Microsoft has made an announcement for its Xbox Game Pass, and the big question is, should I sign up for it or squirrel that money away elsewhere? First of all, here is what the Xbox Game Pass is all about. The Xbox Game Pass is NOT a replacement for the Xbox Live Gold subscription, and neither will it do away with that business model. What it is, however, is that for $10 a month, you would be able to enjoy an unlimited amount of Xbox One content to your heart's desire. Basically, how you spend your 24 hours with the Xbox Game Pass is your business. This can be considered to be a ‘buffet’ of video games, or perhaps seen to be a Netflix-style gaming service that will definitely have those who are interested in nothing else but playing games on cloud nine. Better news yet, you will be able to try out the Xbox Game Pass now on a 14-day free trial as long as you are rocking to an Xbox Live Gold subscription. Membership certainly has its privileges in this particular case, don’t you think so? According to GameSpot, T-Mobile subscribers will also be able to benefit from a free one-month trial when June arrives, although no exact date has been revealed as to when that will happen just yet.
The Xbox Game Pass is set to launch this June 1st with a $10 monthly fee, where you will gain access to play games from a list of titles for an indefinite amount of time. This certainly beats the Xbox Live Gold subscription, since you do not have just a single month or two week window period to enjoy that particular game, as long as you keep up with the payment for your monthly subscription fee. Since all of the games selected will be downloaded to your system as opposed to being streamed, you do not have to worry about long load times each time you boot up a title. In the event that you would like to purchase any of the games accessed using the Xbox Game Pass, you will end up with an “exclusive” discount as long as you are a subscriber.
At the moment, Microsoft will make available a list of more than 100 games, although there are plans to include additional new titles in the future while balancing the list by getting rid of older games along the way. Will it be a gamble for the consumer? Perhaps, but the general rule of thumb is this. The Xbox Game Pass is useful only if you have enough time on your hands to play the games that you would like. Otherwise, if you already have a stack of purchased games that have not yet been played, or you have not revisited those for a while now, then it would be best to throw good money down the drain on a monthly basis. A simple rule of thumb is this: similar to meals, if you have a huge appetite, then go for a buffet, otherwise a la carte orders are the way to go.
With a 112 games in total, where 72 of those will be Xbox 360 titles while the Xbox One has 40 games, it is certainly a good place to start from considering the rich library of the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. So far, 32 of the games have been made available via an Xbox Live Gold subscription or were released as free promotional titles, while five of those are re-released titles or High Definition (HD) remastered games. Below is the list of games for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 with Game Pass.
Xbox One games with Game Pass
- Blood Bowl
- The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- D4: Dark Dream Don't Die
- Defense Grid 2
- DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition
- Electronic Super Joy
- Farming Simulator 15
- Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
- Halo: Spartan Assault
- #IDARB
- Jumpjet Rex
- Knight Squad
- KYUB
- Layers of Fear
- Lumo
- Mad Max
- Massive Chalice
- Max: The Curse of Brotherhood
- Mega Coin Squad
- Mega Man Legacy Collection
- NBA 2K16
- OlliOlli
- Payday 2 Crimewave Edition
- Pumped BMX+
- Resident Evil 0
- Roundabout
- Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
- ScreamRide
- Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
- Steredenn
- Strider
- Sunset Overdrive
- Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings
- Super Time Force
- Terraria
- The Golf Club
- The Swapper
- WWE 2K16
Xbox 360 games with Game Pass
- A Kingdom for Keflings
- A World of Keflings
- Age of Booty
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
- Banjo-Tooie
- Bionic Commando Rearmed 2
- Bioshock
- Bioshock 2
- Bioshock Infinite
- Borderlands
- Bound by Flame
- Braid
- Capcom Arcade Cabinet
- CastleStorm
- Comic Jumper
- Comix Zone
- Dark Void
- de Blob 2
- Defense Grid
- Dig Dug
- Double Dragon Neon
- Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
- Fable III
- Final Fight: Double Impact
- Flock!
- Galaga Legions DX
- Gears of War
- Gears of War 2
- Gears of War 3
- Gears of War Judgment
- Hexic 2
- GRID 2
- Iron Brigade
- Jetpac Refuelled
- Joe Danger Special Edition
- Joe Danger 2: The Movie
- Joy Ride Turbo
- Kameo
- LEGO Batman
- Metal Slug 3
- Monday Night Combat
- Ms. Splosion Man
- MX vs ATV Reflex
- N+
- Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
- Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
- PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+
- PAC-MAN Museum
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Sacred 3
- Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space
- Sam & Max Save the World
- Samurai Showdown II
- Sega Vintage Collection: Alex Kidd & Co.
- Sega Vintage Collection: Golden Axe
- Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World
- Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage
- Soul Calibur
- Soul Calibur II HD
- Spelunky
- Splosion Man
- Stacking
- Tekken Tag Tournament 2
- The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match
- The Maw
- Toy Soldiers
- Toy Soldiers: Cold War
- Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
- Viva Pinata
- Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
- XCOM: Enemy Within
