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When we aired a PAX East broadcast stream hosted by Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Microsoft's director of Xbox Live programming, we heard about the role that the Xbox Game Pass service brings to developers.
Sean Krankel, co-director of Oxenfree, of Night School Studio, talked about what Xbox Game Pass did for his game.
"When we proposed Oxenfree to Game Pass, it was really interesting, because we thought initially that it could cannibalize our other sales or what it's going to do, and it's actually the opposite. This had a positive effect on all our sales, as we discovered that we had met many new audiences.
We found people who tried the game but would not otherwise have tried, they might not have understood the genre. It really has become a very important part of our ecosystem because it is quite discoverable. "
Krankel also confirmed that, thanks to his experience with Oxenfree, Afterparty, the next game of Night School Studio, will be launched the day and date of the Xbox Game Pass with its traditional release (although it is not yet ready to tell when that date will be.)
He then mentioned that it was a new way for the studio to reach new audiences and to make the game talk to people who are not subscribed to Game Pass. This also improves sales on other platforms.
Krankel thinks that the size of the games created by Night School is also perfect for Game Pass. It's been about seven hours since people are not intimidated by the investment of time needed to try them.
"It's certainly an exciting time for developers of our size, because if you're thinking of something like Game Pass, it's a new way to create games, right? I think if you look back a few years ago, a team of our size, even swinging at Oxenfree – a relatively short solo experience – was half-risky, and fortunately the game paid off.
Yet, now that we're working with you on Game Pass, we're finding a much larger audience in a way that's not "how can we play this game full of free mechanics", which really does not fit with the creative ones for her. "
He also added that it is cool that the Game Pass is organized and "very low risk," adding that the pass proved that players could go beyond the genres of their choice if they had the opportunity.
"Game Pass has really shown us that your buying habits can come from the genres that interest you, but nothing says that you will not like another type of game if you just try it. "
Later in the feed, Hryb mentioned that Microsoft will continue to work with developers to get titles on the day of the service and the date with their traditional versions. They are also working on the possibility of discovery, to give exposure to games that subscribers might not otherwise consider.
The audience also asked Hryb what was the revenue share of the developers whose games are on Games Pass, if they were receiving money based on the number of games played, if there was a prior agreement or something else. Although he could not provide a direct answer for contractual reasons, he nevertheless raised an interesting point:
"I'll just say that Microsoft has done a lot of work with our store to provide a lot of information and great ways to understand how people are using their game. It's not like we're watching you and that's all." we said to ourselves: "that's how you play, how long does it last?" It's really that we have invested in infrastructure, for example to give rights, etc.
There is a lot of work that we have done on the back end, and look, I've been working at Microsoft for almost twenty years […], and this business understands the data as nobody. He understands how to build tools to be as flexible as possible. It's partly about being a software publisher and being flexible. I know that did not answer your question directly, but it is quite complicated and I would like to answer it. It's a little secret sauce.
It is interesting to note that Hryb also indicated that the Game Pass team was looking for ways to give subscribers advance notice of games that would be removed from the service. The problem is that they must be "very respectful of the players" when sending notifications to avoid spam.
There are many questions on various items, such as inserting these notices into the user interface so that they are not seen as ads. They are trying to find the right way to communicate this type of data in an efficient and respectful way.
If you're not familiar with Xbox Game Pass, this is a service that offers more than a hundred rotating games for a rather affordable subscription. The first month costs $ 1 for the moment, then $ 9.99 for the following months. The service is updated regularly with new games.
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