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[Fess]

I'm assuming MS wants to expand Game Pass on PC. That said, it's strange they haven't resolved the issues surrounding it. After all, it would take an absolutely incredible service to convince people to change their gaming habits (ie. Steam) on PC.

I just add the games to Steam, the gamelaunchhelper.exe always work, then there are logo and splash screen art in the resources folder.
All they need to do is having interesting games on the service for me to stay subscribing.

 

[Mr Moose]

From what I'm reading here from a few users, PC Game Pass has some issues too. I'm not familiar with the service, but if there are issues then even a low price point may not be enough to bring in new customers.

The app is fucking awful. I deleted that shit when my free month ran out.

 

[Idleyes]

There are still some Western games I enjoy, although most seem to be coming from Europe such as BG3, Cyberpunk, and yes KCD2. But the American side of the Western games industry in particular has been putting out bullshit for a few years now. If you think I'm some simplistic incel who just agrees with anyone who cries woke like AccolonnTV, then you have miscalculated view on who I am. I'm just a guy who really loves his hobby, has been doing it for 30+ years, and has had to watch most of his favorite game studios get infiltrated by activists and mentally ill people, while all the real talent gets pushed out. Then when me and the rest of the fanbase tell them they're portraying characters the wrong way, getting the lore wrong, putting out inferior gameplay, we get called ists and phobes. Then when the game inevitably fails they all use the same playbook. They blame us.

My disdain isn't coming from nowhere. It is years and years of watching my favorite franchises go down in flames, and being told *we're* the problem. Is is being told by countless game journalists that gamers are the worst people on the planet. It is knowing devs are being pressured and silenced in order to conform to whatever bullshit political agenda is being forced upon them, instead of expressing themselves creatively, like this guy:

Sometimes for something to get better, it needs to crash and burn first.

I'm 52 years old, my first console was an Atari, then ColecoVision (that I'm probably still pronouncing wrong), and so on. I've been gaming since before video games were even a thing (made up my own with GI Joe action figures and dice). I get why you feel unheard; it's a natural reaction to the constant controversies fueled by big mouth groups.

IMO, the decline of certain studios has far more to do with mismanagement, monetization, and technology struggles than political activism. Some consumers react toxically, instead of just not buying a game they dislike, they bitch and moan about it "pushing an agenda". Some studios pushed by of all the rigmarole &/or "shareholder value" simply fail to focus on making the games they love and sell them to the right audience. I have a strong believe like just like anything else in the world that changes, the gaming industry is changing organically. No prospective is incorrect, woke, Anti-woke and people like me who just don't give a flying fuck are the forces behind that organic change. I just have a hard time actually hating people for having a different opinion or lifestyle from mine.

I personally couldn't claim that all AAA games with diverse representation fail when Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, and Alan Wake 2 (because SweetBaby Inc was involved ) exist and continue to thrive. And just because some studios handle criticism poorly doesn't mean the entire industry agrees with their statement.

Turn off the TV, Twitter, and gaming news outlets for a while, they don’t reflect what the none monolithic gaming or development community actually thinks. They’ve been about profit over gaming culture for a long time now.

Yeah, you too GAF.

Yes, some fan criticism comes from bigotry, some doesn’t. It’s never one sided. I agree with 90% of your sentiment, especially about corporate influence on games, but the rest feels too much like conspiracy territory.

At the end of the day, people just need to STFU and buy the games they like, the industry has always changed and always will. Though I do find all the hooting an hollering entertaining and I'd miss it all if it stopped. What would I do with all these gifs?

 

[Kacho]

U are westerner

Where you from, brah?

people just need to STFU

no

 

[adamsapple]

U are westerner, which means u got trained hard last few decades to accept all kinds of clownworld degeneracy, or at least u gotta tolerate it, i didnt have to, at least till very recently.

Yeah, Topher

 

[Idleyes]

no

Yes.

 

[Kacho]

Yes.

