Xbox Game Pass And The Dissolution Of Risk

Video games are risky business. Finding the sweet spot between critical success, cultural relevance and commercial viability is a war that has been waged by the gaming industry since its inception. Demands from players continue to grow, with ever more visually spectacular and grandiose worlds expected within the AAA space. The rewards of finding the right formula are obvious, but said formulas composition can move like the changing of the seasons, evolving at a rapid pace, leaving projects that were designed to be a sure thing relegated to the status of expensive mistake. 

Of course, titles with modest budgets can and do thrive. From Fortnite to Flappy Bird, games in all their wonderful forms can strike metaphorical gold, often subsequently triggering a stampede of visually, thematically or structurally similar games as companies scramble to catch the cash falling from the sky. However, if creating the next Fall Guys or Among Us was something that could be achieved by following a formula, everyone would do it. With that being said, how does the industry continue to strive for creativity and invention whilst also mitigating the inherent risk of these ideals, at a time when the economic and cultural landscape is more unpredictable than ever? 

Enter Xbox Game Pass. 

It is becoming ever more apparent that Xbox Game Pass, by its nature, stimulates engagement with content where it may not otherwise be present to the same degree. Codemasters Vice President of publishing Jonathan Bunney put it succinctly when he stated regarding Game Pass:  

“We see it as a way of extending the life of our games and bringing in players who wouldn’t necessarily buy the game. Speaking as a consumer, I find myself discovering games that I had never heard of, or games that I’ve heard of but am just not prepared to spend $60 (on)”.  

I feel this is an experience many frequent Game Pass users can relate to. In my own case for example, I recently played through and thoroughly enjoyed the Outriders campaign, despite this being a game that I did not intend to purchase at launch and was only engaging with as a result of its day one launch into Game Pass. Further examples of developers waxing lyrical about the opportunities Game Pass presents for their titles, and the degree to which the level of engagement has surpassed their expectations, are becoming too numerous to document. It would seem as though a clear trend is being established. 

I feel that this newfound stability and assurance over engagement naturally creates an environment which can nurture ideas and concepts that may have traditionally been a difficult sell. Genres, IP and themes which may have been otherwise unable to find a space in the market could now potentially be reborn or tackled for the first time. 

Horror has always been a genre I have enjoyed immensely, from the original Silent Hill on PlayStation to Outlast, Amnesia and the ever-evolving Resident Evil franchise. ‘Horror’ is a broad term however, particularly as it pertains to gaming. One only has to look at the mainline Resident Evil titles to see the disparity that can exist, even within the same franchise. I feel as though Japan is the spiritual home of ‘pure’ horror. One only has to look at Japanese cinema and the litany of horror classics it has spawned. Many of these have received comparatively underwhelming western adaptations or remakes, which have struggled to capture the chilling essence Japanese filmmakers have often presented so skilfully. Regardless of how we wish to define it, it feels as though it has been some time since games have even attempted to reflect the macabre heart of movies like Audition, Ringu and Dark Water, with there being a sense that the gaming industry has decided that a broader intention is a more commercially viable tactic for the genre.  

At one time, PlayStation was home to series like Fatal Frame, Clock Tower and Siren, games which deviated from the mainstream expectation of what a horror title consisted of and very much attempted to capture Japanese horror sensibilities and present them to a worldwide audience. Subsequently, led by Capcom’s experimentation with the direction of Resident Evil, the genre moved away from pure horror and towards more action-oriented designs. It was possibly perceived that this would encourage broader worldwide appeal, and the evidence exists that this idea was not without merit, with Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 the three highest selling titles in the series to date. 

More recently, there has been a clamour for the return of a purer, more traditional horror experience. Capcom successfully returned to a more horror centric tone with Resident Evil 7, and titles like Outlast, Blair Witch and Layers of Fear, as well as the furore created by Hideo Kojima’s ‘P.T’ demo, further demonstrate how the market has responded to the groundswell of demand for this type of experience. Despite this, other games still show signs of the industry fighting to find the middle ground between creative excellence within this unique genre and commercial success.  

