Talking Point: Do You Buy Less Third-Party Titles Because Of Xbox Game Pass?

I feel like i still buy plenty of games. Whether I get to them or not is another question bc of gamepass. In past week i bought Okami and red skies

Do you buy fewer third party titles?

Only buy games on sale. So game pass its a great filler.

@Barry_Biscuits I couldn’t get past the grammar in the title either 😂

I buy the odd game that's not on Game Pass if it sounds special, or a non-game pass game at good discount.

The reality is, games are too expensive now. With bills, savings and holidays, it's hard to frequently justify a £70 game purchase, therefore the subscription service works brilliantly for me.

I've purchased less second hand games and played a ton more games as a result of gamepass personally. I don't think I'd be as inclined to play without it. Games are way to expensive and you can't rent them anywhere to try them first. Gamepass is the adult equivalent of the N64 from my youth... just enjoying gaming a ton like back in the day.

As a multi console owner I've only bought two games on the Series X since release - both non Gamepass games on sale for $10. Non Gamepass multiplatform games I tend to get on PS5 due to the dual sense controller features. However, despite Sony's excellent first party exclusives, I've put far more hours into Xbox due to the incredible game selection, in particular indies, on Gamepass. Is it sustainable? Time will tell.

I bought a grand total of zero games on Xbox (either digital or physical) last year. Everything I play on Xbox is either from my backlog or from GamePass. I do, however, still buy games on Steam (digital, obviously) and PS5/Switch (physical, strictly exclusives).

I think it is clear that GP harms games sales. I am not sure how that could ever be in question.

However, publishers get paid for GP. So the question shouldn't be "Does game pass hurt sales?". It should be "Do the publishers/developers make more in total with GP?"

For me personally, I will always buy games I like because I like to own games, not just play them once.

While I have discovered and enjoyed a bunch of games on Game Pass, I don't do the whole "Oh I'll wait to see if the game comes to Game Pass."

If I want the game, and it's not Day 1 on Game Pass, I'll buy it. If I don't finish a game before it is removed from Game Pass, I will buy it at a discount.

I use it a little differently. In the past couple months I have tried many games on my Xbox to see what I thought and then I ended up picking them up on my Steam Deck.

I would much rather buy 3rd party games. I don't want to wait and hope a game I am interested in comes to the service. Then if it finally does you have a limited time to play it. I would much rather own it and play it whenever I want.

To be honest, I buy physical xbox 1st party games too. I know there will come a time when I don't subscribe to GP.

My experience does not have a clear pick on the survey, mostly because I'm "new" to xbox this generation.

I subscribe for gamepass mostly as a means to get access to the entirety of XBox first party library without having to buy it all.

I do take advantage of games I want to play that land on the service, like Persona 5 Royale and Plague Tale Requiem.

Depending on the game, I might buy the game I played on Game Pass down the line, either when its about to leave game pass, or whenever I see it on sale. A game I found thanks to Game Pass that I loved oh so much was CrossCode, I ended buying it digitally AND getting a Switch physical copy, plus getting the DLC on XBox.

I plan to buy Persona 5 (and 4 and 3) eventually, but no rush since I can play them on Game Pass. I 100% Persona 5 but can see myself wanting to play it again years down the line when its no longer in the service.

This is where my experience might be different from some: the last 3 years, I have purchased more games than I have ever purchased before within a similar time window, all digitally on xbox. This is in great part because I had a rather empty Xbox game library, but also because Game Pass simply makes me less likely to grab my PS5 or Switch controller as often.

Me from the future might change mind on what is something I want to play again. Maybe in 5 years I will actually want to binge Plage's Tale 1 and 2 back to back, or decide I really want to 1000 GP them, who knows.

I do buy way fewer games day one now that the default for many third party publishers is $70, so the whole "wait for a sale" holds true even if the game is not on Game Pass.

TLDR:
Buy a lot more games that are not in game pass
Buy fewer games day one because of $70 price tags
Game Pass games I love I end up buying, likely when they hit a sale.
If I don't see myself ever playing it again, I wont buy it.

