Does Gamepass kill sales?

What do you think, SW? Does Gamepass kill sales? The idea being, if gamers expect it to come to Gamepass, will they even bother buying the game? I can see that happening with certain games. Especially games that you can easily get through. Or games that you would normally wait on a discount, but since you have Gamepass, you can play it and then realize you don't need to buy it. And is this healthy for the industry? Let us know your thoughts below!

Nah, netflix didn't kill cinemas

Not everyone is huge on subscriptions, eventhough they sound cheaper on paper.

Nah but it sure seems to kill the bovine brigade and really, that's a Service we can all appreciate ? lol :P

Didn't we discuss this before?

Kill? No. Impact, yes.

But there's a difference, new movies aren't released to Netflix Day one with Theaters. Disney Plus and HBO Max are releasing movies to Theaters and Streaming services day 1 and it is indeed affecting movies sales to the Theaters. So much so you have actors and actresses suing Disney over it. (Contracts have actors taking home a portion of theater box office revenue) Disney Plus even has an extra $30 fee to stream the movie the same day as Theaters.

HOWEVER, HBO Max only keeps the movie on the streaming service for a month, after that it's back to Theaters only.

SO it's safe to assume that yes, GamePass does affect games sales. The question is whether or not the devs get enough money up front from MS to offset the lack of individual sales, or if the Game is good people go out and buy it anyway. MS or Devs really aren't talking about this in detail right now so we don't know.

I do think we need to be cautious with GamePass. Im telling you, as soon as it gets a foothold the price is going to increase per month and games will leave the service quicker. Like HBO Max

When sales are the only thing you know, I'm sure this is seemingly bad news.

@R4gn4r0k: horrible analogy. Theatrical releases don't go to Netflix day one. Hbo max movies see way less turn out at the box office through. You guys are denying simple logic to make MS look good lol.

of course we did .. more time than I can count

@Star67: Didn't MS already try to double or triple the price of it already, or was that for Gold?

@Star67: beat me to it

Not a 1:1 comparison with Corona coming into play.

Also actors are suing because it affects their paycheck. if their paycheck was tied to both cinema and home theatrical views it would be a non-issue.

@goldenelementxl: That the correct answer.

This shift has been stressing Sony fannies all year.😂

I still buy games that I really want. For example I still purchased Tales of Arise because it was both a game that I wanted to own and something that I didn’t want to wait for to see if it would hit Game Pass someday. I have a limited amount of money that I can spend on games so I can’t afford to buy every game I want, which is a LOT. Game Pass allows for me to still buy games I want plus play some of the games that I want to play but wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise and those companies will still get some of my money for it. Also lets be real here, while there are plenty of games that I like on the service there’s also a ton which may never come to it or not for some time. Plus it’s not like every game that comes to the service stays forever so people will purchase them when they get rotated out.

regardless of any potential impact to sales, the people who aren't buying the game at retail are subscribing to Game Pass.. and getting people to subscribe to Game Pass is the priority at the moment..

so ultimately it doesn't matter.. a new Game Pass subscriber who sticks with the service is seemingly more valuable than a potential one-time purchase..

Netflix doesn't get ALL theatrical releases day one.

Just like gamepass doesn't get ALL game releases day one.

My analogy is brilliant and the more you think about it the more sense it'll make for you.

Netflix didn't kill cinemas. Corona almost did, but Netflix never will.

Just like Gamepass will never kill sales.

It's common sense dude.. if you can play the game on Gamepass, why bother paying full price for it at launch?

Because you have to keep your subscription. Once you stop paying your monthly fee, you lose access to all your games.

I bought Age of Empires IV for 59.99 instead of doing the 1 euro Gamepass deal because it's a game I will keep playing for years and years.

Why are you acting like subscriptions only have plussides when you know they come with downsides too?

Yes but there wasn't a thread about Gamepass reaching 30M to touch the nerve of the cows. So we must do this again.

@HalcyonScarlet: 😂

It's a different way of consuming games.

Top sellers on steam.

Gamepass and EA play pro didn't kill sales for Fifa, Battlefield, Forza Horizon nor Age of Empires.

You can go to the Xbox top selling games list and see the same thing too, if you want.

Bingo, just like netflix, cinemas and DVD sales can coexist.

Just like CD, LPs and spotify can coexist.

And so on, and so forth.

@R4gn4r0k said:

Top sellers on steam.

Gamepass and EA play pro didn't kill sales for Fifa, Battlefield, Forza Horizon nor Age of Empires.

You can go to the Xbox top selling games list and see the same thing too, if you want.

Big bada boom. lol :P

This is what happens when you pay $70 for games and is filled with regret, you create threads like this in hopes of easing the pain.😂

Maybe

A reaction thread?

I’m getting a sense of deja vu.

Very few 3rd party big-budget games land on gamepass day 1. Clearly typical sales are much better for big-budget games, or Microsoft doesn't have the budget to pay them all millions of dollars with every release.

Hence why Microsoft acquired so many studios instead of paying EA, Capcom, Bethesda, etc millions every time they were ready to release their next game.

