Xbox Game Pass buys games for its catalog frequently, but the exact amount it gives developers has been purposely vague to say the least. However, a new financial report by developer Big Cheese Studio has revealed that Microsoft allegedly paid a lump sum of $600,000 to purchase Cooking Simulator for the Xbox subscription service. Given recent rumors that Sony might have blocked Xbox Game Pass from getting Cult of the Lamb, this provides insight on the underlying battle between Xbox Game Pass and Sony’s PlayStation Plus.
Why Big Cheese Studio accepted the Xbox Game Pass offer
After putting the original report in Polish through Google Translate, Big Cheese Studio notes that a deal with Microsoft was made on August 5, 2022 to have Cooking Simulator be on Xbox Game Pass for what “amounts to USD 600,000.” For this indie studio, this injection of cash was “approximately 22% of the net profit and approximately 17% of the company’s net revenue from the sale of products, goods and materials for the last financial year.”
Considering that Big Cheese Studio is an indie creator and Cooking Simulator released more than three years ago on June 6, 2019, it’s no wonder that the developer took the cash. A chart on SteamDB shows that only about 200 to 250 concurrent users are playing the game, which makes this lump-sum purchase only more enticing. It’s unclear how long Cooking Simulator will be on Xbox Game Pass and whether this deal means that the game can’t be on other subscription services, but this kind of exclusivity would not be out of left field.
Developer Stephen Danton stated on The Duel Screens Podcast that Xbox Game Pass also bought Unto the End as “a lump sum of money on release.” The game was then exclusive with Xbox Game Pass for six months and could not be offered on any other streaming/subscription-based service during that time. For a comparison to AAA games on Xbox Game Pass, Senior Analyst at MST Financial David Gibson said in a tweet in March that Microsoft “paid about $5-$10m million for Guardians of the Galaxy to be on Games Pass.”
In other news, Toys for Bob has confirmed that it’s working on a new game that might be Wumpa League, and a new Dune game might be revealed soon.
