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[Gamezone]

If Gears 5 is any indication, the audience for Microsoft’s first-party games on Steam may not be as big as we initially assumed.

For the longest time, fans of Xbox franchises have been asking Microsoft to make its games available on PC.

Gears 5 is the first Xbox exclusive to be released after this major shift, but it’s not looking great for its Steam debut. Despite landing on Steam’s top-sellers list, Gears 5 only managed a concurrent player count of 10,196 since its release.

The numbers have declined since then, as is standard, but 10,000 remains a very small figure considering the size of the franchise, and the reach of Steam. Before Gears 5, the assumption was that the Steam audience is hungry for these big Xbox exclusives. For reference, 10,000 is not enough to land in Steam’s top 25 most played games.

Gears 5's abysmal Steam debut could tell us something about the potential audience for Xbox exclusives on Steam

If Gears 5 is any indication, the audience for Microsoft's first-party games on Steam may not be as big as we initially…

www.vg247.com

 

[Husky]

idk maybe it's because PC gamers haven't had access to Gears 1-4 and don't wanna skip through most of the series

 

[Darkroronoa]

Why buy it on steam when you can play it with 1$ for 1 month of gamepass? I have no proof but i would bet that numbers on gamepass are gonna be higher than 10k on steam.

 

[dorkimoe]

I honestly didn’t know it was on steam? It’s free through game pass which isn’t steam. So those numbers are always gonna be skewed.

 

[FearlessBelgian]

69.99€...

Game pass : 2€ for 2 month and access to the ultimate version of this game...

 

[DetectiveBananas]

Well, they had a good run. Tastes change after almost 15 years

 

[CRAIG667]

This tells us that Gamepass is a better deal, that is all.

 

[bryo4321]

I think a lot are using game pass subs to play this, including game pass pc as per anecdotal evidence. Plus it’s a $60 game, and gears doesn’t have much of a legacy with pc only players. There are to many variable data points to really say it’s that bad imo. Obviously it’s not setting the charts on fire but who cares, it’s better than no steam version.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

As others are saying, it's likely that Gamepass got the bulk of the PC players. EVen the most diehard of Steam users would be hard pressed to ignore playing the game for dirt cheap using a Gamepass trial than pay full price on Steam.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Oh, c'mon. Most of the people probably bought this game just to play SP campaign (like I did) and some portion of them neven even played other Gears games before to be invested into something else besides SP campaign. Also, yeah, game pass is cheap enough and majority of people probably gone for that instead of paying $59,99.

 

[Jigsaah]

idk maybe it's because PC gamers haven't had access to Gears 1-4 and don't wanna skip through most of the series

I didn't know Gears was on steam until it actually released. I probably still would have got it on Windows Store because of GamePass for PC. Since all first party exclusives will be on GamePass for PC I don't see a reason for other platforms to ever pick up steam (wink wink).

 

[mejin]

Steam is not the better deal for everything anymore.

 

[Husky]

I didn't know Gears was on steam until it actually released. I probably still would have got it on Windows Store because of GamePass for PC. Since all first party exclusives will be on GamePass for PC I don't see a reason for other platforms to ever pick up steam (wink wink).

I gotta have my Steam release cuz I'm not moving to Windows 10

 

[Larxia]

I honestly didn’t know it was on steam? It’s free through game pass which isn’t steam. So those numbers are always gonna be skewed.

I mean you probably just didn't check Steam when the game released, because there was a giant Gears 5 banner at the top of the store for like 2 days lol

Anyway, yeah the gamepass probably is a reason for that, the game is actually really expensive, I already thought the change from 50 € to 60€ for most AAA games now was hard, but Gears 5 is 70€... So many people probably just went for the gamepass version instead.

Why buy it on steam when you can play it with 1$ for 1 month of gamepass? I have no proof but i would bet that numbers on gamepass are gonna be higher than 10k on steam.

Because same people probably don't want to go through the windows store version and prefer having it in their steam library with the steam overlay and all of that (I myself don't really like to play games outside of steam and missing all the steam features, but in a case of gamepass price for a month and 70€ for the game on steam... it's probably more complicated lol)

 

[Three]

Why buy it on steam when you can play it with 1$ for 1 month of gamepass? I have no proof but i would bet that numbers on gamepass are gonna be higher than 10k on steam.

