crispy4000

You want to hire? How about YOU ALL FIRED!

They're selling the game for $50. A Games Pass monthly 'rental' for it is $10-11. The risk Microsoft runs, as with other shorter projects, is people not sticking around after finishing it. That's even a problem with longer games too, but at least people will be subscribed for longer. It's likely cheaper to pay off indies for shorter projects than make their own Pentiments and the like.

Time Spent: 10 minutes Rating: * There's a really slick opening cinematic in the vein of Smash Bros 64, so good start. No bots for a multiplayer game, okay I'll forgive it. Let's jump in ... wait, why is it so floaty? You get one attack move with a super small hitbox, that's it? You can only attack again after you fall to the ground??? Jump, attack, whiff, fall helplessly for 3 seconds, repeat. This is my platform fighter nightmare. It'd be a bad for a Mario Party mini-game.

You say that, but people will easily blow through all 8 hours of it within a month. Sea of Thieves strikes me more as the type of game best suited for Games Pass.

I think they said it themselves, high impact games that drive growth.

You can't use strict sales when a game is put on a popular subscription service Day One. What if said game doesn't fizzle at all, but doesn't push subs higher in a meaningful way? Your existing audience has moved from one property onto another within the service. So if those sun numbers aren’t enough already, you better hope MTX gets them to open their wallets more than they already are. The remaining sales, cannibalized on some level by the subscription, are likely to underwhelm. It amplifies the perils of development that games without this pressure are already dealing with. If the budget of a game like Spider-Man 2 isn't sustainable, imagine just how much more pressure Machine Games feels with Indiana Jones not launching day and date on all platforms. Realistically speaking, where is the money coming in from? Would Steam be expected to do all the leg work? A later PS5/Switch 2 port? I think Phil is speaking in earnest about needing to expand their addressable Xbox audience. Because they're in a pickle with this business model + limited sub growth + slowing console sales.

Savage, but isn't Arkane HQ (Lyon) more responsible for Dishonored?

Time Spent: 15 minutes Rating: **** For the record, I have no experience with Vampire Survivors, though I get the basic premise and appeal. 20 Min Till Dawn supposedly has more weapon aiming control, and maybe a difference to upgrade paths? There's some kind of synergy going on with upgrades I can't figure out in the span of a single run. I ended up dying with 5 minutes to spare, because everything by then was too beefy for my chicken shit run build. This is more than worth giving a shot. It was free on EGS a while back, definitely don't skip it if you've got it. It's slick.

Accidental Humble Choice purchase, Mario Wonder gift (thanks @best3444), cheap Fanatical bundle, and Prince of Persia TLC pickup for $20.

If this was totally accurate, there would have been no room for Helldivers 2 and Palworld. Microsoft and Sony both risk killing good will for their subscriptions with heavy handed GaAS models. But Microsoft's day one Games Pass policy is especially destructive to unit sales. They'd likely need to be a bit more agressive in order for their model to work, especially to weather slower or non-existent growth. Its surprising to me Microsoft hasn't leaned in harder than they are. Maybe that's Activisions role. I'm all ears to how they plan to monetize CoD moving forward.

Gamespass MAUs would encourage more games to be bloated time sinks to keep players addicted. Until sales are almost a moot point, since for the majority of first party games, Games Pass is likely sabotaging their sales potential. Especially on Xbox where their audience is being conditioned not to buy. They’d probably need to do day and date on Nintendo and Sony to get pleasing metrics, short of a breakout hit on Steam.

Isn’t there all manners of bad DRM and PC port issues here? I’m thinking why bother at this point.

I can’t imagine it was ever as directionless as Everwild. Just the concept of a new Perfect Dark game checks more boxes.

Everyone’s talking AAA? I don’t think anyone is saying this is a sign of trouble for Indiana Jones, Call of Duty, Forza, Gears, Elder Scrolls, etc. People see Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall as medium-ish sized projects, which is a No Man’s Land today. See: SquareEnix.

I’ve ‘switched’ to playing games on Switch that wouldn’t see much of an upgrade. Which is mainly 2d Mario for me at this point. Putting off Pikmin 4 most notably.

Lots of discussion elsewhere if this is scummy considering the Hi-Fi Rush developers will see none of it. Or maybe it pays for severance packages? Who knows for sure.

Glad I didn't pick PoP. It's down to $20 on Ubi's store with their promo code, I’ll probably pick it up now. AC Mirage is down to $15 as well.

I'm not sure that reviews have as much baring on that. Yes, generally unloved stuff like Skull & Bones will fizzle and fade out quickly. But just being a basic good game can be more than okay if the concept resonates enough. Meanwhile SquareEnix pumps GoTY-level effort into FF7 Rebirth and sees less than expected results. But more to the thread topic, all that gets muddled if Games Pass and player engagement metrics are supposed to dictate what a game is worth to the publisher.

Quote from Phil ~2-3 years ago: If Games Pass isn't growing, that mix isn't so magical, so out comes the axe. Really interested in how they address this going forward. Killing Tango doesn't fit into their historical narrative of what Games Pass is about.

Microsoft said it surpassed their expectations for a surprise drop.

May 2024 Humble Choice WWW.HUMBLEBUNDLE.COM Get May 2024 Humble Choice and more when you subscribe for just $11.99 per month! And bunch of less exciting stuff: Loddlenaut Bravery & Greed King of the Castle Amanda the Adventurer Mediterranea Inferno

Hi Fi Rush is in Humble Choice this month already. They really wanted to offload this game quick.

I feel for the guys at Compulsion, Double Fine, Undead Labs, ineXile, etc. AA and niche games at Microsoft now appear to be a lot more precarious proposition.

This did not age well.

Couldn't they just have sold Tango to someone else?