Gamepass is like early Netflix. It's a good value now. But once it reaches a large enough subscriber base, it fundamentally takes over publishing. Everyone copies the model because consumers are trained not to buy, and you wind up literally unable to buy things outright anymore.

Don't think it happens? Try watching the Willow TV series on Disney Plus.

I hate paying perpetual rent in items I should own. I recognize gamepass is a good value, but still would rather own a game forever than see Nintendo and Sony take this same approach.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yep, I've seen this film before - and I didn't like the ending.

Played this game with Netflix. It kills be because all of these kids think I'm stupid for not buying game pass. That I'm old for wanting to own my games. Except it's just a teaser, it's obviously a loss leader for Microsoft. They want it on all screens because that's how monopolies work. As soon as it's everywhere they'll jack up the price and start removing content - but by that point there's no where else to get the content. You either end up paying twice (or more) for the game you wanted - or you just lose it forever.

[–] devious@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Nah it won't be like that - in future you will get to subscribe to multiple services Sony, Microsoft, Epic, Ubisoft, EA, etc to play the games you want!

[–] Send_me_nude_girls@feddit.de 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You forgot, DLC 1 is exclusive to Epic and DLC 2 only on Microsoft store. If you buy on Sony you however get the exclusive Marvel Quest which everyone says is the best in the whole game but only available if you bought the prequel on Sony store too.

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 8 points 11 months ago

Piracy is important to protect the legacies of material for exactly this reason. It used to be just that items physically degraded, now they're being deliberately removed.

Since I've started routinely pirating shows I no longer have to ask the question, "is this show available?" Because if I've heard of it then someone has uploaded it.

[–] TheEntity@kbin.social 8 points 11 months ago

Even if we stick to the games, it's already literally impossible to buy the mobile Into The Breach. It's available exclusively within the Netflix subscription.

[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

And when it grows the games will only be on game pass and you will buy a thin client and own no games. They dont need to worry about anti trust as you can access it on any platform.

This is why I stick with steam and emulation

[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev 20 points 11 months ago (3 children)

This sounds evil somehow

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 20 points 11 months ago

Monopolies generally are evil

[–] SuperSaiyanSwag@lemmy.zip 3 points 11 months ago

Because we have been there already with Netflix, but what’s more evil here is that Netflix is not a juggernaut of a company like Microsoft. I don’t hate MS like most users on Lemmy, but even I can see how harmful this can be to the gaming industry. Indies will start struggling to breaking even if an average user just starts relying on gamepass.

[–] Phegan@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

It is evil, they are trying to replicate what happened in streaming and music in the gaming space. They want to remove digital ownership

[–] Perroboc@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

“Now we support Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation! Those platforms, combined with our current offer in Windows, macOS, Android and iOS / iPadOS, cover the whole spectrum of platforms available!”

But what about Lin- “THE WHOLE SPECTRUM”

[–] Boiglenoight@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Steam Deck or GTFO amirite

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

"GamePass Deck you say?" <-- MS Exec

[–] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 10 points 11 months ago

Company wants successful service to reach as many customers as possible, more news at 11

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 9 points 11 months ago

No.

[–] Klanky@sopuli.xyz 8 points 11 months ago

I just want to play Forza Horizon 4 that I stupidly bought on Game Pass, on my Steam Deck, without having to buy it on Steam.

[–] ViscloReader@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You bet they'd want that. But now that I think about it, the whole point of the Xbox series was to play game pass. If you have game pass on playstation/Nintendo, why would you even think about getting an Xbox? Maybe they don't want to sell systems anymore?

[–] NekkoDroid@programming.dev 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

At this point it wouldn't even surprise me if they wanna end Xbox in its current form. To my knowledge it's very low margin if it's not a net negative, so using other platforms instead to host it would end up with them making more in the long run.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago

Lots of companies have products that exist just to compete with a rival's product and keep the pressure on them, I'm sure Microsoft has plenty of products that exist just so they have the "you know we could drop this deal we have with you at any point and use our own version, so offer us a good deal". I imagine they'll keep the xbox around even if the likes of Sony and Nintendo do support game pass just so Microsoft have always got that bargaining chip of "alright then, we'll run it on our own machine" if the others decide they want to change the terms of the deal.