Oh and one final thing: I'm very likely to buy anything tied to an big license because I know it will eventually leave all store fronts for good (let me buy Deadpool digitally!!!!!!!!!)

I play mostly games which aren't in game pass like Diablo, CoD and Overwatch.

The number of games I buy hasn't changed at all due to game pass.

The only difference is I'm getting to play them earlier instead of waiting for them to hit the bargain bit.

If a game is coming out I like the look of, I’ll buy it if it’s not on Gamepass. I don’t wait to see.

Its pretty simple....if a game is releasing on game pass (or is already on game pass), no I'm not going to buy it, so of course that would mean less traditional sales of those games.

But because I'm not spending money on those games, it frees up my gaming budget to buy other games. I spend that game budget on both physical and digital games, also on sony and nintendo consoles.

You forgot the option of playing on game pass and earning reward gift cards and buying either free or little cost

Gamepass doesn't make me buy a lot less games. I even bought several games I liked thanks to gamepass. Because of gamepass I found the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series and bought every game in the series even though some of them were still on gamepass.
For me except for first party titles it's a try before you buy service. I'm mostly playing games on gamepass which I wouldn't buy or first party games. And the bigger ones I end up liking lll buy anyways

With so much on game pass, its difficult for me to justify spending money on the xbox, because theres always something interesting to try without spending.
I do buy games on ps5, usually just the exclusives, and thats expensive enough 😂

if i only used my xbox for my gaming and if i were a game pass user i can't imagine a reason to ever need to buy another game again.

I haven't bought a game in maybe 3-4 years. I just play what GamePass has.

Including Madden NFL and NBA 2K games, they eventually come to game pass, Madden 23 was just added last week, and NBA 2K23 will come sometime around April. And I'll play these games until next year's versions come to GamePass.

I also play Halo, Forza, both Motorsport & Horizon, and various other games and genres that are on GamePass.

For me, there's no reason for me to go buy games for $60-$70, I love GamePass.

I personally rarely buy any games with game pass. I purchase a couple of PlayStation exclusives every year, though. If I want to buy a third party game, I’ll often pick it up for Xbox with Reward points. There’s just so much on game pass, I have plenty to keep me busy. I haven’t even bought Dead Space, because I know it will be on game pass because of EA play eventually. I DO purchase more dlc, though. Since I play more games, there is typically more dlc I want to pick up.

It only makes a difference to Xbox's own games for me as I don't need to buy them and its rare that I play anything from EA or indeed many games day 1 but I wouldn't wait for any of them to be on Gamepass if I really wanted to play them. Resident Evil 4 for example is one of my most anticipated games and I've already preordered it but that's pretty much the exception these days

I plan on one day dropping Game Pass, the games I tend to play I've already bought because I wanted them. For me Game Pass has not effected how many games I buy even first party. For instance I have Game Pass and still purchased FH5. When Game Pass lapses, I still get to play the game. I'm going to judge the value of Game Pass again when it expires for me in a couple years. I want to see if the price goes up or what else they have planned. To be honest I'm not impressed with quantity and quality of games so far this console generation.

I'm all in on reward points so haven't bought a game for awhile. Not paid for online too thanks to redeeming game pass ultimate for free. Last game I bought was Monster Sanctuary and before that was Shadow Man. I'm thinking about buying Persona 3 and 4 together but I'm waiting until the end of the month to see how much money I have left. I could use the money I'd normally pay the water bill with seeing as there's no more payments until April but I'm trying to see how much money I can put to the side with my second cleaning job and imagining I'm still paying some billls lol.

I still buy games that were on Game Pass later on, I just don't pay full price for them. I only buy them when they go on sale since I have played them before since they used to be on Game Pass.

If a game I want is on Gamepass I don’t buy it. If it’s not on Gamepass I buy it. If I bought it and it comes out on Gamepass I trade it. If I’ve traded it and it leaves Gamepass but I didn’t get around to playing it I buy it again. The cycle continues and now I’ve confused myself.

I bought more games since having gamepass than before I had gamepass, the money seemingly saved I buy stuff that's not (well not in the near future) on gamepass, and if i love a game that much on gamepass i'll buy it when it leaves....

