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.
You're a participant of an enthusiast gaming forum. Of course you'd be more likely to see a well-received, linear, singleplayer, story-driven game through than the majority of Game Pass' subscriber base.
 
5 minutes is barely enough to properly get into a game and feel if it is or isn't something one might like. If someone uses GP as a demo option, it is their right to do so. If they never commit to anything though and always actually play some MP game or whatever they waste their own time and also money on a service they do not properly exploit.
 
Game Pass was the gamble that killed Xbox and the legacy Phil wanted to build; instead, it exposed him as the conman he had always been.

Isn't it crazy that now all the green rats on Twitter are using Helldivers 2 as proof that Xbox players buy games and that there is business to be made on Xbox… when a game doesn't come to Game Pass?.. bruh, that fanbase is so diluted and desperate.

they are even posting how much they are playing the game. 🥴

GamePass should have died 84 times by now based on your predictions but either way thank you for the update from the front lines.


The difference is… when people buy a game, the transaction is already done. In fact, if someone buys a game, the likelihood of sticking with it is stronger; the consumer was interested enough to spend money on it in the first place.

Playing a game for 5 minutes on Game Pass is the opposite of an advantage; it can be a liability for everyone involved: Gamers, Devs, and the service itself.

For starters you're taking the five minute part a little too literally, he means a lot of people basically treat it like a demo service. And that isn't a liability, that's one of the best things about the service. Obviously some devs/publishers disagree, they'd rather you pay them $70-80 and be stuck with the game you don't like.

Also you make the same mistake people used to complain about with piracy. Not every download is a lost sale.

W...what? A paradox?

Star Trek Reaction GIF

😆😆😆
 
I mean I give it more than 5 minutes but if it's a game I wasn't going to buy, and it goes on Game Pass I'll at least give it a go.
If however, it doesn't grab my attention I will leave it behind.
 
Subscription services in gaming are useless to me. Games leave way too soon and I fucking hate rushing through a game as I often drop them for months due to my responsibilities. Thanks, I would rather play my backlog.
 
Subscription services in gaming are useless to me. Games leave way too soon and I fucking hate rushing through a game as I often drop them for months due to my responsibilities. Thanks, I would rather play my backlog.
Honestly, that seems a bit overblown. Most games on Game Pass stick around for 6-12 months, and some (like Microsoft's own stuff) basically stay forever. Persona 3 Reload, for example, was on there for about a year.

Sure, some games leave sooner, but that's not the norm. Game Pass actually gives you plenty of time to play stuff at your own pace without feeling rushed.
 
Easy go is fine.

Imagine paying $70 then letting go, realising game isn't for you.

Is that even possible?
I usually inform myself, what I am going to buy (or not)....so when I am finally make the decision there is basically 0% chance I am saying this game isnt for me. You must be retarded nowadays if thats happen to you. We are not living in 90s anymore where it was rather difficult to get some infos about some games (because internet just didnt exist).


For me its clear. If I would want a sub-only gaming future dominated by one of the worst companies on earth, I would support subs. If I dont want this future because of all the disadvantages it brings...I am simply sticking to the purchase model. Every gamer needs to decide himself what he wants and which consequences this might bring...and than just act accordingly.
 
Gamepass thread, huh? Grown men ranting? Ah, checks out.

I have lost count of the amount of games I have installed on Gamepass, tried for 5 minutes, and thought 'nah'.

I have also lost count of the amount of games I have installed on Gamepass, tried for 5 minutes, and thought 'yeah'.

Same rules apply to games I have bought, with the added headache of having to sell on the stinkers.

This is not a Gamepass issue. This is a game dev issue - those early moments are important if you want to reel in the player.
 
Gamepass thread, huh? Grown men ranting? Ah, checks out.

I have lost count of the amount of games I have installed on Gamepass, tried for 5 minutes, and thought 'nah'.

I have also lost count of the amount of games I have installed on Gamepass, tried for 5 minutes, and thought 'yeah'.

Same rules apply to games I have bought, with the added headache of having to sell on the stinkers.

This is not a Gamepass issue. This is a game dev issue - those early moments are important if you want to reel in the player.
Unless a game is an utter turd with a horrendous start I'll give it some time as unlike many youngsters, my attention span is longer than a goldfish's memory.
 
