Game Pass is one of the best ideas to have come out of Microsoft in years. For a very reasonable subscription price, players get access to a vast and ever-growing library of games– and though that’s something that obviously is very valuable for consumers, according to Microsoft’s Chris Charla, the director of the ID@Xbox program, that is something that has greatly benefited indie developers as well.
Speaking with Stevivor, Charla talked about how being on Game Pass automatically gets more people to try out games made by indie devs, and that the exposure those games receive as such is something that makes for greater success in all other areas for the game and the developer as well.
“We’ve paid more than a billion dollars in royalties to independent developers in the past 4-5 years,” Charla said. “We have this great marketplace but there’s still a lot of people that don’t know about all these games. By putting these games in Game Pass, developers get this opportunity. People are getting to download these games at no additional cost, they check out a lot of games, they’re playing these games. They’re popping achievements which are showing up on the community hub. They’re streaming the games on Mixer.”
“We knew that Game Pass was going to be a really great value proposition for players and we of course worked to make sure that it’s a great value proposition for developers on the business side,” he continued. “We maybe didn’t understand what a great discovery tool it was going to be. It’s actually turning out to be a really interesting discovery tool for a lot of developers to have their game in Game Pass. People are playing it, their friends see it, they start buying.”
Charla also went on to discuss the possibility of whether there will be any Game Pass exclusive releases in the future, which is something that he says is unlikely to happen.
“I don’t see [exclusive distribution through Xbox Game Pass] happening any time soon,” he said. “I think [Game Pass] will remain like a tightly curated selection of games for the foreseeable future. I do think it’s going to be a great way to discover new games and it’s been really popular with fans and the value proposition is huge.
“We’re always looking at what the future could bring and as we look at Game Pass and how games perform at Game Pass, how players interact with the games that are in Game Pass, we’re constantly making suggestions to developers, thinking about how we run the program and everything like that and always trying to make sure it’s the biggest win for the players and our developers.”
Xbox Game Pass subscriptions cost $10 per month, though first-time subscribers can get in for just $1. The excellent indie-developed Ashen recently launched, and is also on Game Pass- give it a whirl if you have a subscription.