I mainly buy games on PC. Just use XSX for Gamepass and the odd cheaper/Indie title. Also use it for BC games too.

So I'm not a decade old Xbox user. I have been part of the Xbox family only since the pandemic. My library and my experience with the ecosystem would be rather pale compared to many experienced folks here.

It goes without saying, when I first got my One X, I went for a Fallout 76 bundle and that was about the only game I had. Everything else was just free to play or game pass. Game Pass made me realize what I wanted to do in this ecosystem. For example, if it's a short indie game like say... Dead Cells or Hades, I just go and play it on the game pass until I finish that. I'm not a speedrunner so by the time I'm done the game will probably be on its way to leave the service. Which is where the fun part begins. The sale before the departure of the game. That's when I yoink that and add it to my library.

I'm not a rich dude by any means but I have hundreds of games that I bought thanks to Game Pass. That is including some Live Service or first party games from Xbox Studios. Like Elder Scrolls Online (bought all the dlcs and expansions including High Isle) or Flight Sim, and when I buy any game I usually go for the most valuable version with all the dlcs or love letter cosmetics etc included.

I think Game Pass is of great value to anyone to get them on their feet if they want to be part of the gaming world. I've met great friends on my way here, became an Xbox Ambassador, achieved amazing things and saved beautiful memories, and some toxic ones, at times...

At the end of the day, it didn't make me buy less games. In fact, I've never bought this many games in my entire life. Digital releases no less. It just made me a smarter customer about how I go on about spending my money. Some games are just way too expensive and there's nothing wrong with playing them on the Game Pass until it goes away or you finally get to buy it. Everyone wins, there's no losers.

Look at Stadia, if buying every single game was the only option to support developers and gaming companies, why did it fail but Game Pass is still a valuable asset for Xbox? Clearly, there's demand for such services and clearly it doesn't stop people from buying games.

The thing is for some titles a Game Pass launch makes sense. A game like Hogwarts Legacy for example was always going to do well anyway but for random Indi game that has no marketing budget? Taking the Game Pass deal might make more sense as they will have a guaranteed sum of cash they will earn with no risk required. On the flip side they also essentially doom their product from selling well on Xbox as well as PC to an extent by doing this.

So in the end here's the question every game developer/publisher has to answer. Do I take a set sum of cash and just put my game on GP or do I take my chances on the open market? That's the long and short of it.

As for myself I don't really like subscription services for games so I purchase my games.

Like others on here my Xbox X is a second console that I use mainly for games pass games. Any new games I do buy are 90% for PS5 as it's my preferred console and controller. I would have bought the Forza games inc & Horizons as well as some of the EA games so games pass more than pays for itself. V

I buy very few games on the xbox, there's so much to play on gamepass, including the amazing variety of day 1 indies and broad 3rd party catalogue. Between that and ps extra, the only games I really buy anymore are nintendo and Sony first party titles. The only 3rd party games I've bought new over the last 12 months were rollerdrome, neon white and I've pre-ordered like a dragon ishin.

I try and buy less games as I have a horrific backlog that I will never manage to play all of in my lifetime.

There has been a few games I have tried and bought on gamepass. Surge 1 and 2, Outer Wilds, DLC for Resi 7 and playing that meant I bought Resi 8.

So Game Pass doesn't really help much with stopping my gaming kleptomania

Not really sure. There are definitely games I've played on GP that I wouldn't buy but most of these games I probably wouldn't buy anyway.
On the other hand, I have bought tens of games I wouldn't have even played because of Gamepass but on key sites which might not contribute to sales numbers.
So, for me I don't think Gamepass necessarily hurts sales except for first party titles.
Btw, at the risk of sounding like an ass, which I don't want to, the correct term is fewer games, not less. I just see that particular mistake often.

Series S is my Game Pass Machine. I don’t use it for anything else. I buy games on other consoles sometimes, but Xbox is GP only for me.

anyone that says otherwise is either lying or should not be subscribed to GP.

