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Comment by dom96 | Hacker News Reader

Could this be due to the games being available on Game Pass? Why would anyone buy them on Steam if they can play them on Game Pass for "free"?

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by this logic, no one would buy E33 at steam because its day one gamepass title

You can easily compare to the figures for other games that are also on GamePass. Another Crab's Treasure, for example, had 4.7k Steam players on launch, of a similar nicheness stratum.

You've got that backwards. It's free and STILL has no players.

Would they be counted as active players on steam if they're being played on game pass though?

The split is usually not a multiple. There are people with computers, and people with xboxes. If there are that few people on steam, there are probably a similar number on Xbox. Not 10x or 100x, and at least 100X would be what you need for that game to be worth further investment.

What evidence do you have for this? It doesn't pass the sniff test: why would anyone buy a game for full price when they can get it for far less by just grabbing a cheaper subscription? (that they can cancel any time)

They wouldn’t.

Only people without GamePass subscription and no desire to get it for even a month or two would buy the game on Steam.

> Only people without GamePass subscription and no desire to get it for even a month or two would buy the game on Steam

So the majority of people?

I jest, but I honestly don't know anyone who consults the GamePass offerings before making a decision on whether or not to buy a game. It's Steam or pirate.

Completely anecdotal (which i think both of us are guilty of) but i generally keep my PC game pass subscription active, and will check if games are on there before getting them elsewhere. I don’t really know how to measure how many people are doing that though.

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