Take for instance the case of The Evil Within, a survival horror game developed by Tango Gameworks (a studio now intriguingly under the Umbrella of Xbox) and directed by Shinji Mikami. Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil, holds legendary status for his work in the genre, and it was hoped that the game would be a re-birth of sorts for pure survival horror afforded a AAA platform. Whilst the game was reasonably well received and had a lot of qualities, it still adhered to many of the conventions of AAA western titles and felt more like a half-way house between two diverging ideals rather than the true return to form many had hoped for.  

I thoroughly enjoyed Resident Evil Village when it launched earlier this year, and feel that the game in many ways served as a greatest hits package of the different gameplay styles and atmospheres the series has toyed with over the years. One of the most striking sections of the game was the ‘House Beneviento’ area, which built an unsettling sense of dread and impending doom, reminiscent of the genre’s classic leanings. The response to this was overwhelmingly positive, with many (myself included) lusting after the hypothetical concept of an entire project delivered with this tone. 

Due to the increased engagement, we are seeing with titles old and new via Xbox Game Pass, there is fresh scope to take greater risks, especially in genres where there is a perceived hunger for a particular type of content, but not the fiscal evidence to reduce the risk to a manageable level for a traditional release. What if a creator like a Shinji Mikami or a Hironobu Sakaguchi (Director, Producer or Scenario Designer on many of the most prominent JRPG’s of all time, including Final Fantasy 1-10) were able to engage with every facet of their creativity and talent, the shackles of conventional saleability almost entirely removed? It presents a multitude of exciting opportunities now that it has been established that Game Pass subscribers are discovering content they would never have seen with so many barriers to entry having been removed. 

One would be hard pressed to find a passionate gamer who does not hold a somewhat niche IP close to their heart. Whether it be Shenmue, Deus Ex, Legacy of Kain, Skies of Arcadia, or a proverbial mountain of others; the landscape is awash with critical darlings whose returns are endlessly longed for by feverous fanbases. The difficulty with these kinds of titles is that they inevitably stir up tremendous passion amongst their respective fanbases, and it can be difficult to differentiate between viable demand and a vociferous vocal minority. Following the announcement at E3 2015 of the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign, Adam Boyes, former Vice President of Publisher and Developer Relations at Sony Interactive Entertainment stated: “Shenmue is like a religion…it’s very coveted. When things are coveted from an emotional perspective, it’s sometimes hard to justify from a commercial perspective”. Many titles find themselves in this position, and it is something I believe the structure of Game Pass can assist with. 

Of course, investing heavily in a property which had its heyday 10- or 20-years prior is still an ambitious and complicated undertaking, and Game Pass does not present an open platform for these titles to exist without judgement or consequence. It does present an opportunity however, and perhaps a second chance. Arkane Studios are an example of a developer operating in the modern space who have found it challenging at times to place the games they create. Prey and the Dishonored series received widespread critical acclaim and yet the latest mainline titles in these franchises (The 2017 Prey reboot and 2016’s Dishonored 2) failed to set the charts alight. Dishonored 2 in particular sold 40% fewer copies than its predecessor during its first week on sale. The game director of Arkane’s upcoming title ‘Deathloop’ Dinga Bakaba recently stated that: “Being able to be a part of the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem makes things a bit different for us, because we can occupy a space in that service, and we will continue to make the kind of games that we make and make them well…It’s a service that will allow us to remain creative and have the audience and build that relationship over time and that’s really exciting.” 

It is the audience that is key. As of April 20th 2021, Xbox Game Pass has over 23 million subscribers. This is an audience that already has access to every single title on the service. Nobody needs to process any kind of transaction, all barriers to entry have been removed aside from the initial subscription. As a result, I believe it could be an incredible boon for games which have everything going for them with regards their quality, but have just not had the platform or exposure, with people unwilling to take an expensive risk on something which deviates a little from their usual digital diet. 