I've picked up games I've enjoyed on gamepass to be able to play them at my own pace, you never know when 3rd party titles will leave the service. Also, still buy games regularly, but usually when they're on sale

Rarely buy anything now on xbox. 1st first party is easy to do a free month of gamepass with bing rewards and third party i buy on PS or Switch

With the way things are atm I simply can't afford to buy every game that seems interesting to me. Particularly as a multiplatfoem gamer.
There are games I'll buy ASAP and there are games that I can wait for a sale for, and somethings that just scream gamepass or free play days (games that I need a decent taste of)

But it cuts both ways there are games that I consume and mever think about again, then there are games I adore, those I'll buy even if they are on gamepass.

I wouldn't have tried Yakuza if it wasn't on gamepass, I wouldn't have bought Judgement/Lost Judgment on day 1 and wouldn't have ishin prordered now.

I buy fewer games period bc of game pass

I still think Gamepass hurts the market.
I still buy a lot of games and I love my physical games.

The problem i have with Gamepass is i download games play them for a evening get bored and delete them , when i buy game i think i put in more effort and spend more time playing it.

@ThatMusicFan MS didnt hit their growth target.. it was ridiculously high. MS pretty much admitted to saturation point on console. xbox sales are dropping year on year. 32% in EU.

I have a simple system. Games that I really really want to play, I buy. Everything else I wait for a sale or gamepass drop, whichever comes first.

I really don’t see a reason to buy First Party exclusive if they are definitely going to be on Game Pass. Microsoft owns them, so they aren’t going away any time soon.

I don’t buy less, but I definitely wait for sales on digital games now. I’ll buy a physical copy of something now and again, but not as often as I use to. With gamepass my back catalogue is so massive it’s super easy to wait for a 25-50% off sale and grab what I want then OR just wait until I can get it on eBay/offer up for cheap too.

I buy the games I want. But i can tell you without a doubt GP has sold me many games like Yakuza series that I would never had bought or played. Now have all of those along with Judgement series with Ishen preordered lol

I buy fewer third party titles because I'm a broke mother****er.

I buy less games for other systems too bc of Game Pass. But if I really want a game, I still buy it. I bought Mount and Blade and Hot Wheels on PS5 before they were in Game Pass. Also Madden 23 for Steam Deck.I bought DLC for Forza Horizon, Lumines after it left and Red Dead Redemption on Xbox.

I bought a series S specifically for Game Pass, and I'm loving it.
It's possible a great game on GamePass could prompt me to get DLC, but that hasn't happened yet!

Yes. My gaming hobby is covered and I have more important things to spend money on. Thanks Xbox!

Always buying my games, and physical if at all possible. Just use Game Pass to not have to put the disc in at times. Or to play something that is not available otherwise (CrossfireX campaign that was recently taken down) but that is rare.

I buy all my games. I don't have a GamePass subscription and I really don't care about it - my backlog is huge, I would never have time to even try all the games from the GamePass.

It’s definitely made me buy less. 3rd party games I buy on other platforms now and “wait for gamepass” - I find it hard to believe 26% of readers here pay the monthly fee and happily buy the same amount of games as before. That would suggest not a single game they buy is on gamepass or they pay for gamepass and buy everything even if it’s on gamepass. A quarter of you do that?

I’m saying No. I think they’ve convinced themselves they buy the same amount of games but they really don’t. It makes no sense to do that. I could take 10% would buy everything they play gamepass or not “to support the devs” and use gamepass like playable trials. (I doubt even that % do) but 26% no. You really don’t buy the same amount of games. It’s illogical. Xbox’s own recent figures and admissions say you don’t.

Gamepass is the best service ever made for console!

I think Gamepass is great, one of the best things in modern gaming, but probably just not for me. Let me explain.

I don't get a lot of time to play these days and also have more disposable income than when I was younger. This means I am more likely to buy a game when I want it, usually on a sale, as I like a deal. Subscribing to a service at £10.99 per month and not using it feels like a bad deal.

I am saying all this as a current and long time Gamepass subscriber, I did not jump in on the service straight away as I knew it was not for me. I just dabbled with cheap sub deals. Then the crazy deals started.

All this has come to mind as I note that my loooong subscription deal is coming to an end in a few days, I can see that on my account I was last billed £1... back in June 2019!

