Chris Charla, the director of [email protected] presents his opinion on Gamepass and explains why the business model does not disrupt the gaming market, but is an enrichment.
what is [email protected]? 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 [email protected] is currently celebrating its 10th birthday. According to gamesindustry.biz, several indie developers and publishers who had already worked with Xbox had very positive comments about the program. However, there are also some questions and concerns, with one focus: the Game Pass.
“Is an asset in a really positive way”
Concern about which direction the model is going is perfectly normal among business people, said the director of [email protected] Chris Charla to gamesindutry.biz.
However, concerns about subscriptions and how they could disrupt the gaming market would not be reflected in Xbox’s data: “I wouldn’t call it disruptive.” Instead, Charla sees it as an addition:
It’s additive. People still buy a lot of games and they still buy a lot of games on Xbox. They buy games through Game Pass with a discount they get as members.
So I don’t think Game Pass is a disruptive business model, it’s an enrichment in a really positive way. And we as an industry need to look at more of these additive business models. Similar to digital distribution, which was somewhat disruptive to retail, but ultimately added value because not every game had to be big enough to justify it on a disc.
With this, Charla suggests that indie developers in particular will benefit from the Game Pass system, since smaller titles that might not have made it to publication on disc are also published more easily.
What does the future of Game Pass look like? Microsoft recently ended the €1 trial subscription, which allowed interested parties to test Xbox Game Pass at a special price.
In a statement to The Verge, Kai Perez, Head of Global Communications, said: “We have halted our previous introductory offer for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass and are currently evaluating various marketing promotions for new members in the future.”
By the way, you can save a lot of money with the Game Pass with a simple trick. MeinMMO editor Patrick Freese explains how the trick works and what you have to consider:
Be careful, don’t just pay €10 for Xbox Game Pass – I almost made the mistake