Microsoft own data already shown that Gamepass isn't affecting game sales. In fact they are enhancing them. I'm guessing many people do the same thing as me with Gamepass on PC? Try the game out on Gamepass PC. If you like it and want it long term, buy it on Steam. I think a lot of people end up doing this.
I played Age of Empires IV on Gamepass, liked it. Decided I want to keep the game long term. So I bought Steam key from Green Man Gaming at 20% off.
I will buy Halo Infinite and Forza 5 when they go on sale on Steam. Steam Deck is coming. Want an easy way to play these games on it, without needing to install Windows.
Not to mention regionality. Gamepass PC is not everywhere. Steam is practically everywhere.
You know there is a not small amount of pc gamers who refuse to use the epic store because it's absolutely awful for features and other reasons compared to steam right?
A literal store where they're giving away free games every 2 weeks and 1 a day for 2 weeks at Xmas, as well as allowing people to outright take $10/£10 off any game over $15/£15 right now even those on sale and there are still people who wont do it because they don't feel epic and/or their store deserves their business while the store is in it's current state.
People are actually chosing to pay $10/£10 more per game in the steam sale right now than they could get it in the epic store at the same sale price and an extra $10/£10 off. There may in fact be a case where plenty of people don't care about the savings gamepass can offer, and that could be for any number of reasons. One reason could be that if the gamepass app is broken, then they may not want to support gamepass until it's fixed so microsoft gets the message.
Now that's one example of a reason but there are any number of reasons people decide everyday to pay more just to avoid certain things. I said it earlier but people decide to avoid amazon or other stores for any reason they may want to even if it means they pay more for a product. People buy digital games on consoles at launch despite the fact that they can get disk copies cheaper in a lot of places purely because they like the ease of digital. Not everything comes down to the price and no matter how much you value gamepass for its price, others may not care.
Discount difference really depends on the game. The Epic discount is bigger for some games, and not really bigger, or nonexistent, for other games. Because with Steam you can buy Steam keys off of third party sites. These third party sites offer lower prices than what you can buy the game on Steam itself.
For example, Biomutant is $19.99 plus tax on Epic Store right now. I can get a Steam key for about $23 from Green Man Gaming (don't pay tax here). Or Horizon Zero dawn is $14.99 plus tax on Epic, where I can get a Steam key for $19.95 from Green Man Gaming or Fanatical. It is still more, but really only a couple dollars. Heck, Square is offering an additional 20% off on a bunch of Steam keys right now at Green Man Gaming. In the $15-20 range is where the Epic coupon shines.
It is why I have always thought of Steam as more of a platform, than just a store. I use Steam as my main platform, but I'm actually a terrible Steam store customer. Because I would guess about 70% of my Steam purchases come from buying Steam keys from third party stores like Green Man Gaming, Humble Store, Fanatical, etc.
