this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
60 points (94.1% liked)

Games

40425 readers
3302 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform

By type

By games

Language specific

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Earlier in the year they removed the trial offer. Now it's returned, but worse than before.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] dan1101@lemm.ee 21 points 2 years ago (13 children)

I subscribed for a year or so, other than the horrible client it was good. But there are just too many games to play and not enough time, a good problem to have but still. I also felt like I didn't appreciate the games as much when I got them for "free."

I started getting it for $1 per month by canceling and then resubscribing, now you can't do that and I just don't bother to subscribe at all.

Now with just 14 days for a $1 trial it's an even worse deal. This is why I don't think MS should be allowed to buy up all these game companies. Try contacting MS for support. If you can't get through to someone in less than 10 minutes then they shouldn't be buying any more companies. That should be the test for any company acquiring other companies. If they can't serve the customers they have, how are more customers going to help?

[–] jedibob5@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (9 children)

I mean, common issues surrounding subscription-based services and the lack of ownership of digital content aside, the full price of $10 a month (for the base rate, at least, I know they have some "Ultimate" package which combines the Xbox and PC programs) is actually a pretty good value on its own, given the size of the selection.

Even if you only play a few games per month on it, you're still getting pretty good value compared to buying those games individually. For example, once Starfield releases, you could play it for six months on Gamepass before buying it up-front would've been a better deal, and that's if you never play a single other game on the platform.

It's also nice to be able to try out games without having to commit to purchasing them. I've found a number of games through Gamepass that I've enjoyed which I never would have tried otherwise.

However, I have a strong suspicion that video game subscription services will end up following a similar trajectory to TV/movie streaming services at some point... Gamepass doesn't really have any major competitors, and has been priced very aggressively in order to build market share, and it reminds me a lot of Netflix in its early digital stages.

I think it's inevitable that other publishers are going to try and get in on the action, balkanizing the available content into too many services for consumers to care about, and diminishing the value of each service individually.

I also fully expect that MS will start driving up the base price of Gamepass at some point, once they feel like they have enough market penetration. The reduction of the $1 trial might already be a sign of that, but I'm hoping we'll still have some time before that happens. I might stay around at $15/month, but if it reaches $20 I'm probably out.

[–] echo64@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (7 children)

When it reaches $15/20 a month it'll already be too late.

It's the exact same model that ruined all the other entertainment industries.

  1. Offer a subscription for next to nothing, funded by vc money/microsoft infinite money buckrts. The industry doesn't mind because people are still buying things on cd/dvd/bluray so it's just extra money for them.
  2. Oh no, everyone now just subscribes to the super cheap subscription, and the industry can't afford to produce content just for spotify/netflix/gamepass
  3. Every content owner pulls content from the incumbent subscription service, starts their own, and you can't buy the content for money anymore.
  4. Turns out $15 a month isn't enough to pay for everything the industry usually makes, content lowers in quality, prices go up. Everyone loses.

Paying into subscription services now is a good deal for you, but it's gonna ruin everything just like it did everywhere else.

[–] pavlov@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think it's interesting that this isn't working as well in the pc world. Epic giving away games for free doesn't seem to be affecting sales numbers on steam (thinking of how incredibly well Baldurs Gate 3 is selling). I can't imagine Xbox games not on game pass are selling as well as they used to. I'm sure there's impacts I'm not seeing, but on the surface it looks less successful.

[–] dan1101@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

It's funny, my Steam games are like physical items out on my desk where I can see them every day, every time I turn on my computer. The free games I claim on Epic are like physical items in a drawer somewhere, that's the Epic Games client. Not quite sure what I have in that drawer until I open it and search through it.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)