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Game Pass has proven to be of great value over the years. It’s a way to venture outside of our comfort zones and explore games we’d normally hesitate to buy. Not only was it a great way for us to explore our tastes, but for developers to make more weird and wonderful games.
That’s certainly the case with Pentiment, a game that director Josh Sawyer says wouldn’t exist without Microsoft’s subscription service. He appeared on the Waypoint Radio Podcast (opens in a new tab)telling host Rob Zacny “I would never have suggested doing Pentiment without Game Pass. Like, I literally just wouldn’t have done it. I just don’t think it would have been possible.”
Sawyer cited “the old mindset of publishers and developers” and their desire to focus on “bigger teams, bigger investment” for a higher return on said investment. “And that’s not really the point in this environment [referring to Game Pass]that’s not like why things exist in this ecosystem.”
He added: “In a traditional model, I just don’t think I would even bother because no one would pick that up. Even if my boss supported it, it would be so incredibly difficult to get a publisher to take it. And so this specific environment is the only way in which I truly conceive it to be practicable.”
Sawyer said Xbox was “very supportive” of Pentiment during development, “specifically because it’s very niche and unusual. And it has high appeal to a very enthusiastic audience. So the process is quite different from the old publishing model. But so. long, it was different in a positive way.”
Despite Sawyer making the game for “a small audience that likes the idea of the game,” I’ve seen plenty of people dive in and sing its praises. Josh Wolens was one of those people, scoring Obsidian’s murder mystery a gorgeous 88 in his Pentiment review. (opens in a new tab). “Pentiment is a rare beast: a relatively short, gameplay-light narrative adventure from a studio famous for its long, mechanic-heavy RPGs,” he wrote.” Obsidian’s tight grip on its subject matter and thorough understanding of exactly what it wanted. so with Pentiment produced a game I wanted to launch again as soon as I finished it.”
It’s nice to see developers taking advantage of Game Pass, as well as Microsoft supporting more niche games. Let’s just hope the service stays that way, and I don’t have to tell Wes Fenlon that he was right and Game Pass can’t stay around forever. (opens in a new tab)
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