I always imagined a Crow game to play similar to Batman: Arkham City.

Stealth, but allows you to explore, gather intel on the wearabouts of those you’re hunting, and then taking them out. You also get upgrades of new powers as you progress.

But I would love a Crow game.

Not at all. Game devs still get paid. Microsoft pays a ton of money to get the license for these games on their platform. Game Pass is sold at a loss, but their goal right now is to maximize users on as many platforms as possible, and most definitely raise prices later on once people are hooked. They are eating the losses because Microsoft is rich.

The benefit of GamePass is that you have the chance to try any game you probably wouldn’t have even looked at twice in the past at no extra cost. Game devs get more exposure, and if you like the game, there’s always the option to buy the game and support the devs. Plus, aside from Xbox first party games, third party games aren’t permanently on the platform. Any player that wants to keep playing will have a reason to buy the game.

I think a great game should have challenging moments. It keeps things interesting and keeps it from being boring. However, a frustrating game would make me want to rage quit and never pick it up again.

Like Dark Souls is something I don’t have the patience for to keep playing or desire to get better. League of Legends I quit due to trolls and toxicity. Two different types of frustration, but both unwanted.

Fundamentally, a game needs to be fun and balanced.

Obviously as graphics and processing power improve, games will naturally get bigger. However, I think as AAA games are often rushed with large teams of developers, the last thing they prioritize is compressing and cleaning up what they can.

Often times, data is left in there that was canceled, so instead of removing it, developers will hide it. Or in the past, developers would compress whatever code they could to get their games to fit on cartridges or discs with limited space. Sometimes, that would involve making sacrifices, like reducing sound quality, or removing content, or completely foregoing a feature they had planned.

But these days, developers have much more freedom. They can do whatever they want in games without having to think twice about compression or sacrifices. I also agree that games don’t need to be as large as they are right now, and some code cleaning would be appreciated. But I think this is the new normal, and console developers will simply adapt by offering more storage, or encouraging gamers to take advantage of cloud gaming.