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[Dorfdad]

With PC game adoption on the rise and the semi success of game pass for Xbox, how long before we see a steam pass?

Would you even be interested in a steam pass if it had, let’s say 100 titles that rotated in and out on a bi monthly basis?

They already do steam sales, which are deeply discounted games. This could be another pillar to that or they could offer if you’re a member of steam pass that you get a 50% discount if you purchase a title ins inside the steam pass.

I think this would make them massive amounts of money if they charged $15-$20 a month they have such a massive collection of titles that they could include. With 40% of the titles being a mixture of older and newer AAA titles with Indies

This would typically give a lot of titles that people skip over a chance to be seen and played while also offering AAA players access to some games that are not available on other platforms

What are you guys think of the idea what would make a successful or do you think it would just be a complete waste of time?

 

[Three]

you say this like gamepass wasn't xbox's hail mary that failed.

 

[GHG]

Valve are successful because they actually sell games.

You think they are going to throw that all away because of a bunch of beggars?

 

[Kacho]

Never. Game Pass is a failed strategy.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Never because it’s a stupid idea.

Gamepass contributing to the death of Xbox pretty much proves this.

 

[poppabk]

They don't own those titles beyond a handful though. A subscription only works economically if you have substantial catalog titles that don't cost you anything but lost sales to put on there.

 

[Dorfdad]

They don't own those titles beyond a handful though. A subscription only works economically if you have substantial catalog titles that don't cost you anything but lost sales to put on there.

Well, this is true. They constantly offer deep discounts and sales on games already so what’s preventing them from working with developers and saying hey let’s include this in this for the next 60 days. I just think it’s a way for a lot of of those titles, especially Indies and smaller games that no one really purchases to get on some people’s radar. I know there’s a few that I would. Not saying that this would replace anything that steam does just another revenue stream for them.

 

[Dorfdad]

you say this like gamepass wasn't xbox's hail mary that failed.

Just trying to have a civil conversation and ask about the possibility, but I don’t think that game pass has failed in any manner. I think it’s continuing to grow and it’s a pillar of their gaming division, but who knows I could be totally wrong.

 

[diffusionx]

Evidently OP has been living in a coma the past five years. Subscription services don’t make money and don’t add value. They destroy it.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Just get Humble Choice if you want a monthly assortment of games that vary wildly in quality like gamepass. Then you actually own the games too.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

You can get games for very cheap on Steam, that makes a subscription model redundant... Especially if you get your codes from a thirdparty web site.

 

[MrRibeye]

In 1999 we used to say "never change a running system".

 

[poppabk]

Well, this is true. They constantly offer deep discounts and sales on games already so what’s preventing them from working with developers and saying hey let’s include this in this for the next 60 days. I just think it’s a way for a lot of of those titles, especially Indies and smaller games that no one really purchases to get on some people’s radar. I know there’s a few that I would. Not saying that this would replace anything that steam does just another revenue stream for them.

They don't offer the discounts the sellers do. For it to go on some kind of 'steampass' they would have to pay the publishers money and for 100 games that adds up to hundreds of millions of dollars.
I could maybe seeing them doing it for a much smaller fee for 5 or 10 indie games - but even that seems unlikely.

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

I'll pass thanks

 

[hemo memo]

Evidently OP has been living in a coma the past five years. Subscription services don’t make money and don’t add value. They destroy it.

You do realize that PS+ is a game subscription service, right? The one Sony has been running for 15 years.

 

[Itchy Tickles]

Not for me personally. I really dislike subscription services like that. I did have Gamepass for a while doing the old trick of converting Gold into Gamepass, but it just felt the same way as playing on a chipped / cracked console.
You get access to all these games for very little money (or none), and that ends up devaluing them and making it hard to appreciate them. It felt joyless and lifeless for me very quickly.

In terms of Steam being able to do it, I don't know / doubt they would. Besides, if they get 30% off of a sale now, I doubt they'd want to make it 30% off of a fifth or quarter of that via a sub. Plus it would probably hurt their big sale events etc.

 

[poppabk]

Evidently OP has been living in a coma the past five years. Subscription services don’t make money and don’t add value. They destroy it.

