As the game was released on consoles with new boxed copies, and it also appeared on Xbox Game Pass, many people discovered the magic of Hades for the first time. Last year’s GOTY contenders/winners in many circles were fun to play, but to say the least, some numbers about its performance...interesting.

In the UK, we have data showing that 70% of Hades boxes are sold on PS5, 23% are on PS4, and 7% are on Xbox.

As a result, 93% of Hades sales on PlayStation naturally turned into ammunition, loaded with console war machine guns that fired at Xbox. Of course, the obvious answer is "Well, Hades is on the game pass." But it's a bit more complicated than that and might be worth exploring.

Microsoft has previously stated that one of the advantages of Game Pass is the huge potential for game sales. We sometimes see this happen. After Rage Squid's Descenders appeared on Game Pass, sales increased 5 times. Microsoft reports that Game Pass players’ time spent on games has increased by 20%, the total number of games played in general has increased by 30%, and more different genres have been explored. All of these may lead to increased sales of games that were not discovered.

There is also the fact that Microsoft is...paying Game Pass for these games. So, for example, if Microsoft pays Hades the equivalent of 93% of Sony’s sales, then Supergiant shouldn’t really care where the money comes from.

But...Is that so? We just don't know, and I don't think every game will benefit from the Game Pass version. We don't have all the data for each game, but I just finished an article in which People Can Fly did not receive any royalties from Outriders because it did not recover development costs. They estimate that the sales volume should now have made up the gap, but Square Enix launched the game on Game Pass, cutting many potential Xbox sales, and instead supporting the acquisition of the player group.

But for example, Outriders is a game with no season pass, no DLC, and no microtransactions, so once you get it through Game Pass, you have it all. Hades too. But this is different from saying that Destiny 2 will launch a new expansion pack on Game Pass. Even if it is "free," you still have past DLC and season tickets and a micro-transaction store that can make money from Game Pass players.

In short, it is complicated. Although I agree that Hades's numbers don't look good, we simply don't have enough information to know whether the Game Pass transaction will help or hurt it. There are definitely more people playing it, but without knowing how much Microsoft paid for it, it's hard to tell the end result, because it applies to...really any Game Pass game.

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For more than 10 years, I have been writing articles about video games, TV and movies for Forbes. You may have seen my reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. I cover all

For more than 10 years, I have been writing articles about video games, TV and movies for Forbes. You may have seen my reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. I cover various console and PC games, but if it is about robbery or shooting, I will definitely be there. If I am watching something, it is usually science fiction, horror or superhero. I am also a frequent visitor of IGN's Fireteam Chat podcast and published five science fiction novels.