Unless a game is an utter turd with a horrendous start I'll give it some time as unlike many youngsters, my attention span is longer than a goldfish's memory.
Agreed. 5 minutes is just keeping in line with the title, but we all know it really means an indeterminate amount of time up until an opinion can be formed.
 
Ive done it hundreds of times. Try something just cause, only to not like and dump.
I also do the same with the subscription- generally only enrolling to try some new release, only to cancel my following month.
 
I usually inform myself, what I am going to buy (or not)....so when I am finally make the decision there is basically 0% chance I am saying this game isnt for me. You must be retarded nowadays if thats happen to you. We are not living in 90s anymore where it was rather difficult to get some infos about some games (because internet just didnt exist).

Not sure if this is as simple as it seems.

I didn't gel with a couple of big games recently Witcher 3, RDR2. 100% I would have bought them at $70 on release. And likely would have played them to completion. Now, I simply dropped them.

Coming to smaller games, Hell is Us. Looks amazing to me. I was in day 1 pretty much. After trying the demo, I figured it wasn't for me, combat didn't do it for me. There is nuance to this. Unless I play a game for a fair bit, its difficult to make an assessment.

For me its clear. If I would want a sub-only gaming future dominated by one of the worst companies on earth, I would support subs. If I dont want this future because of all the disadvantages it brings...I am simply sticking to the purchase model. Every gamer needs to decide himself what he wants and which consequences this might bring...and than just act accordingly.
Fair enough. I also dont want subscription only future.

As of now, I dont see any threat from gamepass model cause its not growing to gigantic proportions. I can safely use it.
 
As of now, I dont see any threat from gamepass model cause its not growing to gigantic proportions. I can safely use it.
Thats a bit dangerous strategy to me. Imagine everyone thinks like you and thinks its safe because its not big enough yet....and suddenly....boom! ;) Nah, thx. But if you need subs and you think it makes yr gaming life somehow better...than go for it. I dont need it, I dont want it...so I just ignore it.
 
I feel like when you have massive selection of games at your disposal on gamepass, you wont give most games a chance unless they grab your attention in the first minute.
People having tik tok brains, which leaves them with an attention span of a fish, it must be rough for game devs.
 
Thats a bit dangerous strategy to me. Imagine everyone thinks like you and thinks its safe because its not big enough yet....and suddenly....boom! ;) Nah, thx. But if you need subs and you think it makes yr gaming life somehow better...than go for it. I dont need it, I dont want it...so I just ignore it.
I must add, its difficult to write here benefits of sub. And pretty easy to use them such that they are counter productive.

IMO, only way to use GP is to make it main system. Cause its extremely time consuming.

But then only its benefits become clear.

Its especially useless if one uses multiple systems.
 
In Avowed and Gears of War Reloaded the last couple of campaign achievements are all rare achievements, like 8% completed that shit.

Play a game that honestly isn't like that on any platform… anything with serious length, or time involved or just anything really where there's achievements/trophies at the end of completion are usually always under 20%

It's more worrying the amount of people paying full freight for a game and never finishing it or picking it back up at $80 bucks.
 
There would be absolutely nothing wrong with this if Microsoft didn't brag about number of players like it was sales.

Since we can't compare apples to apples, bragging about number of players is disingenuous.
 
Last edited:
Bailing out in the first 5 minutes has more to do with ADHD and TikTok mentality than the game. I mean, what you can gather from the game in the first 5 minutes? In the first 1-2 hours out of 50-60 hours?
I bet the gaming guy is exagerrating the length of time.

But not impossible. I bailed on Quantum Break in probably less than 5 minutes of gameplay. I forget if there was a cut scene to sit through, but the second the game got to gameplay (I remember your character standing outside a cloudy sky to go up some stairs into a brick building or something) it felt clunky. And it's always worse when a third person game is clunky since you see a character trotting around looking lousy too. Bailed and deleted. Thank god it was a GP download and I didnt spent money on it.
 
Last edited:
Call it attention disorder or exclusivity dilemma,
My brain rather go to theater for one movie than have 24 of them available on Netflix.
Rather rent a movie I am invested in than browse through 6 games which 'might be my new favorite'.
 
