Load Verneau praises the system established by Microsoft for being a subscription service that discloses titles of smaller media draft.
Outer Wilds has been considered one of the great surprises of the independent video game scene of 2019. One of its creators, Load Verneau, blames part of the global success of the title to its presence on Xbox Game Pass since the first day it was at the sale; Furthermore, he believes that this business model will be an intrinsic part of the industry in the immediate future.
Mobius Digital did not expect the reception of Outer Wilds. Its exclusivity in the Epic Games Store for PC allowed the studio to have economic accounts, but that did not guarantee that the game would be considered as it currently has: they needed many people to try it. Xbox Game Pass was the key that opened the way.
"We are on the Xbox Game Pass, and it has been really incredible because I think it has allowed a lot of players to come to the title who would not have met him in any other way," he says in a meeting with GamesIndustry. “So I think it has been a great change. As it changed to the world of cinema and television, subscription systems will continue to impact the video game industry in a very significant way, ”he reflects.
Xbox Game Pass, frontline for Microsoft
Verneau's words are very similar to what Agostino Simonetta, head of the ID @ Xbox program, said in an interview with this same medium in October last year: Xbox Game Pass users play 40% more titles than before. It is not the only statistic to highlight, however. 91% of the members of the service claim to have played at least one video game that they would not have even raised if they did not have an active account in XGP. Regarding sales and revenues, Simonetta also said that now more games are bought than before, contrary to what you might expect by not having to make additional purchases to access those more than 150 titles, including numerous exclusive of Xbox Game Studios
This same year, players of this on-demand game membership service will be able to access Ori and the Will of the Wisps in March and Halo: Infinite at Christmas, both from the day of departure.
You can check here all the confirmed games for Xbox Game Pass in 2020, which can be enjoyed in both the Xbox One family of consoles and PC (Windows 10) and the next generation of consoles, Xbox, which has already confirmed its first model: Xbox Series X.