Netflix 2024
Revenue: US$39.0b (up 16% from FY 2023).

Net income: US$8.71b (up 61% from FY 2023).

 

[Fabieter]

Valve basically makes no games. How would that look?

 

[Nonehxc]

Sell 100 of other people's games a year launch day for 60$ per meat popsicle= 6000$ per person per year, their 30% take is 2000$

Sell 100 games a year with lovely 50% discount per person= 3000$ per person per year, their 30% is 1000$

Rent 100 games a year with 15$ full bells&whistles per month, obligatory 30-25% discount when you sub a full year= 100$ per person per year, their take is 30$

Guess Valve be STEAM? PASS on all that 30$ generosity.

 

[Three]

Just trying to have a civil conversation and ask about the possibility, but I don’t think that game pass has failed in any manner. I think it’s continuing to grow and it’s a pillar of their gaming division, but who knows I could be totally wrong.

It could work for smaller titles depending on price but if they wanted to do this I believe it would have happened with the introduction of GWG and PS+ years back already. Gamepass just showed that it cannot sustain the day one releases on console at the standard price. It's still trying to build a PC base and will likely hike it after a threshold too. It would be difficult to introduce this for steam, especially as steam has little to no first party games and most major third parties have little interest in launching into gamepass. Releases like old PS+ essential and GWG (with day one indies) is a possibility but I think this would have happened already. who knows, maybe it still will.

 

[Spukc]

Please don’t

 

[proandrad]

Hopefully never. Why would Valve copy a failed model?

 

[Syphon Filter]

steam is already a rental service.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

IMO, the main purpose of Steam is to funnel people into playing Valve's F2P games.

 

[March Climber]

This is the closest thing you will get:

Humble Choice

 

[rodrigolfp]

Valve doesn't have money to burn like MS so, never.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

With PC game adoption on the rise and the semi success of game pass for Xbox, how long before we see a steam pass?

Would you even be interested in a steam pass if it had, let’s say 100 titles that rotated in and out on a bi monthly basis?

They already do steam sales, which are deeply discounted games. This could be another pillar to that or they could offer if you’re a member of steam pass that you get a 50% discount if you purchase a title ins inside the steam pass.

I think this would make them massive amounts of money if they charged $15-$20 a month they have such a massive collection of titles that they could include. With 40% of the titles being a mixture of older and newer AAA titles with Indies

This would typically give a lot of titles that people skip over a chance to be seen and played while also offering AAA players access to some games that are not available on other platforms

What are you guys think of the idea what would make a successful or do you think it would just be a complete waste of time?

Anyone expecting a Steam Pass after the absolute disaster known as Xbox Gamepass is a special level of stupid.

Please dont tell me you are one of those people.

gamers don't want subscription services.

 

[amigastar]

In 1999 we used to say "never change a running system".

1999 dude thats a long time ago.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Just trying to have a civil conversation and ask about the possibility, but I don’t think that game pass has failed in any manner. I think it’s continuing to grow and it’s a pillar of their gaming division, but who knows I could be totally wrong.

You actually think this?

There is literally not one shred of data that goes with this. Call of Duty only netted them a 2% increase.

Its hard to imagine a subscription service that so drastically missed it's target than Gamepass

The sooner it dies, the better.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Netflix 2024
Revenue: US$39.0b (up 16% from FY 2023).

Net income: US$8.71b (up 61% from FY 2023).

Good job.

You bring up the one that has been successful, while ignoring the 100s of others that are operating on a loss.

 

[RoboFu]

You guys have it backwards.

Gamepass will not always be an Xbox sub it will be a MS game studio sub. Sony will have a Sony Games sub.. EA, Ubi etc..

It will go just like tv services.

If you don't think everyone will at least try and if you think mergers and acquisitions won't increase then you are being blind.

 

[Hohenheim]

No way.
I like Steam very much as it is.
And I hate that games disappear from those services.
I want my games available when I want to play them, and not having to play something because it may disappear from a service after a while.

 

[poppabk]

Good job.

You bring up the one that has been successful, while ignoring the 100s of others that are operating on a loss.

