As Xbox and PC Game Pass continue to provide lots of value to consumers, even in the wake of significant price hikes, Revenge of the Savage Planet Creative Director Alex Hutchinson has shared more insight on how putting the action-adventure sequel on Microsoft’s subscription service has impacted its monetization.
Available both there and through traditional purchase channels, Revenge of the Savage Planet “hasn’t monetised as well as we would like,” according to Hutchinson. He goes on to explain that the AA developer finds itself in a “tricky situation,” as it needs to first repay the advance owed to Tencent – the company that funded the project – before earning any royalties.
Revenge of the Savage Planet Creative Director Discusses Monetization and Game Pass Impact
“The only thing that disappoints me about the Game Pass audience at the moment is, like, we have over a million players on Game Pass, which is awesome, you know, and they got it for free and we have a $10 pack to get a whole bunch of new missions and stuff. Just 10 bucks and the attach rate for that has just been appalling,” Hutchinson told FRVR.
The creative director is referring to Revenge of the Savage Planet’s Cosmic Hoarder Upgrade, a DLC that launched alongside the game, promising bonus quests and rewards, the HR Enforcer Deluxe suit, alongside the soundtrack, and an artbook.
“What it says is, if you give stuff for free, then what you’ve done is told people not to pay for it. You know, I thought, ‘Oh, you get the game for free, so buy the expansion pack’. That was the pitch. But we have the worst attach rate for the expansion pack on Game Pass. So the people that paid for the main game buy the expansion, and the people that didn’t pay for the main game don’t pay for anything. It’s just tricky. There’s great reasons to do it, and there’s reasons not to do it.”
Another challenge AA developers face, according to Hutchinson, comes down to spending habits and how, in his view, gamers wait for hefty discounts before purchasing titles that don’t have the major hit label attached, naming this year’s Eternal Strands and the more recent Hell Is Us as examples.
He also says that, compared to the olden days, the combination of backwards compatibility, free giveaways, and subscription services that provide ease of access to an entire library of games makes it considerably harder for smaller projects to earn a place in the spotlight, describing the games industry as a “hit-driven business.”
Hutchinson isn’t the only developer to have spoken about the impact Game Pass has on how well titles that join Microsoft’s subscription service at launch monetize, particularly in the indie scene.
Yet, even if Game Pass magically went away, the fact remains that we have a considerably larger number of games releasing nowadays.
Even if a significant amount can be simply considered “noise,” they still contribute to the difficulty smaller, promising projects have in finding a big enough audience to become successful.
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