WithTony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4officially out, one’d expect it to pull in some pretty nice numbers, considering these two games are considered classics. However, that is far from the truth, as it seems their day-one Game Pass launch has botched their numbers on other platforms.
As Steam’s numbers show—and we all know that numbers never lie—Game Pass peaked at a little over 2,200 players on its launch day (thanks SteamDB). Suffice it to say that this is less-than-stellar, as it also implies poor sales overall. If we go by Steam’s reviews and the one review in every 30 players method, the game sold about 12,000 copies on Steam, give or take. Though that’s an estimate, the player count really doesn’t help its case.
And we could call it a gaming tragedy, one of many, if it weren’t part of a broader new pattern that has emerged alongside Xbox’s day-one Game Pass launches. It appears that almost every game launched on Game Pass at the same time as other platforms, its numbers are significantly botched, both in terms of concurrent players and copies sold.
Game Pass borderline kills game releases with its day-one launch
If a game launches on Game Pass and other storefronts simultaneously, its numbers go down. This is a plain and simple fact of life. The only way they wouldn’t be is if it’s a game that shadow-dropped or was too big to not sell well across all stores, such as theOblivion Remaster, whichBethesda launched everywhere at once (without so much as mentioning it coming).
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4presents one example, whereasAvowedtells an even worse story. That game comes from a big, first-party, reputable studio that produced numerous well-selling games in the past. FromFallout: New VegastoOuter Worlds, Obsidian is by no means a stranger to good sales. Even itsPillars of Eternityfranchise drew in a ton of players across all platforms, and particularly Steam, which is no surprise given how much emphasis Obsidian puts on RPGs (a traditionallyheavilyPC-oriented genre).
However,Avowedpeaked at less than 20,000 players on Steam during its heyday. It has some 10,000 reviews on Valve’s store, implying 300,000 copies sold. A good number, but far from what Obsidian usually achieves, which is more often than not in the six figures.
Despite this, the game bragged about having a ton of “players,” and was labelled a “success.” There were evenclaims it had nearly six million players totalacross Steam, Microsoft Store, and Xbox. Given that “only” 300,000 or so of those were on Steam, we can safely assume most of the remaining five and change million were on Game Pass, enjoying the game for “free” as part of their monthly subscription.
Yet another huge game,Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, also attained some four million playersaccording to claims, but only ever peaked at 12,000 on Steam, selling an estimated 450,000 copies.
The numbers speak volumes here and imply that Game Pass completely wrecks games’ sales as, logically, people prefer not to pay full prices (up to $80 these days) when they can access a nearly limitless library of games for the low, low price of 15 bucks per month.
So what’s the solution?
This is a grim and dark prediction, though, and I think the solution would be for developers to simply stop putting their games on Game Pass day one. Releasing a game over there isn’t bad in and of itself, but even a few days on the active market could help to generate a ton of sales. Players who really want to play your title will do so and not wait for a Game Pass launch.
So long as these services exist (and this includes every subscription-based service, not just Game Pass), we will continue seeing such phenomena. Even outside of Game Pass, we sawAssassin’s Creed: Shadowsplummet in sales but get a ton of players via Ubisoft’s own subscription service, meaning the issue is quite far-reaching.
Who knows where these things will end up? Maybe Stop Killing Games will have an impact?
What do you think, Destructoid? Should games launch on Game Pass day one? Is Game Pass, alongside other subscription services, killing game releases and sales? Let me know below.
