Indie development studio Squanch Games – founded by Rick and Morty creator, Justin Roiland, has sat down with Major Nelson at Xbox to discuss their latest hit title — High on Life. The two discuss plenty of great topics, from the development side of things to the creative choices made, but one of the keystones from the podcast was surrounding the reason why Roiland and Squanch Games chose to release the game with Xbox Game Pass.
For those still in the unknown, Xbox Game Pass is like a Netflix-based subscription service that allows gamers to choose any game they want from the vast catalog of games and play them. The best parts of Xbox Game Pass are both the pricing and variety of all the different games to choose from. High on Life has launched on Xbox Game Pass as a day one title, meaning gamers who are subscribed to the monthly plan will get to play the game without actually purchasing it at retail price.
This has become a trend with publishers. Release their brand new title onto the subscription, and gamers flock to try the game. This is no easy decision, but Roiland discussed with Nelson why they thought it would be best to join the Xbox Game Pass program.
“Before we decided to pull the trigger on it, I spoke with a handful of other studio folks who did Game Pass,” Roiland explained. “And I ultimately came to the conclusion based off of what I had heard that it is– it’s a value-add. Because essentially, there’s a lot of people that would otherwise not have picked up the game and played it.
Roiland continues by saying:
“And those people, if you believe in what you’ve made, and you really you feel confident that you’ve made something special, or different– and we do with our game– those folks can become evangelists in a way for the title. A lot of folks told me that non-Game Pass games that they ship versus Game Pass games, [they get] 7x sales.”
It is no surprise why Squanch Games decided to make the jump to Xbox Game Pass, according to Roiland he has spoken with other developers who state that their games would sell 7x over what they anticipated when choosing the subscription-based service. The gaming community has been loving what Microsoft is doing with XBP and it’s no shock to see why it’s performing so well. When asked about the future of Squanch Games and the Xbox Game Pass collaboration, Roiland said this:
“We are an indie studio. We’re small. And we do want a war chest to make a bunch more fun crazy games. And that was of consideration for us. It’s like, ‘OK, we really want this game to get out there. We want it to do. We want sales to do well.’ And I think that, yeah, I mean, from what I gathered in my little poking around and asking different folks, Game Pass was a huge value-add in that respect.”
Watch the Justin Roiland High on Life Xbox podcast down below:
In related High on Life news, Justin Roiland recently discussed the game with Major Nelson at Xbox even more. Justin discusses that the team went hard on focusing on the ‘golden path’ for the game, but they had so many crazy ideas that they crammed as much of it in as they could. This allows for some crazy gaming experiences, such as the recently revealed full movie that can be watched in the game.
Yes, players can head to a theater and watch an entire feature-length film while in the game as your weapons spout hilarious dialogue; it even comes with an achievement unlock! If you’re interested in learning more about the interview where Roiland discusses the game’s hidden details scattered throughout the game, check out the full interview right here!
The game has been bringing in a ton of responses so far, and it seems like the community has been loving it. For those who are part of Xbox Game Pass should be happy as it has launched with the service! You can check it out right now and see what’s all the hype around it.
High On Life is available right now through Xbox Game Pass. Have you checked out the latest title from Squanch Games? Let us know in the comments below!
