After becoming one of the faces of the Xbox One, being referred to as one of the assets of the Microsoft console, the Xbox Game Pass service has arrived on the PC and is generating more enthusiasm in front of a new audience.
Some of the top publishers today feature some of their games on the Xbox Game Pass, not forgetting that Microsoft launches its first-party on the launch day on the service, but indie studios are also joining.
Recently, several indie creators were at Gamelab in Barcelona, Spain, to talk about new trends like streaming and services and especially about the impact they will have for small studios and new creators who are starting in the industry.
Although Playdead co-founder Dino Patti considers the Xbox Game Pass to be the first time that something that is fair to creators is presented, given that, “consumers want as many games as possible, as free as possible, and you can’t have everything for free, so you have to find the right price, but that’s the angle“, there are others who do not agree.
Fred Wester of Paradox Interactive, believes that the Xbox Game Pass and other services will have to think better about the type of game they want to license and the terms negotiated with the creators.
“Spotify pays according to how often you listen to your music. On Netflix, you are paid a flat fee depending on what you think the value of your product is. These are two fundamentally different things and this is what you also see here,” says Wester .
“OnLive, for example, said that you can have your game on the service and that you will attract a lot of consumers and will give you money according to the number of hours that people play your game. At Paradox we love this business model because people play our games for three or four hundred hours. Although the Game Pass model for us is still decent, we think we didn’t get enough because people play our games longer than they play narrative-focused singleplayers. “
Wester goes further and says that investing in subscription services is like a “gold rush” and that he has never seen anything like it in his 16 years working in the industry.
“People throw money at anything. If you can’t make money in the video game industry today, you’ll probably never be able to make money, seriously. If you are an established company, new companies always have difficulties. “
However, the director at Paradox leaves a warning for indie breeders and says that this fever will not last forever. According to him, the most important thing is to have a sustainable business model, capable of lasting, and maintaining direct access to those who play the games.
“These are the only two things you have to think about, because if you sell yourself now, with a business model you don’t believe in, because they give you $ 10 million in cash in hand, I don’t believe you will have a good time in three years. These times don’t come back. I look like Dr. Doom, I’m a paranoid man. “
Streaming and services are two of the most common words in the video game industry today and it is always curious to find out more about who develops video games and struggles to increase the visibility of their releases. Especially in an era when dozens or hundreds of games are released each month.