[–] djidane535@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Unpopular opinion here:

I much prefer to play on Gamepass at the moment. From my personal experience, I will simply never have the time to play again to 90% of my games. It’s just impossible (even if I stopped playing new games today, I am not sure I will be able to do so before I die). Since it’s way cheaper to play this way, I don’t see the point of buying new games anymore (I still buy a few games per year, and just cancel my membership while playing them such as Nintendo games or games I really want to play day one like Cyberpunk).

Besides, over the years, I built up an emulation setup with all the games I played (and old games I would likely play at some point, since I dedicate 50% of my play time to retrogaming). It’s not like it is necessary to own them to play them if you want a nostalgia trip a few decades after their initial release.

Besides, the vast majority of those games will still be available in the future (physical copies, online stores, remaster/remakes, piracy, emulation). I believe it is unnecessary to own every single game in the fear of the being able to (potentially) play it once again in 10 years.

I agree that the gamepass model will likely collapse at some point if it becomes too popular, but it’s not a problem to take advantage to it while it’s profitable and drop it when it’s not anymore (just unsubscribe when you don’t use it, which is what I do 4-6 months per year to play other games).

[–] BorgDrone@lemmy.one 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I will simply never have the time to play again to 90% of my games. It’s just impossible (even if I stopped playing new games today, I am not sure I will be able to do so before I die). Since it’s way cheaper to play this way, I don’t see the point of buying new games anymore

My reason is kind of the opposite: I have very little time to play games, so I choose quality over quantity. What I see on GamePass is an endless supply of mediocrity. I’d rather buy a few really good games at full price than spend the little time I have playing whatever Microsoft padded their catalog with.

[–] djidane535@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Depends on your taste I guess. I don’t play those games because they are there, but because they are « on my list ». I don’t think games like Ori, Hades, Hi-Fi rush, Call of the sea, Persona 5, etc are trash. And when nothing interests me anymore, I just unsubscribe and come back a few months later when there are at least a few interesting games. I agree that I wouldn’t only play on gamepass :).

[–] BorgDrone@lemmy.one 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don’t think games like Ori, Hades, Hi-Fi rush, Call of the sea, Persona 5, etc are trash

I’m not saying they are trash, they are either really old or just decent games. I would say it’s mostly games I would rate a 7 or 8 out of 10. But with limited time available for gaming, there are enough games that I would rate a 9 or 10 to fill the available time. So why would I not just exclusively play only very top tier games?

GamePass is nice if you’re 16, can’t afford to buy full price games and have lots of free time. You get a lot of play time out of a limited budget with decent enough games.

But when you’re 40+ with a full time job, you make a different trade-off. You have much less free time but a higher income. You then tend to go for quality over quantity. Make every hour you can spend gaming count.

[–] djidane535@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

Well, I am 30+ years old and have no problem to buy games full price. I would have played those games even if they weren’t on the Gamepass. That’s why I said it’s more a question of taste in gaming that explains why you consider such games just « decent ». I think if you try to list your « 9 or 10 out of 10 games », I will have no or little interest in most of them (and that’s fine, no one is wrong here ^^).

My message was more to take advantage of the Gamepass for the games that are worth it, for the time it is worth it. Even if 99% of the games were trash, it would still be worth it to subscribe and play those 1% (and unsubscribe when you are done).

[–] therealjcdenton@lemmy.zip 4 points 11 months ago

Data harvester

[–] blunderworld@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago

Get it working properly on steam deck first

[–] Phegan@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Microsoft is becoming the Spotify of gaming. You own nothing, they pay the creators garbage and we are so dependent on the system it's hard to leave it.

We need to resist this.