The Internet can remember stuff these days, even if something was put up for just a little while and removed afterwards. This is what happened with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass -- where the official page was edited in order to remove any mention of Windows 10 devices. According to a Microsoft spokesperson, “It’s important to us that Xbox Game Pass provides an enjoyable and seamless experience. Right now, we’re focused on launching Xbox Game Pass on Xbox One consoles and look forward to bringing the service to the broader Xbox community later this spring.”
Well, to put everything into a nutshell, Microsoft intends to expand its Xbox gaming service by embarking on a route that is not too far away from that of Netflix’s model. Known as the Xbox Game Pass, this will be a monthly service that is set to arrive later this spring, where you are able to download a range of titles and enjoy on your Xbox One. This particular subscription will come tagged to a $9.99 monthly fee, of course. Having said that, we do wonder whether this would mean the end of the Xbox Live Games with Gold subscription, and if not, will there be any impact as there will bound to be cannibalization.
Apparently, the Xbox Game Pass is said to come with more than 100 games right from the get go, where among them include Halo 5: Guardians, Payday 2, NBA 2K16 and SoulCalibur II. The official post did mention, “One of the best things about Xbox Game Pass is that you can discover and download the full titles directly on your Xbox One. That means continuous, full-fidelity gameplay without having to worry about streaming, bandwidth or connectivity issues. In addition, all Xbox One games in the catalog — and related add-ons — will be available to purchase at an exclusive discount for Xbox Game Pass members, so you can make the games you love part of your permanent library to play whenever you want. Every month new games will cycle into the subscription with some cycling out, giving you a constantly updating library of games.”
Apart from that, if you were to have decided on purchasing any game via Xbox Game Pass, you would also be entitled to a 20% discount, now how about that when it comes to saving more money in the long run? Of course, many of us are already so used to purchasing a softcopy of a game that we do not even need to own a physical box or disc, and this would further push such school of thought across to the masses.
An alpha preview of Xbox Game Pass has kicked off already, and Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be first in line to be able to try it out this spring.
It remains to be seen whether the Xbox Game Pass service will remain viable in the long run, as this is a rather dramatic shift from how traditional gaming works on consoles. A whole lot of its success will depend on the richness of the game library though, and will require cooperation from game publishers as well in order to make it big.
