"Those who bought the main game get the DLC, and those who didn't pay for the game don't pay for anything."
Alex Hutchinson, creator of Assassin’s Creed 3 and Far Cry 4, admitted that the cooperative game Revenge of the Savage Planet from his studio Raccoon Logic gathered millions of players on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, but did not bring the expected profit.
The game was released on Xbox Game Pass, which provided a huge audience at the start — millions of gamers played it on Xbox and PC. However, direct sales were lower than expected, and royalty income does not come in until the advance from Tencent, which financed the project, is repaid.
We have millions of players — that's cool, but people are used to getting everything for free: through Game Pass or other services. This is dangerous. The game is not cheap, and we don't see royalties until we return the Tencent advance.
Despite high ratings from critics and players, Microsoft's statements that Game Pass users in 2021 bought more games and DLC than others works "on an individual basis". This didn't work for Savage Planet: few people purchased the game outside of the subscription or bought the Cosmic Hoarder DLC with new missions for $10.
If you give the game away for free, people get used to not paying. Those who bought the main game get the DLC, and those who didn't pay for the game don't pay for anything. There are pros to Game Pass, but also cons.
Hutchinson also noted that with numerous sales, services like PS Plus and Game Pass, as well as backward compatibility programs, many developers are competing not only with each other, but even with themselves. Players wait for discounts on old projects or replay games from their libraries on new devices. It is very difficult for developers to get the attention of gamers.
Far Cry 4 appeared on Game Pass on the same day as Savage Planet, which is a kind of cruel joke... we often compete with ourselves or with our own catalog of games.
