Why People Are Abandoning Xbox Game Pass
Did Xbox under-deliver?
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00:00 Hello everybody, welcome to What Culture Gaming, I'm Scott, joined by Josh.
00:03 Hello Scott.
00:03 Josh, my friend, something did the rounds across the weekend in regards to Xbox's Game Pass
00:07 and I saw a number of blue ticked individuals over on Twitter saying that they're cancelling Game Pass
00:12 which led to a bunch of Twitter threads of other people saying "To be honest, I cancelled it months ago."
00:16 To be honest, I'm also going to be cancelling it, leading to the Game Pass...
00:20 What do you call it? Trending tag?
00:22 Yeah, trending.
00:23 Tag trending.
00:23 Hashtag trending on Twitter.com
00:26 Leading to Game Pass trending on Twitter is a lot of other people sort of weighed in on the reality of the, let's say, the value proposition of Game Pass
00:33 and whether or not people are going to stick around for it now that something like Starfield and Redfall have been delayed, let's say, into 2023.
00:39 Now I'm going to read out some different quotes because I think there's some good talking points here from the various figureheads that have weighed in.
00:44 And a lot of this was filed from Gene Parker, the Washington Post's gaming writer, who said
00:50 "I'm unsubscribing from Xbox Game Pass for the first time ever. Gotta admit to myself that I barely use it and barely have to add any use for it right now.
00:57 I was promised new exclusives every three months and we just don't have that. I played Trek to Yomi though, yay."
01:02 Now this is interesting in regards to the three month thing because it's not like Xbox got out there and promised there would be new first party exclusives every three months.
01:10 However, in June 2021, as part of their Game Pass press release, they did say
01:15 "With more than 23 studios worldwide creating games for Xbox, our goal is to release at least one new first party game into Game Pass every quarter."
01:22 Then they go on to say "Roleplaying games, shooters, strategy titles, adventure and more are all being built by our first party teams to ensure there's a steady stream of compelling exclusive content to explore."
01:32 Now that's the thing, it's one of those things where they're not promising it. It's very much what the service has been advertised as.
01:38 There's a little bit of grey area there. But before I bring more stuff in, what do you think?
01:42 Sure, I mean we're quite literally sat on a couch right now. But figuratively, I'm on the fence because I do get both sides.
01:49 On the one side, with the delays that you mentioned, Starfield Redfall, with some disappointments perhaps in Halo Infinite,
01:58 the first party output on Game Pass isn't where you want it to be. It's certainly not the three month, every quarter big AAA exclusive that they promised.
02:07 From that perspective I can totally see someone just saying "Look, what do I have this service for?"
02:13 On the other hand, that's never really been what I got that service for. What I got the service for was for backwards compatibility and indies and stuff I might not really play at the moment.
02:24 So a lot of people weighed in here. Gene Park also said "The subscription model is a very risky business because although it's auto revenue, you do have to make sure people stick around."
02:32 Tom's Guys Tony Polanco weighed in saying "Game Pass is a fantastic service, but my time is limited and I want to play AAA exclusives, not old titles and indies."
02:39 MVG also came in and said "I dipped off Game Pass a few months ago and there's just nothing compelling there for me."
02:44 And Kind of Funny's Paris Lillie said that June 12th is going to be huge. June 12th being the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.
02:50 So they could turn a lot of stuff around. I'd be amazed if they said "Here's a bunch of first party exclusives. Here's all the exclusives we were sitting on for no reason, but they're all going to come out now."
02:58 But overall there's a lot of stuff to pick apart here. Like Josh just said, one of the reasons you stick around and I still pay for Game Pass is the fact that it is a smorgasbord of indies.
03:07 It's everything from Paradise Killer to Tunic to Trek to Yomi or whatever. I think that's worth in the UK £11 a month.
03:13 I would be buying those games anyway. So for me it's sheer... Like I said, I'd be paying that money anyway. So the value proposition is unreal for me.
03:20 But it depends how much you think indie focused stuff can be a monthly service.
03:23 I think you've hit it on the head there Scott Telford because every single gaming fan is different. They like what they like, their tastes differ.
03:30 And you know why I am happy to pay the monthly subscription to play Brothers in Arms instead of playing Tunic and stuff?
03:36 A lot of people will be saying "Well where's the next Halo Infinite? Where's the next Forza Horizon?"
03:40 Even I hope.
03:41 It's totally valid, you know what I mean?
03:43 But yeah for me the value proposition is there but when you take it into its full context, especially with the PlayStation Plus relaunch coming next month, incredibly soon,
03:55 I imagine a lot of people are taking stock of the year and thinking "Do I need this streaming service? What am I getting out of it?"
04:01 Because there aren't any first party things on the horizon. There are competitors out there that might be doing it or might be giving me more than I want.
04:09 What is this offering me right now? And I do think the brass tacks is stuff like indie, stuff like backwards compatibility stuff.
