Chris Charla, the Director of ID@Xbox, shares his opinion on Game Pass and explains why the business model does not disrupt the gaming market but enriches it.
What is ID@Xbox? The acronym stands for Independent Developers @ Xbox and is a program that allows indie developers to self-publish their titles for PC, Cloud, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S.
The ID@Xbox program is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary. Several indie developers and publishers who have previously collaborated with Xbox expressed very positive opinions about the program, according to gamesindustry.biz. However, there are also some questions and concerns, with a focus on Game Pass.
“It enriches in a really positive way”
The concern about the direction of the model is completely normal among business people, said ID@Xbox Director Chris Charla in an interview with gamesindustry.biz.
However, the concerns about subscriptions and how they could disrupt the gaming market do not reflect in Xbox’s data: “I wouldn’t call it disruptive.” Instead, Charla sees it as complementary:
It is additive. People are still buying a lot of games, and they are still buying a lot of games on Xbox. They buy games through Game Pass with a discount they receive as members.
So I don’t believe that Game Pass is a disruptive business model, but rather it is enriching in a really positive way. And we in the industry need to look at more of these additive business models. Similar to digital distribution, which did present some disruption for retail, but ultimately added value because not every game had to be so big that it justified a release on a disc.
This suggests to Charla that indie developers particularly benefit from the Game Pass system, as smaller titles can also be published more easily, which might not have made it to a disc release.
What does the future hold for Game Pass? Recently, Microsoft ended the €1 trial subscription, where interested parties could test the Xbox Game Pass at a special price.
In a statement to The Verge, Kai Perez, Head of Global Communications, stated: “We have stopped our previous introductory offer for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass and are currently reviewing various marketing actions for new members in the future.”
With a simple trick, you can save a lot of money with Game Pass. MeinMMO editor Patrick Freese explains how the trick works and what you need to consider:
Beware, do not just pay 10 € for the Xbox Game Pass – I almost made the mistake
