Yeah, this information is an indictment of the potential loss in revenue that services like PS+ and Gamepass are causing to those games and developers participating in these services. The only way that adding your launch game to a subscription service is if you think you’ll make more money from the publisher for the exclusivity than you would with a direct to consumer approach.
For smaller games and devs, there is clearly an upside to making these agreements with PS+/Gamepass in terms of money upfront, marketing, and immediate access to a large player base that has a near-zero cost of entry. For first party games though, it does not make financial sense (at least at launch) to add these games. Launch games added to these services are clearly doing so at a short-term loss in exchange for a potential portion of the future subscription pie market share.
Yeah, this information is an indictment of the potential loss in revenue that services like PS+ and Gamepass are causing to those games and developers participating in these services. The only way that adding your launch game to a subscription service is if you think you’ll make more money from the publisher for the exclusivity than you would with a direct to consumer approach.
For smaller games and devs, there is clearly an upside to making these agreements with PS+/Gamepass in terms of money upfront, marketing, and immediate access to a large player base that has a near-zero cost of entry. For first party games though, it does not make financial sense (at least at launch) to add these games. Launch games added to these services are clearly doing so at a short-term loss in exchange for a potential portion of the future subscription pie market share.