Has any info been leaked about how much money Xbox pays companies to have their titles on game pass?
I have trouble figuring out what keywords to search online.
In the past I recall Microsoft paid $10 million for a one year exclusive to GTA 4 DLC, and in that court case it was revealed Epic paid $1.3 million for the Batman games for the free week.
I can only imagine MS pays From Software Monthly, and I can also surmise MS knows how many digital downloads sell so they have leverage in negotiating a price with From Software.
Unless no one cares enough about thos to dig, or the info is public on their shareholder financial statements and I’m too dumb to find it.
I believe all we know is that everything is open to negotiation, so some companies will take an up-front fee, some get paid per player, and some take a combination of the two. But I suspect the actual amounts involved are so vastly different as to be completely useless for analysis.
That sounds like a fun job being the Game Pass negotiatior. That must be a rabbit hole no one will ever know about of all the weird wheelings and dealings and language used.
If you ever want to dig up a hot mess I recommend the deals with Hasbro/EA/Fantasy Flight Games.
One example is FFG could make any star wars product they wanted as long as it wasn’t classified as a board game or video game. So they made “miniatures”, “cards”, and “apps” but no board games or video games despite them obviously being so 😆
The other weird deal was vendors had to buy Star Wars products through third parties for some reason but not direct from the maker
That would be big
Could be a good promotion for the upcoming DLC.
Please be real please be real please be real
Now I’m happy, that I couldn’t play it because of lack of time. That would be mega.
That would be large
Huge if true
I’ve avoided all FromSoft games after poor user experiences in DS1, DS2, and Bloodborne. I still generally enjoy hard games when they’re done well; Ori, Furi, and Tunic being a few favorites - but I’d be curious if Elden Ring finally made any QOL improvements to the beginner experience. Having it on Game Pass would be a great way to just try it out with no commitment.
I think the legendary difficulty is a myth overshadowing these games. Some things the “git gud” crowd doesn’t talk about:
For PvE being a mage is going to get you far as a beginner. The ability to put distance between yourself and enemies by flinging spells is incredibly powerful even when doing chip damage.
Figure out how to summon help. It works a little different in each game, but having another player to distract enemies while you hit them in the back makes hard parts trivial. This especially goes for most bosses.
When you get to a new area scout it out by placing a summoning sign. There is no punishment for dying if you were summoned as a helper. You keep souls earned too, but cant collect items or progress your own world.
Alternatively, scout areas by invading. You will drop souls if you die doing this, but the enemies wont attack you, so it’s easy to run around everywhere and see where they all hide or patrol.
I think the newer games are easier too - for me Elden Ring was the easiest for a bunch of reasons. There are a lot of purposefully easy dungeons. If you get stuck there’s always a different place to go because it’s open world. You can summon NPC helpers instead of other players for a bit of mana, and some of them can be cheesy. Summoning items needed for players are extremely plentiful. Most of the hardest bosses are completely optional. If all else fails its very easy to over level. Being a mage is significant overpowered in this one (to the point that I think it ruins the fun, but if it lets you experience a great game I say go for it).
I think the “The legendary difficulty is a myth” thing is a myth itself.
My first time trying one of their games, Dark Souls 2 was as a mage, as you suggested. It gave me a really bad experience because it worked against teaching me the necessary core mechanics for brutal fights. The main difficulty wasn’t even just enemies being too hard, it was lack of signposting that resulted in me accidentally going to a midgame area without intending to; and thinking I was locked in that area because of a complex door.
All the other advice is nice, but I’d prefer to enjoy games without relying on conflicting third party tips. I’ve looked up advice for games like Tunic, but it was usually more for very specific things rather than a broad “Game is too hard, what out of 17 things am I doing wrong”.
Even on that end, actions like invasions or even juste eking up aren’t necessarily easy to figure out due to cryptic item descriptions and hidden NPC placements.
Same, I will give it a try if it come to game pass
I’ve played 2k hours of it since it came out. It’s fantastic.
Damn bro
I made it to 420.69 hours and decided that was enough until the dlc comes out
I had just started like my 5th character after multiple playthroughs on the rest
Nearly 300 for me
I never really liked souls like games. Seemed to be hard just for the sake of it.
It’s not that they’re outright difficult, it’s all about watching enemy attack patterns and memorizing them. I can do a no-death run of the first Dark Souls game now and I don’t even like difficult games, I play every game on easy the first time, but the FromSoft development style pulled me in hard.
I wouldn’t call them hard games, they’re just precise with a sprinkle of bullshit. It’s all about the timing, enemies follow attack and movement patterns that you can quickly analyse and work around, dealing substantial damage with minimal effort, and then you get hit by an enemy phasing through a wall and die just as you start chugging your estus flask because Miyazaki
In my opinion it’s a completely different beast. The gameplay is much more fluid and forgiving while still being difficulty, just without all the jank.
