably feel pretty jipped if I played full price to play a Soulslike played by a team who seem to deeply dislike the genre and what it stands for. But at least I can experience it's very good control scheme for myself!

But what does this deal mean on behalf of the actual people who make and sell the things? I mean sure they get their money and an influx of players- but can they rely on that small percentage of players to stick around and buy the game after they're done with it? Or can Live Services depend on that audience when the next update rolls around and the game is no longer on the service? And what happens when the culture on Xbox starts to disincentive the buying of games altogether? All pertinent and worrying queries at present. Some developers have even grumbled if the deal is wholly worth it on their end- although that doesn't seem to be the overwhelming opinion as of yet.

Still- Game Pass exists as perhaps the sole bastion of the Xbox platform worth flocking to, given that their first party deluge of upcoming games is still too far away to rely on. Which of course means it is going to be the pressure point that the Xbox team steps on when they need to justify themselves to Microsoft in the midst of a slow growth season. And yet- one might argue that stepping on such a system, the sole one you rely on, would be the single best way to- how do they say- bite the hand that feeds you? Really a 'push and pull' dilemma with this one, it would seem. I suppose we'll learn which way this ends up leaning for Xbox given their coming changes to pricing.

Yes, you've probably already heard. Game Pass is currently undergoing a total restructuring of it's plans in order to make itself actively worse all around whilst scoring major 'asshole' points by spouting out that "this is for player choice" bull that every cretin parrots whenever they're sticking their hand in your pocket and trying to get out clean. Game Pass is losing it's console only version of it's service and now offering a new tier of subscription that forgoes the single best perk of Game pass- the ability to play fresh games pretty much right away. The allure of being able to rattle through 200 dollars worth of games on a cheap subscription that you hop off of when you're done is pretty much the golden goose of the Xbox platform and sacrificing that is kind of like murdering your cash cow.

Now the Ultimate Subscription remains untouched- we still get day-one games as soon as they drop, but we're getting a cost increase punishment for our sins of simply enjoying the service because, you know, 'player choice' and all that. What's crazy is that Game Pass is following the 'slowly bleed out our accessibility' path that Netflix has been doing for years now, having just removed the Netflix basic subscription plan, only Xbox has no competitors to fall back on for a straw-man. They made this choice all of their own and we're suffering the consequences- all so that Xbox can justify that unhinged spending spree form a few years back to their investors. All to pay for not-even-exclusive access to Call of Duty. Was it worth it?

The new Game Pass deal moves in a direction that takes away from players, guts the service they've grown used to and ups the price around the board for everyone except the PC exclusive Game Pass users. All whilst the company are seemingly trying to increase the coverage of Game Pass to other consoles- if that's not something they have altogether given up on at this point. So what does this realistically leave Xbox fans with? The gnawing sensation that their deals are moving towards the worse-off end of things and Xbox is in trouble, eating at it's own tail in order to make ends meet. The same feeling we've had over us ever since studios started shutting down earlier this very year.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call this the slow death of the Xbox brand continuing, or a stimulus package for the upper parties at the expense of us lesser- but I do know that I hate coming back to Xbox and seeing it's value shrivel more and more with each passing month. Nothing substantive coming with a real release date, their only unique offerings becoming worse and more expensive- what real reason is there to own an Xbox in the modern age? It's smaller than the PS5 and thus can fit on your desk much neater. Really wish there was more to it than just that, to be honest. Really wish I can say something mattered underneath the hood.

We live in a time of shifting realities. Where institutions are falling to the unexpected other choice. Indie Games make up the majority of most played games on Steam, Crime Boss Rockay City is out stripping Payday 3 in recurrent numbers and Xbox are making all the kinds of greedy goodwill-rotting decisions that a company only really has the luxury to make when they are the number one- whilst they currently sit dead last in the console race. Time and time again we ask ourselves why. There was a time when Gamepass really did have a shot at rising the Xbox brand- but at the first sign of trouble Xbox does what it always does- freak out and start making panic cuts. One of these days those panic cuts are going to hit an artery, and then all we'll be able to do is watch with our arms crossed as the great beast gurgles on it's own life juices shaking our heads and muttering "We told you so."

