Subscriptions like Game Pass may harm indies in long run, Revenge of the Savage Planet dev says

Launching games into subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus may negatively impact long-term sales for indie game developers--and this path may become "very damaging" to studios, a Revenge of the Savage Planet developer says.

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Xbox Game Pass is another tool for developers and publishers, and it can be a boon or a bane depending on how everything shakes out. The FTC v Microsoft trial from 2023 highlighted the "cannibalism" effect of Game Pass wherein players will just subscribe instead of buying games they want--lower-cost, but potentially longer-term subscriptions "replace" game sales in this case. While big-name publishers like EA and Ubisoft can afford to hedge these bets, smaller-scale studios may not be able to take on the risk.

On the flip side, some of these games may not even get made without the help of subscriptions. It's true that launching games into PS Plus or Xbox Game Pass can secure lucrative multi-year deals to fund game projects, but what happens after all that's over? It's hard to say exactly--the deals are secretive and widely vary--and we do know about a bonus fee structure for active players, but if your indie game is on Game Pass for multiple years, does that impact sales?

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In a recent interview with Gamer Social Club, indie developer Alex Hutchinson discussed what it was like for his team to work with Xbox in a Game Pass deal, and what these deals could mean for the future of indies.

Hutchinson is the creative director at Raccoon Logic, the team that developed Revenge of the Savage Planet, which launched into Game Pass in May, so his team has experience with the service.

Q: With something like Game Pass how does that change things from your perspective as a studio? A lot of people will point to it cannibalizing sales, and to a degree that is likely true. But on the flip side it also gets the game into a lot more people's hands which can lead to more word of mouth and maybe actually more sales on other platforms?

Hutchinson: "It's always a balance between getting the word out and actually trying to stay in business and make some money. Games are incredibly expensive to make, and there's a lot of competition.

"Personally, I think the whole industry should agree to only allow games on subscription services a year after release. We need to mimic the old movie model of having it in theatres then on DVD then on TV or streaming.

"The current structure will prove very damaging to anyone who is not owned by a publisher soon if it continues."