Warner Bros. Discovery's DTC business, which includes streaming services like Max and Discovery+, turned a profit of $677 million in 2024, compared to $103 million in 2023.
lanation
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Disney's streaming business had an operating income of $321 million. This was an improvement from a loss of $387 million in the same period the previous year.

In the second quarter of 2025, Disney's streaming business had an operating income of $293 million.

Disney+ and Hulu's combined streaming business is expected to have an operating profit of about $1 billion in fiscal 2025.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

You guys have it backwards.

Gamepass will not always be an Xbox sub it will be a MS game studio sub. Sony will have a Sony Games sub.. EA, Ubi etc..

It will go just like tv services.

If you don't think everyone will at least try and if you think mergers and acquisitions won't increase then you are being blind.

Naw dude...its you who are living in 2017 when subscription services were on the upswing. We are no longer in that era

It's now 2025 and subscription services are largely starting to merge/consolidate/have their price increased drastically.

Netflix is pretty much the only one that is having true financial success right now.

Could they try? I guess, but there is literally no market data that suggests that it is a good idea.

 

[simpatico]

Wake me up when a subscription compensation model doesn't ruin the genre of art it's trying to serve.

 

[Skifi28]

Gabepass. The only service where you can pay to watch Gabe fail to count to 3.

 

[Generic]

With PC game adoption on the rise and the semi success of game pass for Xbox, how long before we see a steam pass?

Would you even be interested in a steam pass if it had, let’s say 100 titles that rotated in and out on a bi monthly basis?

They already do steam sales, which are deeply discounted games. This could be another pillar to that or they could offer if you’re a member of steam pass that you get a 50% discount if you purchase a title ins inside the steam pass.

I think this would make them massive amounts of money if they charged $15-$20 a month they have such a massive collection of titles that they could include. With 40% of the titles being a mixture of older and newer AAA titles with Indies

This would typically give a lot of titles that people skip over a chance to be seen and played while also offering AAA players access to some games that are not available on other platforms

What are you guys think of the idea what would make a successful or do you think it would just be a complete waste of time?

It will never happen, gamers prefer to pay $70 to rent a license a single game instead of $15-20 for multiple games.

It's really the only community in thr world where people enjoy paying more for the same things. You will never see people demanding to pay $70 for a single movie.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Warner Bros. Discovery's DTC business, which includes streaming services like Max and Discovery+, turned a profit of $677 million in 2024, compared to $103 million in 2023.
lanation
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Disney's streaming business had an operating income of $321 million. This was an improvement from a loss of $387 million in the same period the previous year.

In the second quarter of 2025, Disney's streaming business had an operating income of $293 million.

Disney+ and Hulu's combined streaming business is expected to have an operating profit of about $1 billion in fiscal 2025.

Disney Plus lost 700,000 subscribers to price hikes, here’s why that won’t stop it doing more

Disney Plus lost 700,000 subscribers to price hikes, here’s why that won’t stop it doing more.

finance.yahoo.com

Disney+ lost 700000 subscribers.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

What a thread OP, should have seen this coming from miles.

On topic, this model requires hard work, not something I expect steam to put in for small benefits it will provide them.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

It will never happen, gamers prefer to pay $70 to rent a license a single game instead of $15-20 for multiple games.

It's really the only community in thr world where people enjoy paying more for the same things. You will never see people demanding to pay $70 for a single movie.

Not only that, movies occupy a few hours of your time. Very few gamers are playing so many games at one time to justify $240 a year, when PC Gamers often buy their games on sale. When you can pay $20 for one month and don't own it or $50 and play it for as long as you want, Gamepass becomes less and less attractive.

EDIT: Yes, I realize that if PC is all you play then PC Gamepass is a halfway decent value at $12 a month.

IS that worth dealing with the MS store that many hate...although I personally haven't had many issues with it aside not being remotely close to as good as Steam.

 

[Generic]

Wake me up when a subscription compensation model doesn't ruin the genre of art it's trying to serve.

Art = paying $70 to rent a license of a game you don't own. Also make sure to pay another $30-40 of DLC to support the brave developers.