04:18 Well the thing is in regards to exclusives as well, obviously PlayStation Plus' premium service is about to drop later this year.
04:23 And it's mentioned a lot in this thread. A lot of people are saying "Look I'm going to suspend Game Pass for a bit, go across to PlayStation Premium and see what that thing is."
04:30 Because at least that service comes with a whole bunch of current gen and last gen exclusives and that's just a bigger bulk of worthwhile content that you might want to get stuck into.
04:38 It is interesting overall that idea of bulk versus specific quality stuff, specific AAA titles or whatever.
04:46 And I feel like now you've got more stuff in the pipeline. But it's interesting, Gene Park even says "Where was this energy when I said I was going to cancel Netflix?"
04:54 It's not like "Why can't we rotate through a bunch of different streaming services?"
04:57 And just because I've gone off Game Pass now doesn't mean I'm not going to come back to it later.
05:00 Which is a whole wider thing. I'm kind of curious what people think in regards to the amount of monthly services they have access to.
05:06 Do you tend to have a handful of them? Do you oscillate between two or three?
05:10 Because it's very easy to end up signing up to 20 odd things, Josh Brown.
05:13 I'm so sorry.
05:14 And then it's hard to manage all of them. So I think it is interesting in that wider sense of being aware that you're thrown 8 to 10 pounds at 20 separate things.
05:22 And you think you're saving money, but when added up you're not.
05:25 First off, I will never cancel that MGM subscription. But secondly, I am a fool.
05:31 You're just a person who shouldn't be in charge of his own finances, evidently.
05:35 But yeah, it is kind of that thing of "I want to know the consuming habits of these streaming services."
05:41 Is it the norm to pick up Game Pass when a big title drops and then play stuff around it?
05:46 Or is it just something that you're expected to keep and then enjoy the backlog of before you get that killer app that justifies your purchase?
05:55 I honestly don't know. We're in this strange new world, Scott.
05:58 Especially in the world of gaming where you made a comparison to Apple TV, Netflix and all of that stuff.
06:03 And the originals coming through on that front.
06:07 And I think that in the movie and TV space, it's more frequent.
06:12 You do get the Marvel shows every other month or whatever.
06:15 You do get a lot of Netflix originals in clearly Game Pass and even maybe Sony's PlayStation Plus.
06:23 Do you know what's hilarious?
06:24 I said The Mandalorian was the first thing to take off. It was WandaVision.
06:27 That's how utterly forgettable the rest of the MCU stuff has been in my life.
06:32 But yeah, they've had a few things that obviously have taken off.
06:35 But that is always the quandary when it comes to balancing monthly service subscriptions.
06:39 Like Gene Park says, they need to make sure that people are sticking around.
06:41 And that's just one for the comments.
06:43 Do you think that Game Pass is worth keeping around for everything other than AAA or big old first party exclusives?
06:48 Because that is just a brass tacks thing that Xbox haven't delivered a whole swath of first party exclusives.
06:53 Even though obviously Halo's fine. Halo Infinite plays incredibly well.
06:57 But that thing is a bit of a mess, which is a whole other sort of conversation.
07:00 And it's an interesting talking point.
07:02 So I think as well you've got the likes of Starfield and Redfall being delayed.
07:05 So in terms of people maybe hanging on, thinking well I'm not going to go through the rigmarole of sorting my monthly direct debits out.
07:11 Because I'll just sit with this service. It's easier just ticking over than going through all that stuff.
07:15 Because the games are coming in the future, that's now not the case, at least for this year.
07:19 So that might be the thing that pushed people over the edge.
07:21 What would they need at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 to drive confidence back into Game Pass?
07:29 To be like look, I know we might not have hit this every three month quarter, but this is what we have planned.
07:36 What do they need to come out and show to get people back on board?
07:39 If it's pie in the sky, if you eliminate dev time, then they need some meaningful expansion to Halo Infinite.
07:46 Because we've only got a couple of new maps for that.
07:48 You do some sort of campaign expansion that maybe ties in with the TV show, that thing's a whole thing in itself.
07:54 But if you have some sort of single player expansion, some sort of really sizable multiplayer expansion,
07:58 that feels premium, that you could pay for, maybe it's £30 or something, but it is also on Game Pass.
08:03 And there's Shadow Drop, something that's been mentioned for years.
08:06 Like Perfect Dark somehow real all along, even though that thing, if you look at the dev side of it, is barely holding together.
08:11 And the new Fable's actually real, the Forza reboot is real.
08:15 Something that turns heads and is available if you buy Game Pass.
08:18 It's that sentence. Like, what are you getting if you buy Game Pass?
08:21 Because right now you're getting a whole bunch of indie games, which are great.
08:24 And if you stick around for another week, you'll get Sniper Elite 5, which is one of the most overlooked franchises in gaming.