Not a terribly surprising reality for Game Pass. I subbed for awhile, and generally had similar behavior. Not 5 minutes, but under an hour. I'd usually drop whatever the game was in favor of something I owned. That had a lot to do with why I dropped Game Pass at the end of the day. I have too much of a backlog of games I own that it makes little sense to invest time into a subscription service. Whatever floats one's boat at the end of the day though. I don't see Game Pass as a viable product for the industry. Don't really care if people like the service, it's the long-term that I question with it.
 
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.
Honestly I feel this is the reason From Soft games are so popular. They just put you in the game and you start playing. Same with botw.

Most games now start you with tutorial after tutorial only to end with an "exam" you have to pass before being allowed to play.
 
One of the pluses to having Game Pass for a while was being able to try a game for 15 minutes to a couple hours and bounce off them if they didn't hook me.
IMO, SP focused studios will be affected the most. With sub plans, a gamer doesnt have to spend $50, 60, 70 to beat a game over the weekend. Gamers who care about value and game duration would wait for bargain bin sales for $20. Now they can just wait for sub plan. And if it never comes to sub plan that's fine. By that time, they'll just buy it for $20 if they still want it.

Big MP/GAAS games have their mix of F2P (lots of shooters and POE etc...) or full price (COD, BF, EA Sports, fighting games etc...). But the key is people will pay full price if it's a big game they know they'll get their money's worth. Also, in competitive games a lot of people dont want to be the noob playing 6 months out. So if you want to get it, get in fast so he can level up and know the maps, or join online sports leagues asap.

A SP game better be a huge smash hit to get that audience. If not, I think a lot of gamers will just wait. If they arent on premium sub plan thats fine. They'll play some MP game for a while on basic sub plan and then get that SP game when it's on mega deal.

A lot of SP games just dont have the lasting appeal or being a good hook in the first hour like a MP/GAAS game you can jump in right away getting their feet wet and compete. And SP games are not the type of games that are F2P. They will be $50-70. The same money that can get someone 10x or 100x more game time playing MP/GAAS.
 
Last edited:
Call it attention disorder or exclusivity dilemma,
My brain rather go to theater for one movie than have 24 of them available on Netflix.
Rather rent a movie I am invested in than browse through 6 games which 'might be my new favorite'.

This is essentially what I discovered myself as well. Even then sometimes they have a game I know I'll love like the next Yakuza or something like that. The thing is sometimes I'm not even in the mood for Yakuza so I just leave it sitting there and by the time my mood changes and I'm ready for Yakuza, it's gone.
 
Or you can buy it on Steam and just get a no quibble refund within 2 hours if you don't like it without paying a subscription.

Sony will 100% HAVE to do something like this in the future. Especially once Xbox is out of the picture and the PC and Nintendo are their main to competitors. Even if they only allow you to play the game for 30 minutes.

There would be absolutely nothing wrong with this if Microsoft didn't brag about number of players like it was sales.

Since we can't compare apples to apples, bragging about number of players is disingenuous.

1000% AGREE!!!! MS are the ones that are muddied the waters here.
 
Last edited:
Easy go is fine.

Imagine paying $70 then letting go, realising game isn't for you.

Is that even possible?
It works though.

Look how many gamers preorder games. They could just wait 48H and sift through tons of online reviews and YT videos talking about the game. Instead, they preorder it 6 months out.

Aside from certain things in life which can be pricey with limited quantities like concert/sports tickets, ordering a new car, putting a down payment on a house, or even paying in advance for a cemetery plot, the vast majority of things arent that important or in short supply. So people will wait.

But leave it to gamers to go ape shit blindly preordering digital downloads at full price as if the internet bandwidth will run out the next day.

Leave it to gaming company marketing depts to drum up hype. Upload some trailers, get rid of demos so people cant test it out like all games during the 360/PS3 days, do some Q&A sessions, and voila. Preorders. A+.
 
Last edited:
duh! that's why they only have dload numbers to brag about.
They are gonna find it harder to brag about engagement numbers with this omission form this dev.

Can't imagine any dev wanting to brag about some who probably didn't even get passed the first few minutes.
 
Top Bottom