Touching the night talk, every day nonsense and game-related farts, ghost things, new things.
"Buy crab for vinegar" (Photo/Xiao Luo)
A few months ago, influenced by my colleagues, I also took advantage of the offer to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (XGPU) for 3 years. At the same time, because I usually use Apple's "family bucket" and do not have the right equipment to play PC and Xbox games, I also bought an XSS for XGPU, which looks quite like a "three pounds of crab for vinegar" feeling.
In the past, I used to buy basically Sony and Nintendo consoles, and I often called myself "Dog" and "Ren Dolphin" for this reason – of course, it was just a joke. But I have to admit that before this XSS, I really didn't buy an Xbox console, and for the sake of the type of game I used to like to play, I really didn't need to buy it.
But after XGP came along, everything seemed to be different. In a cheesy way, "it gives too much."
In fact, compared to the vast "masterpieces" in the game library, my most intuitive liking for XGP is that it does allow me to play some platform-restricted games. For example, when "King of Games: Master Duel" was not yet launched on the App Store, the XSS version could make me not look at Steam and sigh. On the other hand, many older games can also make people find some memories of youth - so far, the games I have played the most on XSS are Game King: Master Duel, Evil Spirit Possession, and Block Soul, the most challenging of which is undoubtedly Block Soul, and many older games have been much more difficult to design in terms of level design than games in recent years, but that has not reduced their fun.
I was playing cards on XSS before the mobile version went live
Of course, for more players, the biggest advantage of XGP and similar subscription services is that it greatly reduces the cost of playing new games. After all, everyone has limited energy and is unlikely to know all about multiple types of games, and some games that "look good, but don't want to spend money on" are more approachable in XGP: fun, get unexpected surprises; not fun, just delete the end of the thing, do not have to consider how long it has been played, how much progress, how much refund and so on.
Microsoft clearly understands these things as well. A few days ago, at the 2022 Game Developers Conference (GDC), Microsoft specifically emphasized XGP's support and encouragement for indie games.
In Microsoft's eyes, XGP can help developers at all stages of a game from development to market, whether it's a blockbuster of the year or an indie game. For example, XGP members play 40% more games in the 90 days after their subscription than before they subscribed, and they try 30% more games.
The number of games played by XGP members has increased significantly
For another example, after the game joined XGP, the average increase in the number of players reached 8.3 times, and the actual increase was obviously tilted towards independent games and small and medium-sized development team works, and the highest could even reach 28 times. At the same time, if the first launch joins XGP, the average number of daily active users (DAUs) of the game will increase by 3.5 (large manufacturers) to 15 times (independent developers). In addition, in terms of player community, social media exposure, etc., XGP members' contribution to the game is also obvious.
According to Microsoft's statistics, after joining XGP, the number of players in indie games has grown considerably
In TERMSID DATA, independent developers have also increased more than large manufacturers
Of course, this help must ultimately be implemented in terms of income. Although Microsoft has not disclosed the specific cooperation model between XGP and developers, Xbox head Phil Spencer once said in an interview in 2020 that they will pay part or even full fees for small and medium-sized developers in advance to support them to add the game to XGP; if there is a manufacturer willing to add the game to XGP at the same time as selling on other platforms, Microsoft will also pay them a "platform fee"; if the developer wants to share according to the game duration, traffic, and tuition, XGP also supports it. Microsoft's figures released at this year's GDC show that XGP members are on average 50% more willing to pay than the average player, while the average revenue of the game in the 90 days after joining XGP is 2.8 times that of the first 90 days. For free-to-play games, XGP members spend more than $175 million on these games. Indie developers, ID@Xbox program has allowed them to generate more than $2.5 billion in revenue over nine years.
67% of the game's increased revenue was provided by XGP members, and 50% of these members were new players
These look beautiful, no wonder Microsoft said that the future wants to become the "ultimate game discovery tool" for players - nowadays, subscriptions have increasingly become the main mode of people's entertainment consumption, literature, film and television dramas, short videos, games, consumers spend more and more money on subscriptions every month, energy is more and more scattered, developers want to make their games more attention, seen by more players, you need to adapt to the subscription system as soon as possible, or, to put it bluntly, join the big platform - such as Xbox, PS, NS, Apple and even Amazon – among the subscription services.
However, for players and developers, the danger of subscription is that it is dangerous to "become mainstream". "Pay money but can not get the ownership of the game, the game can not be played after the end of the subscription" is one aspect, several platforms are dominant, so that more and more players develop (or forced to develop) the habit of not buying out a certain game, and finally form a certain degree of monopoly is another aspect - if this situation is formed, the game will obviously be restricted by the platform in the distribution channel, and seriously speaking, the platform can even play a decisive role, compared to reducing the cost of playing, experiencing more kinds of games and so on. Such a monopoly is obviously something we don't like.
However, platforms such as XGP and Apple Arcade have not stopped buyouts while providing subscription services — Microsoft has even made it clear that they will not give up the buyout system (hopefully), which may allow us to temporarily reduce some of the worries of "consumption being kidnapped by the platform".