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Phil Spencer: Putting AAA games in Game Pass leads to a significant increase in sales
- Thread starter Rychu
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But what happens to the games after a month of NPD Phil? Disappears from the top 20.
I guess it helps frontload sales.
I guess it helps frontload sales.
So many forum posters think they know more then multi billion dollar corps who have all the data and are content providers themselves. It's quite silly.
And I'm happy to see Phil speaking about 3rd parties, it feels (if we look at the data) we'll be seeing the likes of Ubi and other bigger Pubs perhaps joining MS with Day 1 release, its only a matter of time. Imo Capacom/Ubi will be the first to jump in.
And I'm happy to see Phil speaking about 3rd parties, it feels (if we look at the data) we'll be seeing the likes of Ubi and other bigger Pubs perhaps joining MS with Day 1 release, its only a matter of time. Imo Capacom/Ubi will be the first to jump in.
Interesting. MS is definitely offering something amazing here and I'm expecting some great things from this service next gen.
I think it's something like:
Example 1: Person could buy Game Pass, play game, person streams on YouTube/Twitch/Mixer on the game and their viewers like the gameplay so they buy the game.
Example 2: Friend has Game Pass and plays game, friend really likes the game and tells all of their friends about the game and posts it on social media, all of the friends and followers of this person now want to play the game and end up buying it.
Not everyone wants to pay for a subscription service and some people want to buy their games outright.
Sea of Thieves, Forza, and State of Decay? State isn't "triple-A", but it's still a dedicated franchise, and the game sold a couple million copies.
But people see you and 10 others playing these games and then go "I might buy that". People see streamers playing the game - via gamepass - and go "looks good I might buy that".
It is a viral marketing effect I think. More people play the games so more people buy them.
At X018, Microsoft said there are millions of recurring Game Pass subscribers. Might not be exact numbers but before we didn't have any estimate on how many subscribers there were, now we know there's at least 2 million.
Many actually still want physical media. People rather buy the games than invest in GP.
Even if you just play all MS exclusives, (like me) it has increased profit for MS in 2018. The engagement numbers are way higher, more people downloading DLC, Micro-transactions, and just checking out other games you would't ever tried.
State of Decay 2 would of dropped off Game Pass or not.
Let's see this with one of their bigger games like for a recent example, Horizon 4.
Have to admit, I've ignored GP until a friend bought me a subscription and I've used it more than expected. I still buy the games I want on the service and the discounted price makes these purchases easier to swallow.
Three games day and date. Each one selling more than their internal projections.
Companies don't usually speak for other companies in these kind of matters. At least if things aren't set in stone and both companies agree to the reveal.
Three games day and date. Each one selling more than their internal projections.
Companies don't usually speak for other companies in these kind of matters. At least if things aren't set in stone and both companies agree to the reveal.
I don't think what he says is premature at all.
Gamepass is an excellent driver for add-ons like VIP editions, DLC and season passes.
Heck, a person that uses Gamepass to demo a game that they love, would buy the game, even if they despise the service.
I am thinking that If it weren't true, MS would not persist with it.
Ah ok. I kind of understand.
I dont pay for gamepass at all so its the bargain of the decade for me.
Game Pass increases mindshare. Mindshare drives sales. Entire reason for advertising is to increase mindshare. Game Pass has been more effective driving mindshare than Microsoft's advertising. Not a high bar to jump over but it still proves the point.
Forza Horizon 4 hit seventh in NPD September, no? Could be out of the top ten if anything this month.
No, it was added last week on 6th Nov.
But it's not bad either. It's a good game.
Forza Horizon 4 was released on October 2. September 27 was early access (ultimate edition) for $100 instead of the $60 price.
September chart only went to October 5 or something like that IIRC.
Ehh. We'll agree to disagree. I thought it was terrible on Xbox.
Ok...a week. So you picked a week old game to say nuh uh Spencer is wrong about the data he sees that none of us are privy to?
He would have access to all the figures to back that up so I can't really argue his point. It just seems a bit strange because obviously my sample size is very limited, but my brother and I love the Xbox and we buy the exclusives that come out on it, and instead of buying Horizon 4, SoD2 and Sea of Thieves like we would have, we got game pass for a month and played the games then moved on. So from the two of us they received around $20 CDN as opposed to $180-$200 CDN.
It was the highest dollar launch in Forza history and the biggest Xbox racing game launch in history.
The fact it landed in a crowded month and came 7th is not relevant to the absolute sales - which beat out all previous games in the same genre and platform.
Why would they not ? Most of their games were already not exactly setting charts on fire.
I don't know if anyone would expect him to say much else.
The point is that because there are more people playing it, more people are talking about it, more people are streaming it, more people see it in others friends list when they look at what their friends are playing, etc. It's all about virality.
It may seem counterintuitive, but it makes sense. Anyone can try a free trial of Game Pass or use those $1 deals to get some, but if you still want to play after a month either you sub for more because you're into tons of games, or you just want to continue a specific game and buy that instead. Not everyone enjoys the idea of subscriptions, but using the free or so trial allows you to effectively demo the games that, nowadays, rarely get demos or very limited ones at that. Game Pass definitely allows more people to try out 70 Euros games without risking the investment of that large sum, and I can definitely see the service explode in countries where the average pay is a lot lower than, say, the USA.
So we can use SOD 2 or SOT? I don't see those games on NPD charts or UK charts or even on charts for rest of Europe. So clearly, Gamepass didn't boost sales for those games. Sorry, will not swallow what Phil is saying.
Rocket League is probably the biggest example of this even though it didn't come to gamepass. It released for free on PS Now and blew up into the monster it is today.
No way would it be as popular as it is today if it weren't given away for free first. Building that initial player-base is everything for modern games-as-a-service-type experiences.
This, it's a really smart marketing tool. People also tend to forget that Game Pass Members also get up to 20% off ANY title in Game Pass if you want to buy it, which is likely how they're seeing greater day one numbers.
Speaking for myself, it is so I can have the games without being tied to a subscription.
But what Phil is saying is that Game Pass is itself turning out to be a form of marketing. You may not buy the gane but people who notice others playing Game Pass titles are checking out those games and in many cases are buying them.
What were the internal projections for those games and how did that stack up to real world outcomes? Sales and/or revenue generated.
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