Sony may have the lead with awesome first-party exclusives, but Microsoft has a solid edge. Their subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, is a major hit in the gaming industry. The Pass is slowly but surely changing how we buy and play games.
Though it all comes with a price. Xbox Boss, Phil Spencer recently described how the financial side of the Game Pass works. The way game developers get paid for their title on the Pass is quite flexible. It’s not rigid and no room for negotiation.
“In certain cases, we’ll pay for the full production cost of the game. Then they get all the retail opportunity on top of Game Pass. They can go sell it on PlayStation, on Steam, and on Xbox, and on Switch.” Spencer said in an interview with The Verge. “Sometimes the developer’s more done with the game and it’s more just a transaction of, 'Hey, we’ll put it in Game Pass if you’ll pay us this amount of money.'”
There are also several cases where developers are ready to put their game on the Game Pass at launch day for a certain amount of money. This method is best suited for small or mid-sized game developers.
“Others want [agreements] more based on usage and monetization in whether it’s a store monetization that gets created through transactions, or usage. We’re open [to] experimenting with many different partners, because we don’t think we have it figured out.” Phil added. “When we started, we had a model that was all based on usage. Most of the partners said, 'Yeah, yeah, we understand that, but we don’t believe it, so just give us the money upfront.'”
Whether Xbox Game Pass is good for the developers or not, we will soon know. But if you are an Xbox owner or using a PC, then the Pass is a must for you. The amount of value you get from the Pass seems too good to be true.
So what do you think? Do you think that the Xbox Game Pass is a workable solution? Do you know something different? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
