Bethesda feel “extremely optimistic” about the Xbox Game Pass.
Microsoft already has 15 million members signed up for the Game Pass - which is a subscription based service that allows players to pay monthly for unlimited access to certain games within the pass library - and developers studio Bethesda have now said they’re confident the pass will positively impact the future of gaming.
Todd Howard, a veteran Bethesda executive, said: "Game Pass and things like it allow titles to be successful where the economics of the business, and having to sell things at retail to sell X amount of copies ... That works against some games. Just like in other avenues - let’s take television or movies. Certain types of comedies or big budget dramas went away.
“TV went to the cheapest thing they could make for a long time, reality television, which I could equate to a free-to-play match-three game. What brings eyeballs? What's cheap? Right, let's get it out.”
Todd explained that in television, subscription services like Netflix completely changed the way people watch their favourite shows, and thinks the same thing could happen in the gaming industry.
He added: "Subscriptions came along and now you see the quality and investment in dramas or historical fiction series. That’s where creators are able to go and create these things people want and it makes sense for everybody: the people paying the bills, the people creating it and the people consuming it. That's what we see happening with games with things like Game Pass.”
And Todd even believes some genres of game, such as the classic adventure titles, could see a resurgence in popularity thanks to Game Pass.
He said: "Those are games that really don't make a lot of economic sense at $60, or maybe even at $30 if someone's going to play it for five or six hours, but in a system like that it makes complete sense. It drives a lot of people saying 'Hey, I got to experience that and I wouldn't have any other way,' and the creators got to make it without the burden of 'Will this be successful? Will we get to make another one?'"
Overall, Howard said he feels "extremely optimistic" about the potential for Game Pass.
He added to GI.biz: "Not just to people playing it but to creators being unbridled in terms of what they can create.”
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