Xbox Turns To Sports Titles To Combat Dwindling Game Pass Subscriber Sign Ups
from the sportsball dept
Well, this is interesting. As part of our many posts about the cord-cutting trend that has been on the increase over the past decade or so, I have long made the point that the only thing keeping cable television looking even remotely like it did twenty years ago has been live sports. With the advent of more streaming options and partnerships for sporting events, even that last thread has started to unravel, though overly tortured fracturization has kept cable television out of the grave, for now. But the point is that the draw of sports titles was something of a lifeline for traditional cable television.
In an interesting parallel, Xbox has seen a slowdown in new subscribers go its Game Pass product. And it sure is starting to look like part of the plan to combat that slow down is sports titles.
With little warning, Microsoft surprised folks and announced that NBA 2K24 was coming to its video game subscription service, Game Pass. More games being added to Game Pass is always nice for its subscribers, and this latest addition continues a trend that indicates that Microsoft is looking to rely on sports to help keep numbers up and consistent.
With the addition of NBA 2K24 on Xbox Game Pass on March 11, Microsoft has secured another popular sport for the service. NBA 2K offers up professional basketball, MLB The Show provides folks the chance to play pro baseball, FIFA lets you play the biggest soccer game in the world, UFC is there, too, and Madden of course offers football fans a chance to digitally win the Super Bowl with their favorite team. Oh, and cricket is on Game Pass as well.
This makes some inherent sense. One of the things people complain about with sports titles is that each yearly iteration too often comes with little more than roster updates and a gameplay feature here or there. Spending $60-$70 for that year after year gets quite frustrating. But if you can suddenly play the updated titles as part of a larger subscription service like Game Pass, suddenly it all becomes more reasonable.
There are loads of people out there who might only play a few sports games a year. Previously they had to pay $60 a pop for these titles. But with Game Pass they get the next Madden, MLB The Show, etc for one monthly fee and get access to a ton of other games they might want to check out like Forza and Halo. If Microsoft can keep these customers around with steady, consistent sports offerings, it could be a way to make sure the numbers don’t drop too much between big releases or the holidays.
So while Game Pass isn’t in a freefall in the way the cable television market has been, perhaps this is a combination that just makes sense. Sports games get complaints about having to buy them full price every year without a lot of new stuff in them, but with Game Pass it all just comes along for the ride.
Filed Under: game pass, sports, video games, xbox
Companies: microsoft
Comments on “Xbox Turns To Sports Titles To Combat Dwindling Game Pass Subscriber Sign Ups”
I wonder if there would be a market for “the live tournament, but rendered within the game”. Like, you watch the playoff game on your computer, where the movements of the characters are scripted from the video of the game. Free throw in real life? your hero’s avatar takes the shot in the game, and makes it or misses it the way the real game played out.
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Why would I want to play a match where the result has already been decided?
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Me and my friends do that already, where we play matches in FIFA like they happened on the soccer pitch. No need for devs to add that stuff.
Someone call Cory Doctorow, I have a feeling he’ll have some input within the next couple years.
Game pass seems like a pretty good deal though, at least if you don’t mind not owning games. I had a 3 month trial, and I played a lot of fun games, including ones I might not have tried otherwise. I even tried out NMS again, and got hooked enough to buy it on Steam as soon as my trial was over.
Actually, for the yearly roster change games, I suppose game pass actually is the best way to play those.
The closest to any type of sports games I’ve played are Mario Kart and Carmageddon though, so it’s zero enticement for me to go back. To each their own though.
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Game pass is a legimately good/great deal right now. Microsoft is firmly in the “grow market share and lock in”/”be good to users” phase. The concerns will be in the future, it’s pretty blatantly laser focused on speedrunning the enshittification curve as it’s business model. And the way the industry is going… it might work?
I’m curious how the game publishers feel about that. It kind of feels like it cannabilizes their business model more so than with other games?
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If the publishers enter into agreement to have the games on Game Pass in the first place, I would assume that they’re being well-compensated.
That being said, the companies making and publishing these sports games every year at 60-70 dollars a pop are some of the greediest in the industry, so I wouldn’t exactly shed a tear if they lost money on this.
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Ys and… no.
Devs do get compensated for being on GamePass, but that money isn’t enough to cover the fact that most gamers won’t pay for the game after the game is taken off GamePass.
And…
Guess what happens when you don’t move enough product to keep your studio afloat.
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That’s quite a few assumptions on your part. Publishers are (usually) the ones negotiating the deals and the compensation would most likely depend on the supposed popularity of the game being added. For instance, the compensation would most likely be significantly larger for something like FC24 than for a random indie title.
Additionally, someone might have played a game on GamePass, enjoyed it and wanted to play it again down the line, when it’s off GamePass. They will then find somewhere to buy it.
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So now you’re reversing your pro-link tax argument. Nice.
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If they feel that, they are free not to put their games on the platform…
Finally a focus on the kinds of games where a subscription service makes sense.
Annual release sports titles have effectively been a subscription service for thirty five years, everyone of my generation remembers the walls upon walls of copies of FIFA in CEX, Gamestation, etc. throughout the 2000s and 2010s. This is one of the best matches.
These should be free-to-play in the first place!
These games are absolutely INFESTED with microtransactions, so they should have been free to start with instead of asking full price for the game and then up to THOUSANDS of dollars more to buy all of their digital bullshit in game!
I don’t think sports games (which can also be played on other platforms) is the answer to GamePass’ declining numbers though…my personal view is that the service is a wasteland of mediocrity, and one or two “gems” isn’t enough to sustain a service that’s fundamentally flawed in it’s execution.
Playstation Gets 2K as well
Everyone gets 2k24 this March (2024.) Take-Two Interactive (2K’s Parent Company) is probably looking for some whales for those VC bucks.
That’s a truly bizarre way to interpret this announcement. Sports games regularly appear on Game Pass. Game Pass allows games for rental from several years to a few months, though the term is usually not announced up front. Take Two have decided to announce the term up front. That’s good for gamers. I don’t know where the “freefall” comes in…