Speaking from personal experience, as I get older and my schedule gets increasingly busy, a svelte ten hour or less playtime for a start to finish package has a lot of appeal.Ī quick scan of OpenCritic’s top reviewed games of 2022 includes several Game Pass selections from tiny studios: Norco (91), TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge (87), Tunic (85), and Citizen Sleeper (84). When it takes some players to move through just the introductory act of a Final Fantasy JRPG, a player can polish off and finish multiple small budget narratives. While many small budget games dabble in more unorthodox gameplay and storylines than a AAA equivalent, they also tend to have a smaller scope with a lower learning curve and shorter runtime. Small games aren’t just gap fillers either today, indie Game Pass releases can be more approachable and critically acclaimed than their big budget counterparts. Microsoft needs at least a few smaller games between heavy hitters to connect. By subscription service standards, that’s a risky, churn heavy proposition. That means weeks, if not months, between major games, especially if a AAA release happens to be in a genre that a subscriber doesn’t care for. With the build-up of first party studio talent, Xbox head Phil Spencer noted a target release cadence of one big Game Pass game per quarter. With the likes of AAA stalwarts like Bethesda Game Studios, Activision, and Blizzard under one roof, one could only assume Microsoft’s goals are to continue mega franchise hits like Fallout, Call of Duty, and Diablo as future staples of the Game Pass library.īut the economics of big budget gaming have limits that smaller games can fulfill. It also seems to contradict Microsoft’s first party consolidation. I realize the argument runs counter to traditional gaming sales logic, where the same five to ten AAA games (e.g., Call of Duty, FIFA, GTA V) remain perpetual NPD best sellers. The right mix of under the radar titles isn’t just helpful to keep subscribers afloat between bigger drops, but I think they are increasingly critical to keeping subscribers happy.
But given a Game Pass title’s low barrier to entry (a download or through Cloud Gaming, a click), subscribers aren’t wedded to budget, popularity, and review scores. Most will fly by without a splashy marketing presence, buzz on social media, or even a high score on OpenCritic. Most armchair analysts underestimate how instrumental small budget indie games are to Xbox Game Pass’s success. The strategic importance of indie games for Game Pass
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