![]() All you need is an Xbox Game Pass subscription to play them to your heart’s content, with only a sliver of potential profits sliding into Microsoft’s pockets. Is everything that doesn’t manage to rock our socks off get labelled a failure regardless of the status it commands? And how exactly are said metrics even measured when their launching onto a service that detracts all of their value anyway? Hi-Fi Rush blew us away and still failed - what hope do the other games have? Starfield and Redfall will have the same struggle, and I assume cost far more to make than Hi-Fi Rush did. To label it as a failure bums me out, but more importantly it points to how projects of a similar scale could be funded and received moving forward. Little marketing in exchange for what I assume was massive returns, which feels inherently unreasonable when you consider its genre as a rhythm action game. It probably wouldn’t have sold millions as a standalone anyway, but for Microsoft to allegedly deem it a failure like this just sucks.It was never going to go any other way, not to mention that Hi-Fi Rush was launching into a sea of unknown variables that you could only predict after players have had a chance to see it for themselves. Hi-Fi retails for £34.99, but most players paid nothing but a subscription fee that supports it and a thousand other games, and likely never will. Xbox Game Pass redefines how we consume and appreciate the games we play, altering their surface value by removing the investment required of us to enjoy them in the first place. After years of the service existing within the mainstream, you’d assume that development budgets and the expectations associated with launches of games big and small would be altered to accommodate the changing tide. I picked up the downloadable cosmetics because I had that much fun, but this is a game that was released, marketed, and possibly even developed with Game Pass’ ecosystem in mind, so what expectations are there to meet anymore? We discovered this game exists and were able to play it within minutes, although the economic impact you’d otherwise gain from a launch like this is negated the second Game Pass gets involved. ![]() Related: Please Stop Showing Us So Much Final Fantasy 16How else was this going to turn out though? The majority of players - whether they adored Hi-Fi Rush or not - were going to fill their boots through the subscription service over the premium alternative. We all hopped on Xbox Game Pass, fell in love with it, and then called it a day. Unfortunately, it was packaged in a way that would seemed to spell its demise. ![]() It will soon be joined by heavier hitters, but for a title like this to arrive with zero expectations is what the console desperately needed. It has personality for one, and eager to shake up the landscape of major exclusives defined by shooters and driving simulators. It’s charming, inventive, and an experience we would never expect from Xbox. The company has since come out and said otherwise regarding previous reports, but that denial still leaves me with a lot of lingering questions.Hi-Fi Rush is an excellent game, and one of the year’s best. If anything, Microsoft failed Hi-Fi Rush. Actual sales of the game by traditional means were always going to be lacking, and failing to consider that feels like an oversight. I’m not surprised, and also unsure what it expected shadow-dropping this onto a subscription service where players can access it for free on all platforms. Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush apparently didn’t meet Microsoft’s sales expectations.
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