Game Pass continues to strengthen its position as one of the best values in gaming, but though there’s no disputing that from a consumer’s perspective, on the other side of the fence, plenty of developers have spoken about the negative effects that having their games on the service can potentially have. While the increased visibility and the potential for larger player bases has obviously been praised by developers, others have also brought up some of the subscription service’s issues.
For instance, Frozenbyte, developer of the Trine series – which is getting a new game this year – touched on the topic of Game Pass in a recent interview with Segment Next, and said that though the service does allow games to reach a larger number of players, it does also contribute to “oversaturation of content”.
“Game Pass is of course an interesting program to reach more gamers at scale,” the developer said. “On the flip side of the coin, we believe it also contributes to the over-saturation of content in the gaming space and it can be hard to commit and enjoy games as there’s such an abundance of choice.”
Recently, Jumpship, the developer of Somerville, mentioned that being on Game Pass had hurt the game’s sales, while previously, Tunic developer Finji has also touched on the potential pitfalls of the service for indie studios in particular. Microsoft and Activision have also stated that Game Pass “severely cannibalizes” games’ sales.
It is, of course, worth mentioning that numerous developers have spoken about the many advantages of Game Pass, from allowing studios to be more experimental with their games to being able to reach larger audiences and have more eyes on their titles, though clearly, the service is not without its own share of problems as well.
Frozenbyte’s Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy is due out this Summer for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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