Game Pass players jump in for 5 minutes and then drop out - MachineGames

I dunno, I played through all of Indy on game pass and it was awesome. Plenty more games I'm looking forward to playing on there, too.
 
When the barrier to entry is a sub, you're inevitably going to get people that never had that much interest take a chance on it, and then have their hesitance confirmed.

It's also why it's a weak metric on its own divorced from actual sales or even Steam concurrent player count.
 
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Mild shock. Every time I've subbed I install 10 games, play 2 of them for 10 minutes, then go back to playing a game I already own.
 
I did something similar when I had gamepass. I tried out several games for around an hour, but then gave up on it, if it didn't catch my attention.

That is why I put little value when a studio announces player count, instead of sales numbers.
 
All he's saying is you want to design the beginning of the game to be stronger to rope you in. This is probably true because you're not sunk with a $70 purchase and you can play something else if you want.

This is an example of subs making games better. In an attention war with youtube and tik tok, game developers should be doing this anyway.
 
shocked philip j fry GIF
 
You don't say...

Thing is, this is what happens when you're not interested in something to begin with - and this is why I'll never sub again to a service, be it Gamepass, PS+, PS+ Extra etc etc, I don't care about the games that THEY are choosing for "me", that will always be MY choice.

PS: never get to play 90% of the games that PS+ offers, I've been trying to play Jusant for past few weeks and I just can't, I get bored after 5 minutes each and every time
 
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Imagine working on a game for 4+ years and see players who basically got the game for free bail out after 5 minutes.

Devastating for morale.
 
zeroluck said:
2 mins barely enough to get pass the ridiculous long logo screens of these games.
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No doubt.

Load game......

- Studio logo
- Publisher logo
- Unreal Engine logo
- Havok logo
- If it's a sports game, add in the pro league and players association logos, and any TV sports brand logo (ESPN etc...)

Great. I got to the main menu after all those unskippable brand screens

- TOS agreement
- Set up profile with email
- A GAAS game pops up a message saying there's new events and trinkets to buy. Press A to go to e-store to buy

Great. I got past the prompts at the menu screen. Lets start the game.

- Mandatory unskippable cut scene
- Tutorial level, even in sports games where EA will shove you into a canned game of last years finals (you can exit though)!

Great. I got past the intro filler content. Now I can start the game and play how I want.

And game devs wonder why people tune out.
 
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Punished Miku said:
All he's saying is you want to design the beginning of the game to be stronger to rope you in. This is probably true because you're not sunk with a $70 purchase and you can play something else if you want.

This is an example of subs making games better. In an attention war with youtube and tik tok, game developers should be doing this anyway.
Click to expand...

But we already had a similar situation, with Steam's 2 hour refund period.
 
Punished Miku said:
All he's saying is you want to design the beginning of the game to be stronger to rope you in. This is probably true because you're not sunk with a $70 purchase and you can play something else if you want.

This is an example of subs making games better. In an attention war with youtube and tik tok, game developers should be doing this anyway.
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Basically like everything on Steam. Also ask the Sony fans how easy it is to get a refund on PS5.
 
This will be different for everyone, but for me personally I can definitely confirm some psychological effect where if I haven't paid for the game specifically, it looses quite a bit of it's perceived value. Which contributes to me not taking it seriously as some work of art that requires at least a bit of effort on my part.
 
Yeah, that's why "number of players" for gamepass game is wildly misleading.

We already knew but it will be nice not to get pushback from defenders.

Dipping in and out to test games you would never buy is the best thing about gamepass.

It is also not great for long term sales. Basically it gives people an outlet to throw a game away they may have FOMO for by telling themselves they tried it. I bet most of the 70 and 80 dollar games that were day 1 on gamepass have sold like shit and the gamepass completion percentage of the game is probably embarrassingly low. Way lower then the embarrassingly low completion rate of the non-gamepass AAA game.