What a deal I have had, and what a service it has been, and no doubt will continue to be. I highly recommend it to anyone, give it a try, it's just in my current point in life it's not for me. If a deal comes up though, well...

In the meantime I bought a code for 12 months of XBL which I will activate on the expiration of my Gamepass sub, it seems I can't add it before as it converts to Gamepass.

Should there be any game on Game Pass that I play and like then I would buy to help support the developers.

Yeah. I hardly ever buy games unless it's something on a very deep discount. With Game Pass there's always something to play in every genre so buying other games seems pointless really.

With the price of new games these days I don't see myself buying a new AAA game again.

I've bought one xbox game in the last year and a half because of Gamepass. In that same space of time I've probably bought 2 Nintendo games and 6 Playstation games.

I probably buy more now but less on day one as I allways have plenty of games to play and also a few I end up getting a physical copy down the line for cheap after playing on on game pass

P.s: but since I am new to the Xbox, since I got it I about 18 months ago, I bought 30+ Xbox One/series and some 10/15 backwards compatible from previous gens

I think this is more or less a given and it is fine, companies can decide whether they publish or not on gamepass based on the offer they got on the table.

It's good that GP gives them a chance to de-risk in the sense they will ensure making X money (based on whatever they've agreed with MS), but they might loose money in the long run if the game was to perform well in sales. This is just a business decision around risk and it's really mainly applicable on day one release I feel.

The other side, once a game has been on the market for a while, you'd expect that the bulk of the sales have been fulfilled by then and GP is a good way of ensuring additional income. For me, there are games that I wouldn't have played if it wasn't because of GP and of the back of that I bought dlcs. Recent examples for me are Scarlet Nexus and Vampire Survivors, wasn't gonna buy them but played them in GP, likes them and bought some dlc stuff, so that is extra income for them. Plus, there's the indirect benefit of now these are on my radar, so I would consider getting Scarlet Nexus 2, not perhaps on day one, but discounted.

Overall I feel GP gives just another option for companies to de-risk or get extra money and publicity to their games. Up to them to decide what makes sense or not. Markets are transitioning to different business models and companies need to account for that, unfortunately or not things like GP now exist and need to be taken into account on sales plan regardless of whether you're considering launching or not in GP.

If I enjoy the game I buy it. I rarely buy full price these days for single player experiences especially one and dones. I use both GPU and Ps+P but just preordered Hogwarts Legacy for the wife's bday. I will probably buy Wo Long and Diablo 4 as well, but having the option to try before I buy is a win win.

I buy more games because Game Pass helped me discover amazing new and old games I never knew before

I still buy 3rd party games if the game isn't available on gamepass. I don't buy the games that's available on gamepass though unless I really like the game and still want to play it even when it's not on gamepass anymore.

I often buy more now. I wish all games had some kind of cross-save feature, because I must admit I usually buy them on Switch.

Outside of EA games, I'm not going to wait for a game to come to GP if I'm not certain it ever will. I still buy games like normal. GP is just a bonus on top of my usual purchasing habits.

Indie games on the other hand are a different story. So many of them debut on GP and many of them eventually find their way there that I do buy indie games less on Xbox. I still use GP as a way to see if I want to buy that same game on Switch.

No, in fact I would say Gamepass has helped me buy more... just not always on Xbox. If there is a game I already know what games are Day 1 purchases even if they are coming out on GP. For those, access to GP is not a factor. Other games that I may be interested in, I will try them first on Gamepass and if I like it I will make the purchase. Quite a few of those were purchased on other systems, like my Steam Deck because they were a better fit for quick pick up and play sessions. Disney Dreamlight Valley and Persona 5: Royal are perfect examples of those. At the end of the day the publisher still made a sale, just not through the Xbox Store.

i buy more games because i discover more games on gamepass.

However i use my rewards points and get them on sale so sorry they dont actually cost me anything

I got a Series X because I wanted to play Fable from XboX.
I haven't bought any games, First, Second or Third party.
That WILL change when Witcher 1 comes out.
I'm debating Skyrim. I never finished the game, not really even sure how far i got in it on either PS4 or Switch but since I own it on those, I'm not wanting to pay more than $15 for it, tax included

Less. Why would I buy a game I already have access to on PC Game Pass?