But we won’t. Stop trying to control what you can’t.

 

[PeteBull]

sigh.....youtube strikes again

Bro, im in my 40s, and u are even more ancient, dont pretend yt doesnt help nowadays with gauging quality of a game, coz it clearly does, im sure u remember very well how it was back in the 90s where we only had review in a paper gaming magazine with few badly taken screenies or promo material that looked nothing like actual game, back then most reviewers were actually passionate about their job so they were honest at least so back then we could somewhat believe them(baring official playstation and other similar magazines, that were obviously biased

 

[laynelane]

I just add the games to Steam, the gamelaunchhelper.exe always work, then there are logo and splash screen art in the resources folder.
All they need to do is having interesting games on the service for me to stay subscribing.

There seems to be a lot of variance in terms of user experience with PC Game Pass. You (among others) report a good experience while others say it's terrible. Then there's a third viewpoint purely about the financial benefits of being able to play new games for a small subscription fee.

 

[PeteBull]

Where you from, brah?

Poland, we only got super liberal/leftist goverment for a year(tons of votes from young women in recent election) and its already noticable how nasty those changes affect us, illegal migrants and i dont mind from ukraine that run from war, i mean middleeast/african, gender quotas in sports associacions, other nasty stuff inc too.
Last year i came across tik tok vid of polish girls, looking below highschool age on a school bustrip rapping about their pussy(they literally used that word, in english) and how they gonna use it to manipulate boys...
Feminism infected majority of women here already, they arent beach whales like huge chunk of western women, but mindset is already very similar, as a consequence polish birthrate went down the drain since those women arent marriage material =/

 

[Idleyes]

But we won’t. Stop trying to control what you can’t.

My bad, I didn't think you were being serious.

There's some crazy mofo on here.

 

[bender]

U are westerner, which means u got trained hard last few decades to accept all kinds of clownworld degeneracy, or at least u gotta tolerate it, i didnt have to, at least till very recently.

While I appreciate your sentiment, it's my job to dunk on Topher 's lame ass. End of!

 

[Kacho]

My bad, I didn't think you were being serious.

There's some crazy mofo on here.

You caved quick lol

 

[Idleyes]

You caved quick lol

I don't have an ego to cave in the first place.

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

I'd rather eat my own dick than use pc game pass or any Microsoft shop app.

Haven't you heard? Pc gamers are using game pass on pc in the droves. Only the niche hardcore buy their games on steam or keysites.

 

[pudel]

And we know right away why he is so generous/gentle with speaking his mind- free review copy

He literally says in the intro that he expects to never get a key again from xbox after this review.

 

[Topher]

Bro, im in my 40s, and u are even more ancient, dont pretend yt doesnt help nowadays with gauging quality of a game,

I ain't talking about that, but it doesn't matter. Moving on...

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

You Guys are always switching metrics. Last year it was user reviewers this year its concurrent user counts. Next year it will be "people masturbating while typing about the game. "

Too late

 

[Fess]

There seems to be a lot of variance in terms of user experience with PC Game Pass. You (among others) report a good experience while others say it's terrible. Then there's a third viewpoint purely about the financial benefits of being able to play new games for a small subscription fee.

I would say I’m in that third group, the upside is definitely the economics. There is no real downside to have access to more games for less money. If I want to own games I can always buy them on a Steam sale later.

 

[Oppoi]

I would say I’m in that third group, the upside is definitely the economics. There is no real downside to have access to more games for less money. If I want to own games I can always buy them on a Steam sale later.

I remember you once said that you don't care about the possible impact gamepass might have regarding the quality of games being made as long as you get them cheaper. That was your bottom line, you save money. Oh, Eriksson you are so full of it.

 

[reinking]

'm 52 years old, my first console was an Atari, then ColecoVision (that I'm probably still pronouncing wrong), and so on. I've been gaming since before video games were even a thing (made up my own with GI Joe action figures and dice). I get why you feel unheard; it's a natural reaction to the constant controversies fueled by big mouth groups.