Everyone is telling me that gamepass doesn't affect sales and being number one on xbox most played has nothing to do with gamepass.

Who do I believe!

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

This comes with the presupposition that Gears 5 can compete with the quality of content already available on Steam.

 

[Memorabilia]

I'd say it's more that there's zero consumer mindsshare for the Gears brand on PC. There's no buildup to 5 as the previous 4 games weren't on the platform. People who want to play this game associate with Xbox.

I'll just add that while I'm generally a big Gears fan, I'm just kinda "MEH" about the franchise at this point. Could be a bit of franchise fatigue setting in too, but I don't know what the Xbox sales figures ore so am unsure if this is borne out by the numbers.

 

[Jigsaah]

I gotta have my Steam release cuz I'm not moving to Windows 10

To each their own but I got Game Pass Ultimate until July of next year. I'm making plenty good use of it before I have to decide whether to renew. Just in time for E3 2020.

 

[Huevos de Oro]

Everyone and their mother got in that gamepass thingie, so it's "free" vs full price. Not really a difficult choice.

 

[Larxia]

Do we know if the player count include numbers from people who don't have their library visible publicly?
This already broke steamdb sales number when Valve made this change.

 

[TeamGhobad]

why buy the game at all when you can play it for free on gamepass? i believe the game will tank at retail as well. but a huge success for gamepass.

 

[Gamezone]

why buy the game at all when you can play it for free on gamepass? i believe the game will tank at retail as well. but a huge success for gamepass.

Some people enjoy having all their games in one library. Not to mention Game Pass on PC is in beta, and it's a broken mess.

 

[Bergoglio]

Tell me more about Halo Infinite

 

[Mattyp]

Everyone is telling me that gamepass doesn't affect sales and being number one on xbox most played has nothing to do with gamepass.

Who do I believe!

Where's everyone saying that?

 

[Lanrutcon]

I bought it on Steam, but guys: Gears is dead on PC. The franchise has been beaten like a red-headed stepchild on the platform. Why isn't 4 on Steam? where the fuck was 2? 3? What kind of figures were we expecting here, realistically?

 

[iorek21]

Gears was never a PC game, so no one really cares

Besides, there are probably thousands of games like that on Steam, so...

I don’t see that happening to Halo or Forza Horizon tho

 

[The Cockatrice]

It's also 70 euro for me on steam while on MS Store is 60 euros. I have never seen a game at 70 euros on my steam ever, I mean as a standard AAA price. What is up with that? Should I contact steam support?

 

[Ulysses 31]

You get the PC version when you get the Xbox One version.

 

[SurprisedPikachu]

69.99€...

Game pass : 2€ for 2 month and access to the ultimate version of this game...

That is exactly the mindset these companies have. They know most people won't spend $60+ on a new game, so they're banking on the subscription model takes off so they can drop the ownership of games entirely. You'll just have to subscribe to them in order to access the content you wish to play.

Fuck. That.

Cloud streaming is the same attempt, but they're hoping it will take off so people will not be able to pirate their shit.

 

[ethomaz]

Well MS should use Epic Game Store instead.

 

[The_Mike]

I bought it on Steam, but guys: Gears is dead on PC. The franchise has been beaten like a red-headed stepchild on the platform. Why isn't 4 on Steam? where the fuck was 2? 3? What kind of figures were we expecting here, realistically?

Gears is dead on pc? You do realize there's cross play right? I have no trouble finding games so that's a blatant lie.

Unless steam version is locked away from the Xbox /windows version which would be pretty shitty.

 

[The_Mike]

It's also 70 euro for me on steam while on MS Store is 60 euros. I have never seen a game at 70 euros on my steam ever, I mean as a standard AAA price. What is up with that? Should I contact steam support?

It's regional pricing, and it sucks. Game was also cheaper for me on Windows store, plus I get the Xbox version as well.

 

[The Cockatrice]

It's regional pricing, and it sucks. Game was also cheaper for me on Windows store, plus I get the Xbox version as well.

Shouldn't regional pricing apply to all games? Why are all the other triple A games 60 euros but Gear 5 is the exception?

 

[Horsemama1956]

Gears was never a PC game, so no one really cares

Besides, there are probably thousands of games like that on Steam, so...

