“But we can tell from personal experience, from using Game Pass, that being part of that ecosystem is a great place to be. We have found ourselves experimenting and playing more genres and games outside our comfort zone. “With Xbox driving the Game Pass subscription service with the Xbox Series S|X, we are excited to be a part of the catalogue and reach players we otherwise might not have. “Getting the word out is half the battle for smaller developers with interchanging roles. Our publisher has thankfully taken away a lot of stress of getting PHOGS! in front of gamers and let us focus on making the best possible experience for anyone who plays the game” A mixed bag then – though Descenders’ performance is certainly going to attract attention to those considering bringing their title to Game Pass. So how easy is it to get Microsoft’s attention? Can you seek out your success on Game Pass, or does your game already need to be successful to even be considered? It seems obvious that it’s in Microsoft’s best interests to pick out the already popular titles for its platform. “It’s tricky,” agrees Rose. “Arguably, Microsoft only really wants to put titles that are successful, or they know will be successful, onto Game Pass, otherwise players will complain. That being said, I think it’s really cool that they allowed us to add Hypnospace Outlaw to Game Pass. The game was already successful on PC, but it’s pretty niche and pretty weird, so obviously they’re open to adding wacky stuff too!” “For us at Bit Loom,” notes Flinders, “getting on Game Pass was an exciting surprise as we mainly saw larger games and more well-known indies getting selected to be part of the Game Pass service. Having Coatsink as our publisher has definitely helped us to get PHOGS! on Game
Pass with their previous successes as a publisher of indie titles. “Coatsink has built relationships with first parties over the years and I’d expect that this would help determine being offered to be included in the Game Pass service.” Game Pass isn’t quite a free-for-all – and its uses for discoverability would suffer if it was. But it’s an encouraging sign that Microsoft is willing to entertain the potentially successful titles too – provided a reputable publisher is involved too, of course. GAME PASS FOR ALL Still, for those lucky enough to be chosen, both Rose and Flinders agree that the platform is an encouraging sign for smaller creators. “It’s still pretty early along into the life of Game Pass,” says Rose, “but currently I would argue that it has been beneficial to the majority of smaller devs who have got titles on there. I would imagine that being on Game Pass has reduced a lot of porting risk for a lot of studios.” Flinders shares Rose’s general optimism here, adding: “Services like Game Pass can give a new, wider audience to smaller developers and help them continue making interesting games by giving a platform for new players to discover their game and recommend it to a friend, driving sales on other platforms. “It is easy for smaller games from less wellknown developers to become lost in the sea of other games being released at any given time so Game Pass and the support of the Xbox team is priceless in helping drive maximum visibility on the Xbox platform.” These benefits to indies will surely only increase with the addition of xCloud. Being able to stream your game to mobile platforms, at no additional cost to the user, must surely be a real boon for discoverability. What exactly is the potential for xCloud bringing indie games to a wider audience? “We’ve already seen it,” says Rose. “We were asking to have Descenders on xCloud quite early on in the preview, and it has definitely increased our player numbers. I can’t really say by how much, I’m currently not able to see that data, but we are told by players quite regularly that they played on xCloud.”
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