Comparing this to Netflix and cinemas doesn't make sense. I only still go to a movie theater for the experience of the big screen, sound system, etc. On gamepass, I either play the game with my subscription on my tv, or buy the game and play it on the same tv with the exact same experience. Why in the world would I buy the game if it's 'free' to have the same experience as buying it would? A better analogy would be: Has Netflix affected Bluray sales? I would say absolutely yes.

Gamepass and PSNow are great services. I have PSNow right now and getting my money's worth. My kid can play on her laptop without having to install any game. The streaming seems to work way better than years ago, even over wifi.

So yes, it definitely affects sales, but we don't know how much MS pays publishers for their game. So it might offset for the publisher. I still don't think MS is making money on gamepass yet, but I think they will eventually. I'd like it if they released AAA games like 3-6 months after release to encourage sales for those that can't wait. It would help keep the subscription price down for those that can.

MS should charge rent for living in cows heads 24-7,then Sony fanboys wouldn't have to make crying about gamepass threads every week

Ive bought several games that I checked out on game pass...

Ive also passed on several games that I would have bought otherwise had I not been disappointed by them on gamepass...

prognosis inconclusive

Well, of course it impacts sales, especially if it's a big title.

The more important issue is revenue. If the impact on revenue is positive, then it is worth it to the developer or publisher.

We often make these arguments in a vacuum, while forgetting that Netflix and Microsoft compensates devs and publishers for their game being on the service....and only for a time....not forever.

What usually happens after a title leaves is an increase in sales from those people who played and loved it.

Lastly, arguments on this board also confuse first party with everything else. There is no lost sales for first party games. It's an investment in the platform in the same way Netflix produces original content. It pays for itself with new and sustained subscriptions. Indy devs usually come to game pass because it gives those titles more exposure to people who might be interested but afraid to take a chance.

As I've said before, I made a decision to buy 2 Series S consoles for my nephews because it meant I'd rarely have to buy them games. I can't be the only parent that does this.

So, sure, traditional sales suffer, but I'd argue the revenue they get from the Ms deal and on the back end makes GP worth it

No, it doesn't kill sales.

However, it does make sales as a metric of commercial success obsolete.

It hurts sales especially Xbox exclusive day one releases, Gamepass or PSnow are great for gaming if they focus only on older games, I don’t even think it’s good for Indie developers but I also don’t know what kind of deals they make, Streaming services have hurt the Cinema and down the road it will be wiped out from the map because new Generation likes to stream and have low standards for entertainment

They are still having issues even as theaters open back up, most states don't have restrictions any more.

You also just proved a point that you were trying to argue against. The reason they are suing is because of the lack of revenue coming in for Theater releases because of streaming, of course if they had it in the contract for both theater and streaming it would be a non issue. The point being made from the lawsuit is that streaming is hurting revenue for the theater release, doy

Did you even think before you posted that?

I definitely buy less games these days. I am hesitant to buy games due to them possibly coming to one of the following... Game Pass, Humble Monthly, EGS freebies, Twitch Prime, EA Play Pro. I just got burned with Marvel's Avengers which I had bought before at discount, but now it is on Game Pass. Unless I want to play a game right away, I just hold off on a purchase. It may show up on one of those or I can buy a cheap key down the road.

And those Xbox exclusives help bring in subs which has the potential to generate more revenue per year than single game sales. That's the entire point of releasing their exclusives day and date.

How is that great for gamers? How is limiting games from releasing on gaming services even remotely good for gamers because gamers are all we should really care about.

No they won't. Millions upon millions of people still enjoy going to the actual theaters, like me and my family. We enjoy it so much that we have 3 different subs to Cinemark.

Yep. Hades sold like crap on Xbox.

Did the likes of Netflix kill movie sales. Most certainly but look at the industry now.

honest question.........Has a developer/publisher complained about sales because of GamePass?

Yes, and what better than Infinite to show us that its true.

What a poop argument. Netflix is not getting everything on day one, or even year one. On the other hand, MS exclusives are on the service day one. Wrong yet again tdkmillsy.

Neither is GP. Good comeback

Well according to cows MS doesn't have games much less exclusives so using your own logic their games going to GP day 1 wouldn't effect sales.

Soooo much pain

@R4gn4r0k: Netflix IS killing cinemas. Even before COVID, box office attendance had been declining year-on-year. And then when COVID came along, people stopped going cinemas and instead went streaming. It's unlikely the box office will recover much even after COVID ends (if ever).

The box office could very end up going the way of the arcade. Home consoles killed arcades, and streaming could do the same to theaters. At least in the West. The box office (and arcades) are still alive and well in the East (hence why Chinese and Japanese movies have been dominating the box office for nearly 2 years).

Yes physconaults didn't even chart.

The movies released on HBO max so far have been movies that shouldn't be in theaters to begin with. Dune on the other hand, I'm in there day one.

um any gamw on pass. you can out right buy and you also get a discount to...

if you bother to research that.

This. People are still buying a ton of games. Ones on GP probably don't sell as much initially, but they might make up the cost with DLC and add-ons.

@shellcase86: Or microtransactions, like most F2P games.

Man I thought we were past these short-sighted questions.

Oh right! Cow brain. My bad. Carry on.