Gamepass was never meant to be profitable. It's designed to help the company who can afford the most loss.
 
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Punished Miku said:
All he's saying is you want to design the beginning of the game to be stronger to rope you in. This is probably true because you're not sunk with a $70 purchase and you can play something else if you want.

This is an example of subs making games better. In an attention war with youtube and tik tok, game developers should be doing this anyway.
Click to expand...
Buying games, having an investment in them is ultimately the answer.

Not a huge library of games that can treat like a demo service.
 
Last night it was, Load up Prince of Persia on PC Gamepass, wonder why the game wasn't starting, closing down the Xbox app, Opening up Google to find out the issue.
Fix the link Ubisoft account log in, Load up PC Gamepass, start Prince of Persia, Get to title screen, and realize I need to go to bed. :(
 
If a gamer is jumping in for 5 minutes and bailing ship, it means the game is shit. Doesn't matter if it's a demo, beta, sub plan game or someone bought it for full price.

It doesn't matter if it's a game, movie or tv show. Nobody wants dead time, especially at the beginning. That's because it's a waste of the customer's time. Get the ball rolling.

That's one thing I always liked about old Arnie movies. That first 5 min, you could always count on a cool intro and a starter action scene. You dont get half an hour of boredom before the movie gets going. It gets going right away. And shooter games dont waste time either. After maybe a starting intro screen and goofing around with a tutorial level or firing range, you jump right in and it's shooter gameplay right away.
 
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Thats how its always been with subscription. This is why ill never believe xbox's - x million players numbers for each new release
 
It's a known fact that people buy multiple games on Steam and never install them, sometimes even forgetting they own them. If on Gamepass they play for just 5 minutes, that's still an advantage
 
rodrigolfp said:
So they lose almost a month of payment for gamepass?? Morons.
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Nah. Microsoft loves to just give you a full refund if you go to cancel your gamepass a couple days before it renews. I've subbed multiple times to play a couple titles and set reminders to cancel like 4 days prior and every single time they gave me a "cancel now and receive full refund or play until blah blah and cancel" option.
 
Soren01 said:
It's a known fact that people buy multiple games on Steam and never install them, sometimes even forgetting they own them. If on Gamepass they play for just 5 minutes, that's still an advantage
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They buy on sale when the game has already made a profit selling to those who want to play.

If the game sold, was played, and made a profit; after that, it's irrelevant if it starts selling on sale to those who will never play.

And the fact you mentioned is just anecdotal evidence.
 
Dacvak said:
I dunno, I played through all of Indy on game pass and it was awesome. Plenty more games I'm looking forward to playing on there, too.
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My guess is someone who goes online to talk about games with random strangers is not the norm for the game pass community.
 
SJRB said:
Imagine working on a game for 4+ years and see players who basically got the game for free bail out after 5 minutes.

Devastating for morale.
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Thats the digital world.

No different than music and movies/TV on sub plans. Customer tries it out, hates it and never streams it again.

Or even worse, it's right in someone's face ready to download. They are on sub plan, so it's a sunk cost. Customer just skips by it not even bothering. They'd rather beeline and watch 30 year old reruns of Seinfeld.
 
Not shocked at all, I'm doing the same thing & eventually I play only 2 games per month from gamepass & installing maybe 10.
Still it is better to try game & decide if you like it or not then land full price & be sorry after.
 
Ubiquity and availability cheapen every experience. Music was much more important to people when it was scarce, when buying a vinyl album or a CD was a commitment not made lightly but you'd know you'd spend many hours listening to the next album by your favorite band, admiring the cover, reading the lyrics.

And kids have a Spotify subscription they got with their phone, they can listen to any album recorded in the past 80 years and they go through the entire disography of Queen or Led Zeppelin in a matter of minutes, maybe put one song of those bands to their seventies playlist and move on. No wonder kids these days have lost interest in music. In a world where everything is free, nothing has any real value.
 
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