The all-digital future

 Are friends electric?

Game Passing

I don't love you anymore

You've heard of the Microsoft Xbox Game-pass, we all have. The Legends. The Curses. Foolishness about it lying in the middle of an empty games catalogue, buried beneath a cloud of ineffectual hype. A bright, shining payment plan, luring cost-effective gamers to getting stiffed. The world's most influential social media gamers and streamers flocked to it's introduction. A subscription was seen as a sign of... financial prudence. The pass was supposed to symbolize a road to a brighter future, not just for the stark Xbox games library... but for the whole industry. A chance for any company to commit to an effective subscription model. Except- the Game pass didn't live up to it's promise. Last minute delays froze its AAA offerings in time, like book fans waiting for their big screen adaptation of 'The Knife of never letting go'. The grand subscription service- one big appeasement to a ticked off community. It's still out there, on the servers, preserved, just waiting for some real impressive exclusives to drop on it. But buying it, that's not the hard part.

It's letting go.

Or at least that's the narrative you're currently running with if you are one of the legendarily off-the-mark writers over at everyone's favourite games industry publication; Kotaku. You know, the same writers who reviewed 'Spiderman: Miles Morales' by coining the legendarily cringe-imbued, largely non-sensical, sentence "The way he leaps off of rooftops and flips backwards to face the camera before falling into a headfirst dive is just full of exaggerated swagger of a black teen. It gives me goosebumps everytime he does it." The sort of sentence that only kind-of works when it's written down, and calls back to the sound of a dull thud of a dead body hitting the bottom of Sweeny Todd's death-chute when spoken out loud. Actually, I just lied to you. That was Gamespot. But all these publications are just as bad as each other, I'll bet you didn't even bother picking me up on that and perhaps didn't even notice yourself. 

Gamepass is the latest whipping boy of these publications as it appears that the promise of what Microsoft said their service would provide has fallen short of expectations. Gamepass is meant to give access to a rotating library of games totally free to anyone who pays the subscription fee, with complementary access to brand new first party Xbox exclusive titles on the day that they launch. And Xbox have- well actually they've lived up to all of that for better or for worse. The problem is more with the amount and regularity of the exclusives that are landing on the service which is, as you'd likely be able to guess simply from the fact I'm using the term 'exclusives' when talking about the Xbox games library, wanting. 

Microsoft has been struggling with giving it's platform adequate tools to compete against the Playstation 5, just as it did during the days of the 4; which is especially galling when you remember just how much money that company has to throw around on frivolous crap. Multibillion dollar studio acquisitions and you guys can't bag a developer who can make an exclusive on the level of even Days Gone? Doesn't that embarrass you?  Instead Xbox fans just get to sit and watch as Sony's exclusivity dominance bleeds into simply unmanageable levels as they grab control of franchises which were previously open to everyone. Final Fantasy. Knights of the Old Republic. Why don't you just give them Halo, Microsoft? Give up completely?

The straw that shattered the poor camel's vertebrae irreparably came when Bethesda, arbiters of the Western open world, announced that on the very year of their long awaited Starfield; the blockbuster actually wasn't going to make it. In fact, we've heard it was so behind their announced release window that internal teams were calling it the next Cyberpunk. (That's a messed up thing to say about your baby; Starfield is going to have a therapist when it grows up.) And as an extra kick to the nuts, Arkane's Redfall was another casualty of sudden delays, a real low blow for people who played Arkane's "Deathloop" and didn't see it for the obvious flashing neon warning that this is a studio teetering on the edge of falling off completely like daddy Bethesda did. (Wait, they helped make 'Wolfenstein: Youngblood'? Heck, maybe they already did fall off...)

