The Outsiders founder, David Goldfarb says he is now against Game Pass after the service failed to deliver lucrative results for his 2022 game, Metal: Hellsinger. If you can recall, Metal: Hellsinger launched back on 13 September 2022 on Game Pass. The rhythm first-person demonic shooter was highly praised for its fast-paced DOOM-like gameplay but sadly, the game didn’t make much money due to its Game Pass launch.
While Goldfarb hasn’t commented on the game’s profits, he did take to X to discuss how its Game Pass launch affected the title. Goldfarb was quoting a post from user VisualFidelity who was blaming Hellblade 2’s poor sales on the so-called “TikTok Fortnite generation”. The user says Hellblade 2 isn’t doing big sales numbers due to gamers have “low attention spans”.
Goldfarb said instead of blaming TikTok, users should look at Game Pass instead. He follows up by saying that launching your game on Game Pass is one way to slaughter your PC audience. Essentially, no one buys your game on PC if it launches on Game Pass. Likely referencing Metal: Hellsinger as an example of this.
One user suggests that Goldfarb is now against Game Pass given his current sentiment about the service. He replied saying that he wasn’t against it until he found out how it affected sales of a game. Again, hinting at the poor sales of Metal: Hellsinger as a result of its Game Pass launch.
It has become common knowledge that Game Pass isn’t as exciting as Microsoft made it out to be. Many developers have voiced their concerns over the service in the past. Most of them say that it leads to poor game sales and low profits for their projects.
Not only is Game Pass not seen as the goldmine it once was for studios, but it has also become a dead end for some games. Not to mention that Game Pass has also greatly affected Xbox game sales in general. Many gamers refuse to purchase games on the platform in hopes they launch on the service for “free” instead.
… Nah. Let’s start with Gamepass. Then let’s discuss zero marketing. Then we can move onto it being, whether you like it or not, a niche title (short play, narrative, no mp, subject matter). TikTok gen is last place. https://t.co/29t1YgCeHE
— David Goldfarb (@locust9) May 27, 2024