Speaking of games or developers which deviate from conventional trajectories, Double Fine certainly fit the description. Acquired by Microsoft in 2019, they have become synonymous with games bursting with both literal and figurative colour, as well an endearing sense for adventure and a razor-sharp wit. Remastered versions of classic LucasArts adventure games Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle & Grim Fandango, as well as their own personal spin on the genre in Broken Age, are just some of the projects they have worked on. Their most famous creation however, is Psychonauts. A truly weird and wonderful experience, Psychonauts in many ways serves as the poster child for the opportunities presented by Game Pass. A game with a dedicated cult following, eventually resulting in the initiation of a successful crowd funding campaign in 2016, in order to produce a sequel which could not be built using conventional means. Following Double Fine’s acquisition, the additional funding provided by Xbox is allowing for Psychonauts 2 to be presented without concessions. Game director Tim Schafer revealed some of the specifics last year, stating: “With Psychonauts 2, we could see the end of our budget coming up, and so we had cut a lot of stuff. We had cut our boss fights. Now we are able to put those back in, and we’re like ‘we think people would have noticed if we didn’t have those boss fights’. Being able to complete the game in the way that it was meant to be was very important”. 

Schafer, long seen as a visionary within the adventure genre (working on classic adventure games like the Monkey Island series and the aforementioned LucasArts adventure titles Double Fine subsequently remastered), now has the opportunity to see Psychonauts 2 achieve its potential to a degree he might not have envisioned. In addition, he can also fully engage with every aspect of his creativity moving forwards, with budgetary constraints no longer the impediment they once might have been. What magic lies within the minds of the gaming industries truly creative spirits? Perhaps the opportunity exists for us to see behind the curtain like never before. 

25 years ago, the point and click adventure genre was at the forefront of the gaming zeitgeist. Titles like Myst, Monkey Island and Grim Fandango were not merely intriguing curiosities, but instead stood at the pinnacle of the industry at that time. Things change. Taste, culture, the audience. However, for the same reason, genres such as the traditional adventure game (however one would wish to define it) may now become as relevant as they have been for decades. Isometric RPG’s such as Larian Studios critically acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin games or Inxile’s Wasteland titles may no longer need to simply find a quiet corner to set up shop and could, with investment, time and attention, be considered niche no longer. 

Inxile, another Xbox studio following their own acquisition in 2018, are experts in creating deeply engrossing isometric RPG’s. Their last four major projects; Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera, The Bards Tale IV: Barrows Deep and Wasteland 3 have all been games initially funded using crowd funding platforms. There is an unusual juxtaposition whereby these titles were all unable to be initially resourced using traditional methods, and yet the overwhelming success of each funding campaign is clear evidence of the audience that exists for the experiences Inxile create. It is perhaps another example of a genre, formally prominent with classic titles like Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment and Baldur’s Gate 2, whose status has been unnecessarily clipped. The overwhelmingly positive reception, both critically and commercially, of a more recent title like Disco Elysium is further evidence of an underutilised space which Game Pass provides an ideal platform to explore afresh. 

The value and cost of videogames is something that has been debated with renewed vigour since the beginning of the new generation. PlayStation’s decision to raise the RRP of their first party titles raised eyebrows and the conversation has been coming to the fore again every time they release one of these titles. Value can be largely subjective, with customers looking for different things from their purchase. Some are happy to pay a premium for what they perceive to be an exceptional experience, even if a game doesn’t offer dozens of hours of gameplay. Others feel an extended playtime is a requisite of a modern title for which said premium is charged. As the gaming industry has moved through the open-world era, there has been a sense that many games run the risk of becoming bloated, and it is a criticism that is often levied at particular AAA open-world franchises like Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry that offer reams of content, the value of which is subjective to the player.  

The risk for the developer and publisher is to be perceived as not offering the player enough value for money, especially in a market where enormous experiences are being delivered with increasing regularity. The delivery of games via Xbox Game Pass negates this issue significantly as the titles are already included in the cost, meaning game creators will in theory have more freedom to curate their game to its appropriate and natural length rather than feeling pressure to artificially extend and subsequently weaken the experience. An example would be an ‘AA’ title like The Medium, offering an 8-10 hour slice of entertainment, the length of which makes it well suited to consumption via a subscription service. A title like this could potentially be developed with unnecessary padding in order to justify a higher price tag, or alternatively face criticism because the price is perceived as too high for the length of the game. I feel therefore that Game Pass has the potential to present an ideal canvas on which creative independent games and AA titles can flourish. 

The delicate balance between risk and reward will always exist with creative endeavours, particularly when there is so much money to be made and lost. Xbox Game Pass as a platform has the potential however to usher in a stability which makes the gambles more educated, the risks more consolidated and the opportunities endless. The door is being held open like never before, and we should all be excited to see who rings the bell.