I don’t see that happening to Halo or Forza Horizon tho

I think this pretty much shits in the faces of those that say Steam or nothing though. I don't believe the vast majority of people will spend 70 on a game on Steam if they can pay 5 a month with game pass.

I sure as fuck won't. If performance or something is fucked on the MS store version I simply will deal with it or forget about the game, not look at Steam or another store front as an alternative.

Simply being on Steam isn't a good enough selling point for the platform anymore. This applies to both consumers and the people releasing the games.

 

[prinz_valium]

Those articles are always so bad. They never include the actual graphs

Halo MCC will also be a LOT bigger.
Like 100k+ concurrent players big.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Gears is dead on pc? You do realize there's cross play right? I have no trouble finding games so that's a blatant lie.

Unless steam version is locked away from the Xbox /windows version which would be pretty shitty.

It's a thread about poor PC sales numbers and you're talking about cross play?

 

[Holammer]

Never played a single GoW game so I'm not going to jump straight into #5 without previous story and context, especially not at full price when its perceived value was slashed by having included in the cheap ass gamepass.

 

[The_Mike]

It's a thread about poor PC sales numbers and you're talking about cross play?

Read the person I quote. He said the game was dead. Unless he meant in sales and not in player base, then I've mistaken what he meant.

 

[Three]

Where's everyone saying that?

Master Phil and co

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

The Coalition claims to be ahead of the industry in a new money making scheme

How do you suggest to receive free updates for 2 plus years then? People do not want to pay for dlc- fine People do not want lootboxes - fine People do not want gameplay MTX - fine People do want cosmetics MTX, unlockable by playing - fine Exactly how should they support the game? Just...

www.neogaf.com

 

[NickFire]

I think the gamepass theory makes more sense than trying to extrapolate future interest in these games on the platform. Of course, if people can consistently play much cheaper by subscription that could carry over into the future sales.

And its also possible that people have suspicions about the early critic reviews and are waiting for more player feedback on whether the game is worthwhile as a purchaser. I am not accusing any reviewer of taking into account anything other than the gameplay, but when the dev or publisher is talking about social issues being important to the development approach, it does give reason to want to hear from players as well.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

If Gears 5 is any indication, the audience for Microsoft’s first-party games on Steam may not be as big as we initially assumed.

For the longest time, fans of Xbox franchises have been asking Microsoft to make its games available on PC.

Gears 5 is the first Xbox exclusive to be released after this major shift, but it’s not looking great for its Steam debut. Despite landing on Steam’s top-sellers list, Gears 5 only managed a concurrent player count of 10,196 since its release.

The numbers have declined since then, as is standard, but 10,000 remains a very small figure considering the size of the franchise, and the reach of Steam. Before Gears 5, the assumption was that the Steam audience is hungry for these big Xbox exclusives. For reference, 10,000 is not enough to land in Steam’s top 25 most played games.

Gears 5's abysmal Steam debut could tell us something about the potential audience for Xbox exclusives on Steam

If Gears 5 is any indication, the audience for Microsoft's first-party games on Steam may not be as big as we initially…

www.vg247.com

I got it on Gamepass, otherwise I'd have bought it on Steam.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

I honestly had no idea it was on Steam, been playing with PC Game Pass

 

[Kronos9x]

Game pass. I have to update to 1903 and ill try Gears 5 and GOW 1 ultimate edition too. When there's a Steam sale, i'll get the game there.

 

[JCK75]

I'm playing it on Gamepass as well, so this looks to be a pattern.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

10,000 concurrent doesn't seem that bad. I have no idea why any money-conscious person who is not married to their Steam friends list would buy it on Steam with the GamePass offers that are out there, though.

 

[Lupin3]

10k players for a game that's available on XGP as well? I'd say those are some great numbers!

 

[Wesleyalucard]

Phil Spencer said Many times that game pass increase game sales, he is a professional liar.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Yeah, I think the Gamepass is the reason for these skewed numbers. I've had so many friends personally tell me, "If you're interested in playing this, just do the Gamepass trial!"

 

[Nikana]

Phil Spencer said Many times that game pass increase game sales, he is a professional liar.

Those sales wouldn't be on steam...

 

[LazyParrot]

Not surprising at all, considering the price. I'd never pay 70 Euros for the standard edition of a game on Steam.