Microsoft has admitted that putting games on its Xbox Game Pass subscription service leads to a marked decline in base sales. This may seem like a headline written by Captain Obvious, but it's a 180 for Microsoft, which previously maintained that being included in Game Pass resulted in higher sales for games. So does Game Pass actually hurt AAA games? We discuss the pros and cons of going the Game Pass route from a publisher standpoint.
We'll also be talking about the $70 price point for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Nintendo's explanation that the company will evaluate Switch game prices on a case-by-case basis, how the many recent live-service game closures may herald a greater change on the horizon, the official Cocaine Bear browser game, and the debate over whether the golden age of video gaming is actually behind us.
Finally, class is in session with Professor Ryebread in our Gaming History 101 segment. In this episode, we're looking at bizarre video game marketing campaigns from the early 2000s.
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