Life before video games....

My older brother and I created a game where we would each select plastic army men and build forts. We would take turns using fire crackers and bottle rockets to take out each other's army men. Last man standing won.

 

[Revolutionary]

#79 top CCU right now

*insert podium meme*

 

[Complistic]

As much as I love this metric it's just meaningless when it comes to gamepass games.

 

[Kacho]

Will it crack 20k tonight?

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

As much as I love this metric it's just meaningless when it comes to gamepass games.

I'd agree except that Starfield was also in GamePass, also an RPG from an established dev, also went into early access, and it's early access peaked at over 200k ccu.

 

[Hookshot]

Hopefully it gets over 20k but I don't think it will tonight. It's higher than Indiana Jones managed.

While on the topic of Steam db, Lego Horizon had a single player playing it earlier. 1 person in the whole Steam world.

 

[Thief1987]

While on the topic of Steam db, Lego Horizon had a single player playing it earlier. 1 person in the whole Steam world.

How is it relevant?

 

[mayham2199]

Hopefully it gets over 20k but I don't think it will tonight. It's higher than Indiana Jones managed.

While on the topic of Steam db, Lego Horizon had a single player playing it earlier. 1 person in the whole Steam world.

I think this weekend it has a chance to do it.

 

[Banjo64]

As much as I love this metric it's just meaningless when it comes to gamepass games.

No it’s not at all. Unless you subscribe to Microsoft’s ‘player count’ metrics instead of real world metrics like revenue and profit.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

As much as I love this metric it's just meaningless when it comes to gamepass games.

Starfield got like 300k

 

[Chuck Berry]

I'd rather eat my own dick

 

[BigLee74]

I'd agree except that Starfield was also in GamePass, also an RPG from an established dev, also went into early access, and it's early access peaked at over 200k ccu.

Starfield was a HUGE game, and highly anticipated. Is it selling 200,000 more copies than Indy/Avowed on Steam really that unexpected? Genuine question - I’m not familiar at all with what numbers are considered a ‘hit’ for games on Steam, especially with games that are also released on PC and console Gamepass.

 

[Idleyes]

Life before video games....

My older brother and I created a game where we would each select plastic army men and build forts. We would take turns using fire crackers and bottle rockets to take out each other's army men. Last man standing won.

Here are the rules for anyone interested.

GI Joe Dice Battle - aka Prisoners of War​

Objective​

Defeat all five of your opponent’s action figures by reducing their health to 0. The winner gets to take one of the opponent’s defeated figures home for one night as a prisoner of war (POW), returning it the next day.

---

Setup​

• Each player selects 5 GI Joe action figures for their team.
• Each figure starts with 20 Health Points (HP).
• Both players roll three six-sided dice (3d6) per turn.
• The game is played in a series of one-on-one duels between action figures.
• When a figure reaches 0 HP, it is removed from play and replaced by the next available figure.

---

Turn Structure​

1. Roll Phase
   • Both players roll three dice at the same time.
2. Dice Assignment
   • Each player must assign their dice as follows:
     • Attack Die – Determines the attack power.
     • Defense Die – Reduces incoming attack damage.
     • Initiative Die – Determines which player gets to attack this round.
3. Initiative Check
   • The player with the higher Initiative Die wins the right to attack this round.
   • If both players have the same Initiative Die value, use the Attack Die as a tie-breaker (higher Attack Die wins).
   • If both Initiative and Attack Dice are tied, re-roll just the Initiative Die.
4. Attack Resolution
   • The winning player attacks, and damage is calculated as:
     (Attack Die) - (Opponent’s Defense Die) = Damage Dealt
   • If the Attack Die and Defense Die are the same, the attack is blocked (0 damage).
   • If the Attack Die is lower than the Defense Die, the defending figure gains HP equal to the difference:
     (Defense Die - Attack Die) = HP Gained (Max 5 HP per turn).
   • Figures cannot exceed 20 HP.
5. Health Tracking
   • The defending player's action figure loses or gains HP based on the attack resolution.
   • If an action figure's HP reaches 0, it is removed from play and replaced by the next figure in line.
6. Next Round
   • Both players roll again with their current active action figure until one player runs out of figures.