And if a new game launches on GP, I won't buy it at a non-discounted price on any platform, even if I don't intend to play the GP release. At that point, I'm waiting for a 50%+ discount at minimum before I try your game.

Uhh no, I would say it has had the complete opposite effect, it's made it easy for me to discover loads of games I would have overlooked if it wasn't for GamePass, and I wound up buying a lot of them eventually on Xbox or different platforms.

This is my second year of GP and i still occational buy a game or two throughout the year. Has my purchases cut back? yes, but i would only buy maybe 5-8 games a year. So maybe 4 of my purchases go to gamepass and then I usually buy whatever i want that isnt on gamepass or has already left. I just dont spend a lot of money on gaming, too busy working. But for me gamepass is great because I always have access to Halo, Gears, Rare games and then a ton of indy games I would never touch if it was not for gamepass. So for me gamepass is more than worth it. For example, Persona 5 is a game I would have purchased ($60) but buying that game is a huge chunk of my gamepass yearly subscription fee.

I dont see why people hate on GPU so much. GP allows me to try play and sometimes beat games I would never ever touch just because I dont wanna drop 20ish dollars on an indie game that is a total hit or miss for me.

I remember back in 2021 thinking about selling my xbox one s and all its games because I found out that half of my game collection (I had around 25 xbox one games) was on GP. When I sold my xbox one s and all its game I got more than enough money to buy a new Japanese series s along with a years subscription of GPU and a few digital games MK11U and others that I wanted. I have been with xbox since the original fat controller. From here on out I will only do digital xbox gaming and will prolly always have GPU subscription up and running

Totally. Nearly always wait to see if something comes to Gamepass, and if not I'll pick it up in a sale. I've bought one single game day one since getting my current Xbox - Elden Ring. Everything else has been Gamepass or an older game picked up in a sale. The only games I've paid over £20 for have been Cyberpunk, Red Dead 2 (to replay it), and the Mafia Trilogy. And they were all under £25. There's enough to play on Gamepass to never buy another game as long as you're not worried about keeping up with whatever the newest thing is.

I discovered and than bought many games (including Nier: Automata, The Gunk...) otherwise, would never have bought... Thanks to gamepass... It introduced many good titles...

Won't lie because of Gamepass and Microsoft rewards not only have I picked up very few games on Xbox I also haven't paid for Gamepass in nearly a year and and am currently subscribed until the middle of next year without paying a penny. I tend to spend my money on games on Switch and PlayStation as a result since I know I will get to play all first party Xbox games day one with out paying.

@Barry_Biscuits if anything i buy MORE 3rd party minus EA.. Gamepass has freed up some cash for me to buy hogwarts(i wouldnt have otherwise bought it at launch) elden ring is another i bought i most likely would have waited on...but because other games came to gamepass i had the cash for those( i alot myself 10 games a year i can buy max between switch and series x) this year switch has alot of games i want so xbox is gonna be a bit dusty at times...

My series X is a game pass machine and that's it. I buy games for my PS and rent games for my PS. I prefer my PS to the xbox, I'm not a big fan of the cluttered UI. I think the series X is great but my ps5 is my go to console.

@Zenszulu Exactly. Same for me.

I don't usually buy games. This was the same even before gamepass. I only buy games that I like, which is a very small number. I've bought monster hunter rise, i bought valheim. Both are on gamepass. I've bought every Yakuza game. I don't buy games above 50£ unless its Yakuza. I use gamepass to try games that I will never buy. Its similar to when lovefilm was around, they used to rent out games and I would rent it to see how it is n it was way cheaper than gamepass. And they had all the latest games too.

But anyway, games I love I will always buy. But sometimes the price puts me off, so sometimes I wait for a sale or something. But Yakuza games always pre order.

No. As most of my library consists of RPGs. It was awesome playing Dragon Quest XI, Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 Royal to name a few start to finish via Game Pass. I luckily completed Dragon Quest XI before it was removed from Game Pass.