ID@Xbox director Chris Charla shared some wonderful insight on what he feels about Xbox Game Pass as a whole, and how it doesn’t negatively impact the gaming industry, but rather adds value.
In an interview with Christopher Dring from GamingsIndustry, when asked about concerns over subscription-based services, specifically Xbox Game Pass, the director responded, “I wouldn’t describe it as disruptive, because I don’t think it is in the way that like Uber came in and got rid of all the taxis in that industry.”
He then further added to this analogy by using the free-to-play business model and its initial contentious feedback as a perfect example. Back then, consumers thought that it was going to “completely change everything,” where the industry as a whole would lean toward this business model, and eventually all games would become free. Today, we all know that this is far from true.
“It’s additive,” says Charla, “People still buy a lot of games and they still buy a lot of games on Xbox. They buy games through Game Pass at a discount, which is what they get as members. And so I don’t think Game Pass has been a disruptive business model, it’s been additive in a really positive way.”
I would have to agree on this one, so let me explain. Tight budgets often mean you can’t buy every new game on release, concessions need to be made, often leading to many a safe bet. Owning Xbox Game Pass, however, allows one to play games you’d never consider adding to the game library, especially day one, ergo introducing the game and its developer to a much wider audience.
For example, I would never have imagined myself enjoying Metal: Hellsinger, Atomic Heart, or Hi-Fi Rush and now, The Outsiders, Mundfish, and Tango Gameworks are among the top spots in my ‘developers to watch’ list, whether their next game comes out on Xbox Game Pass day one or not.
Besides this, the developer adds that Game Pass has value for not only consumers but also third-party studios, “When we see developers coming to us and talking to us about second, third, fourth and fifth games in Game Pass, it’s clearly working for them. That’s good extrinsic validation about the value of the programme.”
Be sure to check out the interview for yourself, as there are plenty of valuable titbits on the inner workings over at Xbox.