08:28 But they need those big head-turning things, because assumedly going forward, although it won't be day one,
08:33 Sony are going to be able to say, Last of Us Part III or God of War Ragnarok is on PlayStation Premium Plus.
08:39 And if you just subscribe, you'll get it.
08:41 That's the thing that they're going to be going up against, and that's a really hard thing to balance.
08:44 Absolutely. Once Sony drops their service, all focus, I think, is going to be on first parties.
08:50 Because right now, Game Pass can say it's the only place where you can play all of these Final Fantasy games,
08:55 all these Yakuza games, in a really reliable way, in a really accessible way, and for a good price.
09:03 But once Sony properly solidifies their PS Plus service, and they have those games to download as well,
09:10 and presumably get a bigger library that challenges Microsoft when it comes to legacy content,
09:15 when it comes to third-party franchise content, suddenly the focus is going to be,
09:19 Right, well, who has the best first-party stuff? Who has the best exclusives to their side?
09:25 And I know that the Sony stuff isn't going to come for a little while afterwards, but even then,
09:29 you're getting Returnal, you're getting Spider-Man, Miles Morales, you're getting a lot of legacy stuff that is good value IMO.
09:36 And another thing as well, is that it's fascinating because, before we were recording, we were just saying,
09:40 "Look, it's obviously been a hellacious last couple of years, COVID gets in the way of game development,
09:44 or any remote project organisation massively, it just drives a wedge between all those different things,
09:49 and maybe that's why things have been delayed in regards to the Xbox first-party stuff."
09:53 However, they did make this statement in June 2021, in regards to, you know, we have 23 studios,
09:57 they're all ticking stuff over, and maybe the realities of how those projects came together just has been messy,
10:02 i.e. Perfect Dark, but at the same time, they bought enough teams, they bought up so much stuff,
10:09 and we're seeing less than ever from them. So I think my gut feeling is that nothing will be this year,
10:14 it'll actually be next year. I actually think, to be completely honest, that the Xbox Bethesda showcase,
10:18 and I hope I'm wrong, will just be, "Here's another teaser for Elder Scrolls 6 to sort of get some social media clout going,
10:24 and here's some Starfield gameplay." Even though, you know, it's coming, it's delayed, but this is what it's going to look like.
10:30 Listen, I think you're right. I think next year is going to be the year where things kick back into being,
10:34 because like you said, it's obviously been an incredibly difficult past couple of years in terms of game development specifically.
10:40 A lot of titles have been pushed already, you know, 2023 is going to be as mad as February 2022 was, no doubt.
10:47 But that does mean that we have this kind of year blank, and it's like, we have to take into consideration,
10:53 do we want these services ticking over and costing us all of this money when we're not getting that for another year?
10:59 That's why I'm on the fence, because I can totally see Microsoft's side to be like, "Look, we've got all these studios,
11:04 but we've encountered all of these problems as well." Then I can also see the consumer and fan side,
11:08 whether that is totally valid, but also, I'm not just going to give you money for nothing.
11:12 Well, it's weird because they have so many months to fill in regards to, let's say, no big first-party titles come out,
11:16 let's say God of War gets delayed or whatever, you have the rest of this year to fill in.
11:20 Now, what are you going to fill that time with? How many different titles are you going to revisit?
11:23 Are there things from past generations that you want to get back to?
11:26 And if they identify that on the Xbox and the Sony side, then that's a whole bunch of third-party licensing agreements
11:31 that now need to be put into place to make sure we have those catalogues of titles per month for the rest of this year.
11:36 Now, I think that's what Sony are doing anyway, considering how paltry the initial PlayStation Plus Premium lineup is.
11:42 I think they've got big titles for the rest of this year, but that then puts the impetus back on Xbox to be like,
11:46 "Look, if we don't have the first-party stuff, we do have Brute Force or something from the original Xbox."
11:51 Gex the Gecko.
11:52 Gex the Gecko, something that people would care about, something that was on Xbox that was a big old deal.
11:55 I don't know, Tao Feng, Fist of the Lotus. Give me something that only three people will recognize.
11:59 Backyard Wrestling.
12:01 Something that was a big old deal that they can turn heads with on social media,
12:05 because they need to make up for the fact that the first-party stuff isn't there.
12:08 Still, though, whether that proposition is still worth paying the £11 a month in the UK is a whole other thing.
12:13 Maybe some people just don't need games that much in this bulk approach,
12:18 and they're happy just waiting things out and playing something they actually bought from last year or something.
12:22 Let us know what you think down in the comments below. Do you have Game Pass? Have you recently left Game Pass?
12:26 What are your thoughts on monthly subscription services and video games when those two things cross over?
12:30 For now, I've been Scott from WhatCulture.com.
12:31 I've been Josh from WhatCulture.com.
12:33 And we'll catch you next time.
12:34 Bye-bye.