So what do you do when your game subscription service doesn't have any exclusives coming out for the rest of the year save for yearly Horizon car game number 10? Play any of the other dozens of older or indie games that are cycled onto the service every week? I mean, I guess you could do that; but wouldn't it be better to go that one step further and totally abscond from the service altogether until it has something you want? That's actually a very viable tactic and one which many people are doing with Netflix right now seeing as how that platform is losing more and more of it's cool content every year. Sure, Gamepass can still throw tons of cool new games your way but if you're only around for the big showstopper that everyone else is playing and now you need to play or else you won't feel value in yourself, then subscribe again in 2023! There's nothing wrong with that approach and in fact a couple of Game's Journalists did exactly that.

Of course, they did so in the single most ostentatious way possible, monologuing on Twitter about the woes of such a sparse subscription service, as though competing for the starring role in 'Medea'. And of course, Kotaku is going to come lumbering into the story when the only demographic of the industry they care about, other journalists, start yapping. Now we have the 'Game Pass Burnout is here' headlines to paint the views of two career muckrakers as the gospel word of all the industry. I mean sure, I'll bet there's a chunk of gamers out there who feel exactly the same; but it isn't a sudden culture paradigm shift threatening to leave the Game Pass subscription service totally financially unviable within the year like their rage-bait articles suggest. But telling a Kotaku writer that they're misrepresenting a situation is like informing the moon that it is round; that's a fundamental fact of their character and you're giving news to no-one.

Game-pass is still very much the gold standard of subscription services, which is why its inspiring actual competition from others such as Sony and Epic Games. Heck, I'd argue that Epic Games' approach is even more generous, in that they may not offer nearly as many games but at least they're totally and completely free. Heck, the last game that Epic handed out was literally Borderlands 3; and that ain't no trash consolidation prize to stick in one's library free of charge. So not only is Game pass not suddenly on it's way to a crash in public interest because two people who play games for their jobs can't be assed with it anymore; it's still relevant, it's still packed, and it's still a positive influence on the industry. If that's not enough for publications like Kotaku, well I guess we can all just sit around and read their lazy clickbait all week and see if that holds any great secrets to the betterment of gaming... (My will is strong but my hopes are low.)

Embracing the windmills

How I learnt to stop worrying and love the bomb

Stadia. Heard of them? I think I've mentioned their name a couple of times on this blog. There this really small time set-up that proposes to push forward the gaming landscape by bridging the gap between consumer tech and the very best of gaming; at an absurd premium. I've said it before but Google could have really done to operate at a loss for at least the first year of this system's life cycle in order to work up a crowd but apparently that just wasn't on the table for one of the most profitable companies in the world. (Why actually put effort into something when you can slap some turd on the table and demand to be respected for the act of having done anything at all?) Google wanted people to pay for their crappy subscription, alongside paying for the actual games themselves at full price, all so that they could experience a choppy ecosystem that devoured your Internet usage and barely had any games to it's name anyway. There's Stadia in a nutshell.

Now before I've expressed that I kinda feel bad for dunking on Stadia all the time. Not because I actually feel bad for the company or the employees themselves, guys are getting paid and I say 'good for them', but because I feel inherently regressive fighting what seems like the future of gaming. TV has decidedly moved away from networks and physical boxsets into digital libraries and... honestly so many streaming services that it's only a matter of time before someone starts offering bundles deals and we end up with networks again. Movies, just this past year, have transcended the theatre experience for the most part as folk have been literally unable to attend screenings. Yeah, admittedly this is a temporary situation and a good chunk of bigger studios are holding back their movies until they can secure a theatre release, but I'm sorry guys, the seal has been broken. There's blood in the water now, people know what it's like to enjoy a brand new movie from the comfort of their own home. I don't think that we'll completely usurp movie theatres in the same way that TV has been axed off, (that's just unfeasible) but a definite paradigm shift has been set into motion and I'm not sure that anyone can stop it. Therefore is it so 'out there' to think video games might do the same?

