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Game Passes - Bane or Boss?
Scot
Member LegendaryPosts: 24,271
I have been sitting on the fence for some years on this issue and have finally come down on the side of bane for gaming. Passes are all about cheapness for as little as $120 dollars a year you get a stable of games to play. Well we have been here before guys, what was F2P all about? Cheapness.
You are not going to get quality without paying for it and a Pass system drives down the amount of money going into individual titles. If you expect to get less profit you are going to budget the games you are making accordingly. This principle is seen in much of entertainment, TV and films rely on production values just like gaming. Of course more money does not guarantee a good title, in fact it does not guarantee a more expensive game will be better than a less expensive one. But it sure does help especially in the graphics department which is crucial to gaming.
In it's infancy just like F2P a Pass system will not have much effect in the way I have descried on the industry as a whole, but as Passes become more predominant these effects will become more clear. Take BG3, remember players asking about when it is going on to the pass? The attitude there was "Game of the year but I am not buying what I can get effectively for free because I am paying for a pass anyway." That attitude is just like all the gamers we have that want every MMO to be FTP.
I vote for quality every time, I don't want second rate games, TV or films and I think that's something we should all be behind.
You are not going to get quality without paying for it and a Pass system drives down the amount of money going into individual titles. If you expect to get less profit you are going to budget the games you are making accordingly. This principle is seen in much of entertainment, TV and films rely on production values just like gaming. Of course more money does not guarantee a good title, in fact it does not guarantee a more expensive game will be better than a less expensive one. But it sure does help especially in the graphics department which is crucial to gaming.
In it's infancy just like F2P a Pass system will not have much effect in the way I have descried on the industry as a whole, but as Passes become more predominant these effects will become more clear. Take BG3, remember players asking about when it is going on to the pass? The attitude there was "Game of the year but I am not buying what I can get effectively for free because I am paying for a pass anyway." That attitude is just like all the gamers we have that want every MMO to be FTP.
I vote for quality every time, I don't want second rate games, TV or films and I think that's something we should all be behind.
Comments
Where we are feeling the pain is actually pricing. Because content is being fractured and now instead is “cable” we have Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Discovery Plus, Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Max, Peacock, etc… (Here in the USA at least).
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Their loss as I will watch all the same stuff but pay them less than I was originally.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Can you imagine what a loss it would have been if Babylon 5 wasn't given the opportunity to develop the story and Michael Straczynski allowed to go at the pace he did. They say he had mapped out his story before the series began. I know nowadays a lot of series just think about 2 seasons and hope they get renewed and it has greatly hampered and stifled so many good stories that could have been great.
However Netflix has competitors. This has kept them on their toes.
I feel if Gamepass is the only one and others are all teeny tiny we may see a drop in quality which is why I would hate for everything to go on Gamepass. No I absolutely do not want gamepass to control the whole market because then they will control what game developers can put out and that will be awful for us all. They will do it if they have the power. Developers will be at their mercy and that is horrific.
Where your analogy falls down is that Netflix has not changed the way TV programs are made in this regard. Before streaming services, a channel would make a show knowing if it was good enough it would sell it to other channels. Now that includes streaming services which in turn make shows that can be sold on. So for this comparison streaming and non-streaming services/channels are no different from each other.
But I agree with you that Netflix is as good as any of them.
I addressed your second point in my previous post.
Not sure what you are getting at about BG3, obviously I don't think it should go to Pass.
I would agree with your last point if we did not have gamers banging on about how "everything must be free to play" or "everything must be on my pass". So I am countering that by saying "should".
You nailed it. Exactly correct, its actually pretty obvious, and has already happened in other industries.
Funny how someone brings up netflix as high quality success LOL. Geez how the standards have fallen.
Netflix example actually proves your point.
I say netflix is just about an identical system, to the gamepass. I remember when netflix had tons of great movies.
Starts off good when they are the only ones, but all they do is force all the other corporate industry to do the same thing, and then it lowers the standards for everyone.
Gamepass is only working now because games can make their money 1 way, then put it on gamepass with a separate market to make a little more profit. Once every big company has a Gamepass option, then customers wont need to purchase as they wait for it on their "gamepass equivalent platform", quality wont matter at all. No incentive really to make high quality, because there is no way to make more than any of the other trash game that exists. Just pump out a bunch of low quality junk for the platforms.
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I have no issue with game pass, I think they are a great deal for game hoppers of the world even if there isn't much appeal to someone like me who has averaged playing 3 or less games annually for the past 20 years.
Now the real bane of online gaming IMO is seasonal passes which usually is just a bunch of low effort content that awards players a bunch of mostly useless junk they don't really want or need.
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But overall I think Netflix is well worth the money.
Blood of Zeus now has a new season not as good as the first but my favorite animation on NF.
The in game seasonal passes are just one of the latest in the never ending line of new ways to make money from a game, live service being the cash cow of gaming. So like all the others that have been created from pre-orders onwards, seasonal passes must move to every other game at lightspeed.
Maybe this issue will never grow until it really starts to distort the gaming market, apparently from what Xiaoki said the Gamepass is not growing as MS would wish. But I don't see them cancelling it even if it just putters along.
Gamepass is a game changer for people who finish games fast. I cannot do that I like to own a game and play it a week or a year later. I don't enjoy having to finish games fast because I have a subscription. I want to buy and play which is why I monopolise Steam. I have no metrics I have no idea nor will I actually ever really be able to find out what most players want. So for me Gamepass is something I have not subscribed to. I have a free trial when I got my new PC which I have still not activated. I don't like the idea of renting games.
Which I used to do in Malaysia, you rent games a lot there and even in Europe there are many renting opportunities for console games. With PC games I want a library which is mine. Well except for Ubisoft who sees fit to remove games from your library they are mostly safe. I don't feel my games are safe with Gamepass. They can just remove a game and they can arbitrarily do that. Not a good future for games when your only option is rental.
One think that I am curious about is Netflix making series which are clearly for other regions including the Middle And Far East. How much do these regions watch each others Netflix output? I don't find much for me there, but the odd one like Alice in the Borderland and Shahmaran were really good.