---

Winning and Taking a POW​

• The winner (the player who depletes all of their opponent’s figures) gets to take one of the defeated figures home for one night as a "Prisoner of War" (POW).
• The winner chooses which figure to take.
• The next day, the figure must be returned to its original owner.

NOTE: There are two versions of the game with identical rules, except for one key difference:

• In Prisoners of War (POW), the winner returns the captured figure the next day.
• In Spoils of War, the winner keeps the captured figure permanently.

Before starting a match, both players must agree on which version they are playing. No take backs.

 

[Oppoi]

Starfield got like 300k

It was however the game of the generation. Let's put things in relative context, please.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

It was however the game of the generation. Let's put things in relative context, please.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Starfield was a HUGE game, and highly anticipated. Is it selling 200,000 more copies than Indy/Avowed on Steam really that unexpected? Genuine question - I’m not familiar at all with what numbers are considered a ‘hit’ for games on Steam, especially with games that are also released on PC and console Gamepass.

More like 300,000 more. And that’s peak concurrent Steam players, not total units sold.

Rule of thumb I’ve heard is that you can estimate the eventual lifetime sales total at about 10x the peak concurrent player count, so that would mean Starfield sold 3M more than Avowed will sell.

Obviously that’s just some rough estimate. IDK if that’s good or bad based on the relative expectations for those two.

 

[FoxMcChief]

sigh.....youtube strikes again

People don’t tend to think for themselves any more. There’s a reason influencers exist. The gullible/ignorant allow others to make their decisions for them.

 

[FoxMcChief]

 

[pudel]

Rule of thumb I’ve heard is that you can estimate the eventual lifetime sales total at about 10x the peak concurrent player count, so that would mean Starfield sold 3M more than Avowed will sell.

Its impossible to calculate the sales like that. You can have 300k for a few days and than go down to zero for ever. Or like the Witcher3....100k at release and than 20k players for 10 years straight...EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

 

[Brakum]

Why would anyone waste £60 on a Steam game when it's basically free on Game pass?

When i had gamepass i bought 3 games there. Games i wanted to keep because of future dlc and it's cheaper to buy if you have an active sub. Every single one i regret not buying on steam.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Its impossible to calculate the sales like that. You can have 300k for a few days and than go down to zero for ever. Or like the Witcher3....100k at release and than 20k players for 10 years straight...EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

Like I said it’s a rough estimate. Obviously if you have the rare ultra successful evergreen title that continues selling consistently for years then it’s not going to be accurate. But it seems like a decent estimate if you’re talking about a typical game where it hits the max player count the first weekend and steadily decays from there.

 

[pudel]

Like I said it’s a rough estimate. Obviously if you have the rare ultra successful evergreen title that continues selling consistently for years then it’s not going to be accurate. But it seems like a decent estimate if you’re talking about a typical game where it hits the max player count the first weekend and steadily decays from there.

I mean Starfield has also consistently around 7-10k players. Would be cool if there would be a running average on steamdb as well. That would be also a quite interesting metric and might make comparisons even better over the time instead of only the release ccu's.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I mean Starfield has also consistently around 7-10k players. Would be cool if there would be a running average on steamdb as well. That would be also a quite interesting metric and might make comparisons even better over the time instead of only the release ccu's.

Yeah for sure, I bet Starfield has a longer tail than your typical single player game.

 

[demigod]

Steam CCU metrics are pointless if it's on GamePass. There's little to be gleaned here.

Hey fuck of with those common sense takes.