Gaming isn't a pass time that is inherently reliant on huge 50 inch screen and sound systems in order to sell the full experience, you just need to be able to play the darn thing. If you can pull that off on any system you can get your hands on then that's great. This is a reality I've always been inwardly accepting off, even if it rang somewhat wrong with me, and just because I opposed Stadia's approach to it, that didn't mean I hated the idea altogether. I think that the thorny issue of software ownership is still a tricky conversation that needs to be approached; in that I have no problem in buying my games provided I have the benefit of being to play them without fear of that access being deprived after the fact. (But then I suppose you could say that's an issue with or without streaming involved. Those buyer rights really need to be revised.)

But I like to be the kind of person who looks forward to the future and embraces the changes that tomorrow might bring. That is to say, I don't want to be the one 'fighting windmills' so-to-speak, when it comes to talking about Game Streaming. I think that if it's done well then I could really see a world where the art of gaming is bought to more and more people worldwide in a really inclusive manner, and though these sentiments have certainly been shared by me before, I'm just looking for that example to latch onto as a real testament for the best this concept can be. And that is actually the reason why I'm writing this article today, because I think we may be on the verge of such an example coming to the world.

Project Xcloud. I'm not sure how much longer we can keep calling it 'project' given that it's shaping up to become Microsoft's newest poster child. This is a system wherein adopters can stream the games that they want to into compatible devices. Sounds familiar and all, we know where this is going. But here's the rub, the games can be those already owned on the Microsoft store, the infrastructure is being put together by Microsoft and, apparently, there's work going on behind the scenes to make this so much more financially sensible than Stadia that it isn't even funny. I'm talking such a good deal that you would literally have to be a moron to sign up to Stadia over what Microsoft have going on. So good that Google might as well start shuttering their service now, if they haven't already started. Apparently, Microsoft intend to bundle their Xcloud service with the Xbox Game Pass, as soon as this December.

Now for those who are unfamiliar, when Stadia was first announced there was the implication that it would take the place of a 'Netflix for games', wherein your subscription opens you up to a library of games to play at your leisure. At it turns out this was not the case, everything had to be purchased after the fact with the exception of a few complimentary titles that were provided each month, in the style of most console manufacturers. Xbox Game Pass, however, was that 'Netflix' model, with a ludicrous amount of good games (the service advertises over 100 but I think it's past 150 right now) and more games get added there all the time. And know that I'm not saying this as Microsoft fan boy, I think they've dropped the ball in a thousand stupid ways these past 8 years, but I am a fan of great deals to the consumer and Game Pass is that.

With the series X launching this December, Microsoft is apparently ready to completely kill the premium price for online play, apparently, and make Xcloud available with Game Pass at no extra cost. Now when I think of a future for gaming, that sounds pretty much like the ideal to me. Paying a decent monthly subscription in order to browse as many games as I can get my grubby mitts on should be an example to all the industry, and a huge wakeup call for Stadia. Usually I find myself dreading what kind of dour new future awaits the industry as greedy corporate crap works it's way into the ecosystem, but today there's an actual win-win scenario being offered and I couldn't be more happy about it. If this is what the future of gaming looks like, provided there always remains that place for actual hardware and the ability to buy the games we want to play whenever, then I'm willing to lay down my arms and endorse it.

There only lies one more step, and it's one where Microsoft are dragging their heels. (Again, obviously Microsoft can't do everything right off the bat. It's against their nature.) There's rumour about the potential of bringing the Game Pass to Playstation and Nintendo, but Phil Spencer has poured water and that with some nonsense about 'we need to able to ensure the quality Xbox experience' or some such gibberish. Listen Phil, we're not talking about working with the Ouya or the chuckle-heads currently running Atari; Nintendo and Sony are respectable, they're not going to trash your service if they stand to make a profit. As soon as Microsoft can get their collective heads out of their rears and establish the Game Pass for the entire gaming world, the sooner we can work towards a gaming infrastructure even more united than the current TV one. Don't get caught up in the 'exclusivity' or 'console war' nonsense that the baser elements of the community do, work to make this deal compatible for everyone, before we end up on a trajectory back to square one in 5 years like the TV market currently is. The streaming ball is in your court, Microsoft, and everyone is watching.