Pretty much yes, though the whole point of Gamepass is they're hoping you don't quit so that £1 first month intro deal turns into £8-£11 per month for the next 20 years = £1,920-£2,640 (actually more with inevitable price rises / inflation over time...) That's why they push it so hard, and some people are questioning if this is being deliberately overpriced to push more people to their subscription service.

That's correct. You just have to make sure to subscribe to a tier which includes it. So at most you would pay 10 Euro for a month.

Sure seems like most devs take similar attitude to GOG and by extension, you.

Seems like a great deal all things considered. Actually it is anything but. It's more or less yet another abstraction away from access and granted license to download and play whenever and wherever. Game Pass receives regular updates to both add and remove titles from the catalogue. So, what looks good and rather cheap in comparison, you are only able to enjoy that game for so long and it's gone. I guess with Psychonauts 2, if it is as good and memorable as maybe the first one was, in a month's time you can't go back to it much less in a year or twenty years from now. This is what MS also calculates into their pushing the Game Pass and selling the game for a ridiculously high price. Once they remove the game from the library, you'd have to pay whatever it's sold for, more revenue for MS. Millions of subscribers mean the cost of development is earned back and profits made in a short amount of time and each full price purchase earns them an additional profit each. They could as well sell Psychonauts 2 for a tenner if they wanted to and still earn more that ever they spent on Double Fine.

Another reason I absolutely loathe the tightly integrated XBOX client/pass system in MS' 10 and upcoming 11 release and Game Pass business model in general.

For me any "game pass" is exactly that - a pass.

I do agree, that's crazy pricing. If it came in a box, with a thick manual and maybe even with one or two extras like in the golden age - but as a solely digital download I'd never pay so much for a game. And I enjoyed the first part immensely. I'll wait for a significant sale.

Very well put! :-)

IMHO If there was such a thing as equal treatment, you should be able to buy a DRM-free game on Steam.

Yeah, just saw it... disappointing to not see achievements on GOG too.
Imagine that the game is getting shader cache stutters on PC GamePass since it's forced to DX12. On Steam and GOG you can use DX11 and solve the issue... will Microsoft ever learn to respect PC players? I doubt it...

Exactly. So much for "digital games are cheaper" argument. While it might be true in theory, any potential savings are greedily gobbled up by the publisher.

The price in my country is "only" $71.21 :)
But give it a few months and I don't doubt it reaching a 33-50% discount.

Price is high for the type of game it is i guess and Double Fine isn't a huge studio but 63,01 usd when converted is still within the ordinary when it comes to AAA game pricing which this game isn't though.

As for achievements, it hardly bother me as it does nothing for game preservation or being able to play the game without a client unless it's implemented within the game but i guess people want to have the option.
DRM free is still far better than Steam achievements in this case since i have heard nothing about it being drm free there though.

3...

2...

1...

GAMERGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATEEEEEEE!!!!

Yeah, I think it's best to sit it out for some months. I can't imagine they sell as much as they imagine now.

Firstly, Microsoft = no purchase. I got stung already from the Halo bundle on Steam requiring a Microsoft account and every MS account (including a long-standing existing one) requiring phone verification. Game worked just long enough to push it over the two hours meaning it couldn't be refunded on Steam. Haven't bought anything directly on Steam since.

If GOG wants to play along to Microsoft's tune in screwing over their customers then you can expect a similar loss of trust.

This game wasn't on my radar but the "Critically acclaimed:" tagline quoting two sub-90 reviews looks dodgy:

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/psychonauts-2
Metascore: 89 = "Generally favorable reviews" (their words)
90+ would be "Universal acclaim" although that would still be debateable.

This was even before I read this thread and found out about the subscription scheme. And the regional pricing being hugely inflated for some people.

Seems like GOG has a vested interest to push this game over others.

edit: fixed the link to the right version (PC not Xbox) - thanks

Considering I already own more games than I can finish in a lifetime, and I still buy games on GOG and console, I really don't care.