In recent headlines for Xbox Game Pass, the service continues to stand as a billboard for the latest Squanch Games release, High on Life. The game when announced back in June this summer would be a featured addition at launch for the service. When posed as another filling addition to the service, it came to be a surprise in becoming one of the biggest releases on the platform. The game recently overtook Minecraft as the most-played for subscribers.
Additionally, High on Life was also stated to be benefiting greatly thanks to Xbox Game Pass with its choice to ship via the service as well. But it does not stop there according to Microsoft. In that, High on Life now happens to be the biggest third-party release for Xbox Game Pass ever as it continues to smash milestones weeks after its initial launch.
From a recent interview with Squanch Games’ Justin Roiland, the service was said to be a “value-add” approach rather than limiting the potential for the game’s reach, he expressed.
Before we decided to pull the trigger on it, I spoke with a handful of other studio folks who did Game Pass. And I ultimately came to the conclusion based off of what I had heard that it is– it’s a value-add. Because essentially, there’s a lot of people that would otherwise not have picked up the game and played it.
“And those people, if you believe in what you’ve made, and you really you feel confident that you’ve made something special, or different– and we do with our game– those folks can become evangelists in a way for the title,” Roiland adds. He goes on to disclose chatter that the service was to increase profits seven-fold for most games. “A lot of folks told me that non-Game Pass games that they ship versus Game Pass games, [they get] 7x sales.”
“We are an indie studio. We’re small. And we do want a war chest to make a bunch more fun crazy games. And that was of consideration for us. It’s like, ‘OK, we really want this game to get out there. We want it to do. We want sales to do well.’ And I think that, yeah, I mean, from what I gathered in my little poking around and asking different folks, Game Pass was a huge value-add in that respect.”
Similarly, this was interpreted for the upcoming JRPG She Dreams Elsewhere. When speaking at GCD Summer 2020, Studio Zevere solo developer Davionne Gooden expressed that his arrangement with Microsoft for Xbox Game Pass shared no obstacles and solidified his game will ship with an audience ready to digest the game. You can read the full report by heading here.
Do you believe Xbox Game Pass is a new platform for smaller teams to bring games to a broader audience?
Source: Xbox Wire
