Avalanche has explained that the reason it will be launching its open world co-op game Contraband on Xbox Game Pass is mainly to "grow the userbase."
In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, Avalanche Studios CEO Pim Holfve talked a little bit about why his studio decided to launch on Xbox Game Pass rather than have a traditional retail release. According to Holfve, a launch on Game Pass allows a game's userbase to grow significantly more than if it was to release normally, expanding the userbase being Avalanche's "key objective."
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"Our main key objective is growing our userbase… even if it's not ours directly — in this case, it's going to be Xbox's," explains Holfve. "But we know that if we grow the userbase, we know that the money and revenue will come. The main motivator for us as a company is not cash, it's entertainment — we're entertaining vast numbers of people."
Holfve then goes on to justify his decision to launch Contraband on Game Pass by talking about the success of other Avalanche properties on Game Pass. Both Just Cause 3 and Just Cause 4 are also currently included on the subscription service as is the studio's self-published title TheHunter: Call of the Wild:
"Game Pass has been really great for us, especially if we look at our self-published title," says Holfve. "TheHunter: Call of the Wild helped us prove our service model and Xbox Game Pass was fantastic because we were able to reach so many more players."
Holfve certainly isn't wrong when he says that subscription services like Game Pass massively improve a game's userbase, especially when it comes to multiplayer games. Knockout City is another example of a multiplayer game doing well due to its launch on Game Pass, passing the 2 million player milestone just three days after release.
While not Game Pass, another game to have benefitted from being included in a subscription service was Fall Guys in August last year. The game launched on PlayStation Plus and exploded in popularity, becoming the service's most downloaded game of all time. With a steady rise in multiplayer games succeeding when included on Game Pass or other subscription services, it's no wonder Avalanche is doing the same.
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