Cyberpunk 2077 Not Planned for Xbox Game Pass - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 08 September 2020 / 2,238 Views
CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for Xbox Game Pass in December 2019, which has led to some speculation that the developers next game, Cyberpunk 2077, will be coming to the subscription service as well when it launches later this year.
CD Projekt Red lead PR manager Radek Grabowski via Twitter revealed there are currently no plans to release the game on Xbox Game Pass. This was in response to Venture Beat's Jeff Grub who used Cyberpunk 2077 coming to Xbox Game Pass as an example as a way for Microsoft to compete with the PS5 timed exclusive titles.
"Let's just use Cyberpunk [2077] as an example," said Grubb. "[Microsoft] pays to get it on [Xbox Game Pass] day one, but it's still available on Stadia, PC, and PlayStation for $60. And Microsoft doesn't have to pay to replace the missed revenue from PS -- only Xbox. And maybe only for three months."
"You have to pick another example, Jeff," Grabowski said in a reply tweet. "No Game Pass plans for Cyberpunk 2077."
You have to pick another example, Jeff. No Game Pass plans for Cyberpunk 2077.
— Radek ♠︎ (@gamebowski) July 10, 2020
Here is an overview of the game:
In the most dangerous megacity of the future, the real you is not enough. Become V, a cyber-enhanced mercenary outlaw going after a one-of-a-kind implant — the key to immortality. Customize your cyberware and skillset, and explore a vast city of the future obsessed with power, glamour and body modification. The choices you make will determine the story and shape the world around you.
Become a cyberpunk, an urban mercenary equipped with cybernetic enhancements and build
your legend on the streets of Night City.
Enter the massive open world of Night City, a place that sets new standards in terms of visuals, complexity and depth.
Take the riskiest job of your life and go after a prototype implant that is the key to immortality.
Cyberpunk 2077 will launch on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on November 19. It will have backwards compatible on launch day for the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I think I understand the direction he was going in... Adding it to gamepass creates value for MS customers, while buying exclusivity doesn't, it just reduces potential value for Sony customers. Since the latter requires compensating for lost sales to Sony customers, adding value for gamepass customers at less cost (for MS' case, Sony being ~2x+ marketshare) is pretty reasonable. Subscription/recurring cost business is highly attractive, and doing this regularly could allow charging more... I mean, plenty of people could only play stuff they get thru game pass... It's like the subscription access to free movie theatere tickets (although that is failure).
The thing is, MS' gamepass already does great and that part of business is very profitable, if they did this it would basically force Sony to do so (even if relatively more expensive) and if they go all in it would be just as profitable (increasing PSN customers payments) but could turn the game landscape against MS. Even if available for sale on both platforms, more consumers might stop buying games if they think their high-end subscription paid "free" game sare enough, which ends up fragmenting game landscape into semi-exclusivity. 3rd party devs/pubs might also lose interest in porting to #2 platform if they can get fully paid by #1 platform. It's also risky in that it requires paying dev/pub and making decision on good/bad games that might not pan out by popular demand, i.e. they buy game nobody wants to play, or don't buy the game that ends up being success.
Still, I do see this developing alot more for "indie" games and such that are much cheaper for deals like this, which also just helps support those games which add variety to the gaming ecosystem and therefore attract more customers overall.
Putting new release games on game pass day 1 is just throwing away sales and money.
Especially a game so many people have been waiting for.
Depends on the game. MS gets a lot of small games launching on the service. Some even claim it helps sales.
Yep. Smaller unknown games can benefit from something like this or PS+ giveaway, but such a high profile game would just be tossing money away if they did this.
The idea would be did Microsoft pays cdpr for the game. Obviously, nobody is going to launch their massive AAA game on Gamepass without a big check coming from Microsoft
Slow day, not news.
some are but obviously no AAA games. I guess such a service needs many more millions of subscribers to be able to get these deals and still be profitable.
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