I first got Xbox game pass for PC for 3 months free which came with a new video card I had recently purchased.
I decided to check the service out, and now that my 3 months are up, I could have actually gone with a second promo to get 3 more months for $3 or something crazy like that. I decided not to do so, but why? So many great games are on it, so much gameplay for cheap.
It’s because when I was subscribed, even for free, I felt some weird obligation kind of feeling like I needed to play games on that platform to get my “monies” worth. It reminded me of having an MMORPG subscription. When I would play games other than the MMORPG or not play the MMORPG for over I a month I would feel vaguely guilty.
It’s possible I may subscribe again at some point in time to focus on and beat X or Y game but for the new future I would rather play the games I own digital or not. I don’t need some kind of hard-to-pinpoint feeling of pressure between me and my gaming.
FYI this is also why I don’t stream, that’s a different topic but I feel there is this similar “feeling” there. It’s putting something between you and the pure enjoyment of gaming. I dunno, feel free to comment! I may have rambled and I’m having a hard time saying exactly what I mean! Hence the TLDR to start with.
I can completely understand that point. It is even the case that games randomly disappear from the shelf so you can not plan to play a certain game at some point. I don’t want that time pressure and think the subscription model doesn’t fit to gaming. I mean I can watch a lot of movies or shows in a month but how many games can I play in this time? Well, I know because of Grouvee;).
On the other side when I would be new to videogames and don’t have a backlog this would be a cheap way to get into it. So it’s maybe only question of the right target group.
I really want to know how high the fees of these different subscription services need to be that the companies make a profit.
I kinda of have this from the other side, because it is so cheap and such great value I keep my subscription but when it comes to the games I am usually along the lines of oh I should play a different game because I paid full price for it, not the small $5 a month fee. So I think I have only played one game so far, not because I don’t want to but because I have purchased the other games I feel a responsibility(?) to play those first.
Ah the difficulties of being an adult with an income. I never had these issues when I was younger with 5 games :’)
Completely agree! I’m the kind of person who decides in the moment what to play next, and being limited to the list of games on gamepass made me feel like gaming was more of a chore, a to-do list of games I have to play before my subscription runs out. This was especially bad towards the end of my 3 months because I had very few games left I wanted to play so my options were super restricted.
Sure, it’s super cheap and has a lot of games, but it’s still entirely possible to play every game of the service I want to try and unsubscribe as soon as possible, instead of wasting money. As weird as it sounds, I think I might be too much into games to fully enjoy the service? There’s so many games coming out that I want to try or old games that I suddenly want to try right now but I can’t because I really should be going through my gamepass to-play list. It’s much more of a “I want to play this specific game”, rather than what I do with Netflix, for example, where I just go there and watch whatever seems interesting at the time, rather than keeping up with the latest movies, so Netflix covers my need of giving me something to watch when I just want something to watch.