Although counter argument is GP doesn't have massive penetration on PC so id say these numbers should be better, either that or GP is a lot bigger than people seem to give it credit for.

Pretty much. Which is why I compared it to Indiana Jones above.

I don't think most people care about that. Only the hardcore will buy a game on Steam over a Gamepass sub if available.

I've had zero intentions in purchasing Ninja Gaiden 2 Black (as much as I enjoyed the game) - simply because it was on Gamepass.

The only exception to this rule is a franchise which I truly adore and love i.e. Doom. I purchased Doom The Dark Ages Premium Edition regardless of whether it comes to gamepass.

Yeah because other games that were also on gamepass with higher ccu don’t count for reasons. Starfield, Sea of Thieves, Call of Duty, Forza Horizon 5, Halo infinite, MS Flight Simulator, Stalker 2, PALWORLD.

If a game I like is both on Steam and on Gamepass and Steam numbers are bad: it means nothing, everyone with a brain plays on Gamepass
If a game I like is both on Steam and on Gamepass and Steam numbers are great: see, told you. This game is great and doing great
If a game I dislike is both on Steam and on Gamepass and Steam numbers are bad: see, I told you. This game is bad and doing bad
If a game I dislike is both on Steam and on Gamepass and Steam numbers are great: it means nothing

Only numbers 1 and 2 applies.

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Avowed and Stalker 2 both looks to be around at least 80 million + budget. Both are on gamepass

Stalker 2 has 121k ccp
Avowed has 17k ccp so far

But you guys forgot that this is the weekdays. Watch out for the massive jump this weekend which should get it close to 121k ccp so similar to Stalker 2 or like the other AA game Granblue Fantasy Relink.

I am 100% sure it will reach 100k ccp. You can do it Avowed! I have confidents in you!

 

[TheStam]

I played the beginning and I don't like the general vibe especially the dialogue. Veilguard vibes. Maybe later in a sale. Some of the graphics look nice but no HDR sucks in 2025. Plus point for Garrus voice actor though.

Its about time to quit game pass anyway. I just can't enjoy "renting" games.

 

[LordNerevar76]

Interesting reply, but my counter point - this looks like shit:

You have every right to think it looks bad, but A) your opinion holds little weight because you haven't played the game and B) reviewers who have actually played the game say the combat is great.

 

[Topher]

Yeah because other games that were also on gamepass with higher ccu don’t count for reasons. Starfield, Sea of Thieves, Call of Duty, Forza Horizon 5, Halo infinite, MS Flight Simulator, Stalker 2, PALWORLD.

Yeah and I think the "reason" is that some games are more in the "buy" category for many gamers than "rent". Obviously folks want to buy the games you listed. Case in point, I bought Starfield even though I was subscribed to Game Pass. Either way, I don't see what is so controversial about pointing to Game Pass when it comes to sales and CCU. Isn't the fact that Game Pass will have an impact on sales something we have been saying for years now?

 

[T-0800]

I'm 52 years old, my first console was an Atari.....

Spoiler

I'm 53

 

[VideoGameEnjoyer]

The woke discourse is just mind numbingly bad and it’s such a shame that is basically all gaming discussions amount to these days.

I’d take it much more seriously if there was any substance or hard line beliefs that people actually had with this stuff but it always amounts to yelling at ghosts and moving goal posts. BG3 is woke as hell, but it’s just been decided it’s not anymore because it is a kick ass game game that was a huge success. So ‘woke’ has no actual meaning. And just becomes a catch all to criticize things without actually trying to engage in any kind of deeper discussion. My overwhelming thoughts when reading anti woke posts are “this guy has no idea what he’s actually mad about”

Just let a game be a game, it’s a creative expression by hundreds of people. If you don’t like it, great! But put some actual substance behind your criticisms. Imagine if we focused all of this ‘anti woke’ energy into something actually worthwhile. We could have 60 FPS Bloodborne by now