Curator-turned-publisher Pantaloon has unleashed a subscription service that fans of indie games might be interested in digging. The Playbill is a take on Xbox Game Pass, albeit one that focuses on “bold and bizarre” titles.
The first set features third-party games like Buckshot mammoth, silt, from blood in the Cabin Factory. They sit next to Pantaloon’s own players: Sub-Verge, Occlude, It Takes a War, Boxroom, Rolla and the wonderful music creation sim Off beat.
Much like Game Pass offers first-party Xbox titles (save for new Call of Duty offerings) to subscribers on day one, Playbill gets all of Pantaloon’s own games as soon as they’re released. The service even has its own exclusive time in the form of Virtue: Prologuea visual novella companion piece for Virtue and a sledgehammerwhich is out next week (and a game I’m really looking forward to.
In addition, Playbill offers demos, playtests and “abandoned prototypes” for you to check out in a section called the Green Room. Initially, there are playtests for some interesting looking games viz Isle Goblin, Mr. Magpie’s Harmless card game in the Lemonade Apocalypse.
“We want Playbill to be a celebration of more experimental and eccentric players,” said Pantaloon founder Jamin Smith. “The nature of the model lowers this barrier to entry for gamers to explore genres and experiences that might not be picked up by Steam’s market-shaping algorithms.
Pantaloon moved into publishing after building an audience of more than 50,000 newsletter subscribers who could complete puzzles to receive game keys or redeem codes for its curated titles. The puzzles are free to access on Playbill, along with the service’s community features, Virtue: Prologue and some ARGs. The full lineup of games is available through a Primo subscription, which costs a reasonable $5 per month or $60 per year.
It is worth noting that the service is key-based. Pantaloon will release games from the Playbill cycle when it runs out of keys and it will add new titles on a regular basis. Annual subscribers can crack all 13 games in the initial lineup, as well as every new title that is introduced.
Things are different for monthly subscribers. They get a guaranteed game every month, and they don’t get to choose which one. “The monthly titles are part of special partnerships, so the games are defined,” Smith told Engadget. “That said, some of our puzzles – like this month – allow for a choice of reward for those who can solve.”
If you sign up for a monthly plan, you can access all games after you’ve been a subscriber for six consecutive months. This is “a mechanism just to prevent someone from getting all 14 titles at once and then canceling,” Smith added.