Microsoft has been making strides with the Xbox Game Pass service in the last few years, delivering a functional game subscription service for players to enjoy. Through the Xbox Game Pass service, players can access more games than before, and developers can port new games to a wider audience. However, not every video game developer is entirely sold on the Xbox Game Pass service.
In a recent interview with Polygon, Josef Fares, developer of A Way Out and founder of Hazelight Studios, discussed the new game It Takes Two, his focus on co-op, and his opinion on Xbox Game Pass. Particularly, how developers can get paid through Xbox Game Pass and that Fares is unsure if it will benefit game developers in the long run or not.
During the interview, Fares did mention it has benefited developers by letting them reach a bigger audience and how it lets players discover more games to play. Which he says is a great thing to have. However, Fares brings up the potential problem that developers with shorter games could very well get the short end of the stick with Xbox Game Pass deals.
Fares said that Xbox Game Pass’s business model might not be so advantageous to game developers and brought up a hypothetical example to highlight his point. “Let’s say you have a Netflix model and you get paid for the amount of time people play your game. And if you have a shorter game, a narrative game, then you will obviously get less cash for that.” Since there are a fair number of short narrative games released each year, some developers could be negatively affected by this type of model.
In a past interview with The Verge, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer discussed Xbox Game Pass and developer payment. He said that Microsoft made different deals for each developer and was, “experimenting with many different partners, because we don’t think we have it figured out.” There isn’t a single path that Microsoft uses to make Xbox Game Pass deals with developers which varies based on the specific game. As such, payment agreements also varied with some wanting to be paid upfront and others based on the amount of time their games are played on the service.
Though Microsoft hasn’t worked everything out with Xbox Game Pass, Spencer was confident the company would continue making progress on this matter and the service would be a boon to game developers. Due to the current unknowns, Fares is unsure whether the Xbox Game Pass service will be an asset to game developers or not. He said, “I’m super open to more people playing games. But if it affects how we make games, then we have a problem.”
Source: Polygon
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