 

[Dorfdad]

While I get what most of you are saying a lot of us seem to forget that the PC gaming base is slowly growing, and most of those are new users who are looking for simplicity, but better gaming while many of us might not choose to do that service. I think there is a market for it maybe not as large as everyone expects but there is definitely a market for a parent to buy their kids some kind of steam deck with a collection of games. It may be an on road to getting them into the steam ecosystem as well. I appreciate everyone’s responses just was throwing that out there as a question and if you thought it was viable, it seems most of you don’t believe that.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Not only that, movies occupy a few hours of your time. Very few gamers are playing so many games at one time to justify $240 a year, when PC Gamers often buy their games on sale. When you can pay $20 for one month and don't own it or $50 and play it for as long as you want, Gamepass becomes less and less attractive.

EDIT: Yes, I realize that if PC is all you play then PC Gamepass is a halfway decent value at $12 a month.

IS that worth dealing with the MS store that many hate...although I personally haven't had many issues with it aside not being remotely close to as good as Steam.

And another thing people don’t consider, you can put a movie from the 90s or early 2000s on Netflix and people will watch it. You can’t put a game from 20 years ago on gamepass without significant work to get it running on modern hardware. And even if you do people will likely not play it.

 

[TintoConCasera]

I just took a steampiss, sunday things.

 

[El Muerto]

 

[Generic]

Not only that, movies occupy a few hours of your time. Very few gamers are playing so many games at one time to justify $240 a year, when PC Gamers often buy their games on sale. When you can pay $20 for one month and don't own it or $50 and play it for as long as you want, Gamepass becomes less and less attractive.

Yes, and? Paying $20 for a game is better than paying $50.

As for "play it for as long as you want", most people barely play the games they buy. Just check the trophies list.

Palworld sold millions on Steam (despite being day-1 on Gamepass) yet most people abandoned the game after a few weeks.

 

[RoboFu]

Naw dude...its you who are living in 2017 when subscription services were on the upswing. We are no longer in that era

It's now 2025 and subscription services are largely starting to merge/consolidate/have their price increased drastically.

Netflix is pretty much the only one that is having true financial success right now.

Could they try? I guess, but there is literally no market data that suggests that it is a good

Nah that was when companies were trying to be Netflix. That's what Ms is trying with gamepass. But we still haven't transitioned to " games on all devices " yet. When that hits you will see the individual subs come out.

And if you still think games on all devices won't happen then you haven't been paying attention with all the transition layers popping up on Linux and osx.

 

[GHG]

While I get what most of you are saying a lot of us seem to forget that the PC gaming base is slowly growing, and most of those are new users who are looking for simplicity, but better gaming while many of us might not choose to do that service. I think there is a market for it maybe not as large as everyone expects but there is definitely a market for a parent to buy their kids some kind of steam deck with a collection of games. It may be an on road to getting them into the steam ecosystem as well. I appreciate everyone’s responses just was throwing that out there as a question and if you thought it was viable, it seems most of you don’t believe that.

Let me break it down for you:

• The Steam refund system means you can try anything you want for 2 hours risk free.
• Historically, steam sales have seen most games end up with deep discounts
• 3rd party key stores exist, the vast majority of games that are >6 months old are available for dirt cheap
• Subscription services like humble choice exist - these provide you with a bunch of games that you can keep permanently, regardless of your subscription status
• Then there's the final boss for anyone looking to sell games/gaming services on PC - piracy. Harsh reality, this is what the people who really don't want to spend any money do

There is not a single person who games on PC who isn't already swimming in games. Other than the fact that the delivery method is a POS, these are the reasons why subscription services like gamepass are not as popular as the people who sell/promote them wish they were.

 

[simpatico]

Art = paying $70 to rent a license of a game you don't own. Also make sure to pay another $30-40 of DLC to support the brave developers.

It's more "why was the art created?". Was it an intrepid visionary who had an idea for a gaming experience that he brought to life with the help of a talented team? Or was it a conceived in a board room to satisfy focus group results? Or to bolster a "New Release" tab in a streaming app?

 

[Guardian Monkey]

Subscription services aren’t going anywhere people, get over it.