Netflix emailed me today to let me know my subscription price was going up. After being a little disgruntled, I realized the $14 price tag, despite being increased a couple dollars, is still a crazy good deal for how much I use that service.
Then I saw this today: Xbox Game Pass (which I wrote about early last year) now gets all first-party exclusive games added to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service on release date. For just one low price of $9.99 a month, you get access to over 100 games. With the promise if new games every month — including new titles like Sea of Thieves — and the first party titles going straight there, that’s a decent value.
[Update: The Microsoft people clarified that Xbox Game Pass DOES work for Play Anywhere titles. That means it WILL let you play games on PC. This is a HUGE boost, and reason enough to get it since just two games a year pays for itself.]
The biggest, perhaps only, downside is that these games are not “Play-Anywhere” titles. That means Sea of Thieves through this program would only be playable on Xbox One. Contrast that to my copy of Sea of Thieves I bought outright which is playable on either my Windows 10 PC or Xbox One system.
The idea of gaming as a service is one I have championed for years. I’ve urged EA, Ubi, Microsoft, Sony, and all of these companies to create their own subscription services. It’s the “All Access Pass” program where users pay a monthly subscription, developers can rely on monthly recurring revenue, and players can access a plethora of games. This creates immense value for the user, as well as the company.
Looking at the price for Xbox Game Pass, that’s only two Microsoft exclusive games and it pays for itself. That’s really not a bad alternative at all.
If, however, they cycle titles off the service like Netflix does movies… I’m out. I don’t want my games to end up like those Star Trek movies I put off watching just to have them leave the service when I get around to watching them.
That is one heck of a deal in my opinion. Even if they do cycle games, which it doesn’t really sound like they are doing (maybe at the publisher’s behest?) it would still be great. Even though titles can rotate on Netflix, there is almost always something to watch. Similar to this with the Xbox Game Pass.
I had to sell off my Xbox One a little while back for financial reasons, but this indeed makes me want to replace it. There are plenty of games I missed out on, and all first-party titles being released for it is just one hell of deal-maker.
PS: It also makes games like Recore (a title I wanted to play, but due to reviews didn’t want to purchase) a lot easier to download and give a shot.
Actually, if the title is play anywhere, like sea of thieves, it will be payable on pc with the game pass. See https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/955924123816927232
Thank you for the link!
That seems to directly contradict the FAQ though.
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/billing/xbox-subscriptions/xbox-game-pass-faq
From my understanding, it’s something that’s being added retroactively. For example, I’m a GamePass subscriber, I can currently download and play Halo Wars on my PC because of my GamePass, tho I’ve never purchased it. Their director of marketing confirmed it in a tweet: https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/955924123816927232
I have updated the post to reflect that. They’ve been clarifying it and just need to update their FAQ.
That’s my concern as well. They really better not cycle games out. There’s featured games on there right now that would be totally incomprehensible to just cycle out. Have an awesomely developed world on Terraria? Sorry, it’s gone if it gets cycled out.
Some games will definitely be cycled out, but who knows what criteria will be used.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/two-xbox-one-games-will-be-removed-from-xbox-game-/1100-6456271/
Moreover this description from their site suggests there might be a reason to actually buy a game that one currently has access to, which to me might imply that access won’t be permanent.
“…if you love an Xbox One game currently in the existing catalog and want to own it, you can buy it and save up to 20%, plus get 10% off any Xbox One game add-on.”
I mean otherwise why buy a game you already have unrestricted access to?