This is one of the things about GAME PASS economics that rarely gets mentioned: with a guaranteed audience, game returns don't depend solely on the launch window and cold launches like HIFI RUSH (without the expense of hype campaigns) are not only viable but preferable for labor of love, oddball games that need to be experienced to be appreciated.
Also games that launch with issues, like REDFALL and FALLOUT 76 get second chances to be fixed and find an audience later. Maybe discounted saled, maybe just engagement on GAME PASS, maybe both.
Another game to consider is DISHONORED 2, a fine game sent out to die in a bloated release month and ending up in the discount bin a month later. All because ZENIMAX upper management couldn't wait a month of two.
With GAME PASS as an outlet, Microsoft not only can afford to take chances on games like HI FI RUSH, GROUNDED, and PENTIMENT, they "need* to. GAME PASS needs a steady flow of content to keep subscribers engaged and minimize churn, it needs *variety*.
Microsoft also needs to stop preannouncing games five years early. They need subscribers focused on the now, on the catalog as it exists and grows, so they engage with the deep catalog. Along those lines, getting the Activision catalog is a gold mine. At a time when SAAS games look to have peaked, MS is getting some of the most deeply entrenched ones so if that category peters out those should endure.
And them there's that hoard of fallow IPs. At a time when a lot of studios are downsizing. If this holiday season plays out reasonably well, MS might be adding *teams* to the existing studios more than buying studios. Cheaper, after all. (But if CRYSTAL DYNAMICS becomes available...)
It'll take a while to get things sorted out (2026?) but they have most of the pieces to take GAME PASS to its full potential. This could get interresting.
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