bamozzy said:WOW - So MANY people who never bothered to read what Game Pass was or how it will operate. The Games were NEVER meant to be permanently on offer and basically operate like GWG where the game is yours for the duration of your subscription - which could be years and years. It clearly stated that games would be rotated out and that whilst they are in 'game pass' but that they will leave and those that will leave will be available at 20% discount for 30days after if you wish to keep playing. What's the point in selling the games with a discount if you never actually need to buy because you are permanently renting?
I bet games like Sea of Thieves won't be on Game Pass for long. MS will want to get people hooked, get people playing the game and then remove it so that you have to buy it to keep your Pirate and playing with your Crew. Why else would they risk losing all those sales for a very small monthly cost. I say small because compared to the price of buying the new games - like Sea of Thieves, State of Decay, Crackdown 3, Forza Horizon 4 etc, its a small cost.
The reason they can add these on day 1 is because they know that they can get you hooked and then remove it and sell it to you. Its a 'rental' service where you will have to 'return' the game at some point and if you want to keep playing, you will have to buy.
The reason its taken a fair few months for games to start dropping out is because they no doubt wanted to build up a reasonable library. Now they are up to number they want, they can start swapping them out. If people don't want to have unfinished games or to buy them, then they will need to ensure they finish them before they do get swapped out.
If anyone isn't aware of what 'Game Pass' is, how it works etc, I suggest they read the terms and conditions, the FAQ's etc. If that doesn't appeal to you then go back to buying your games. Its your own fault if you subscribed to a service without reading what that service was offering, how it operates etc!
I don't think think they will remove the key first party titles like sea of thieves after 'getting people hooked', the long game is getting you hooked on game pass itself as it is reoccurring revenue. It also probably helps sea of thieves to be as populated as possible as well.
Having a reoccurring subscription for smaller amounts is worth more to them in the long game than an extra 20 bucks, since the perceived value draws people to the service like a loss leader draws you to the store on Black Friday for Best Buy. If they tie you and your mates in to the xbox platform, then not only do they have the game pass revenue, but they also get dlc sales, potential game sales from ads seen on the platform, and reoccurring gold subscriptions, in addition to data obtained by knowing your gaming habits and interests while on their platform. They know how it works, people probably wonder why they aren't worried about losing 300 dollars on office buy price since they have subscriptions for that too. Netflix does the same risk with paying millions to create netflix originals to draw you to their platform, amazon originals for prime video, and even star trek discovery(causing record number of signups) to draw you into cbs all access. When you are talking about the numbers of people they are, there is going to be a lot of people still paying a monthly game pass fee long after they got bored of Sea of Thieves and aren't playing any game pass games.
Even with that, every games hot time is around release, then they drop in price as sale cool down. Your theory lines up more with what EA Access does with the new game trials, but game pass is a different model where it would make more sense to leave it on as an attractor since the cool down price isn't as desirable.