Microsoft recently announced the Xbox Game Pass subscription, a service for the Xbox One that will allow players to access hundreds of titles that are downloaded to the console instead of being streamed. The service it set to launch in the late spring, at a cost of $9.99/£7.99 a month.
Over 100 Xbox One/Xbox 360 games will be available for unlimited play, from publishers such as 2K, Deep Silver, BANDAI NAMCO, Capcom, SEGA and Codemasters. They will be available for as long as they are on the catalogue, which is due to be refreshed on a monthly basis, with some current titles being replaced by new ones. So far it looks as though only Halo 5 Guardians, NBA 2K16, Payday 2 and Soul Calibre II have been confirmed, however speculation is the list will include other titles like Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Fable 3, Lego Batman and Tekken Tag Tournament II.
Games are downloaded directly to the players console, which can be played both online and offline in full fidelity, without the worry of connectivity issues. Subscribers will be given a discount of 20% should they proceed to purchase a game on the service, and 10% off any related downloadable content add-ons. The only drawback from this is the discounts are only available whilst the game is “currently in the catalogue”. It does seem odd that games would be removed each month, when new titles are added, and that the service is only available to Xbox One, and not cross play with PC; hopefully it gets rolled out at a later date, so that PC games can enjoy the Xbox One titles like they can with Play Anywhere.
So far the service is currently available for those signed up with the Xbox Insider Program for testing, before it is rolled out to the public. The aim is to have numerous popular genres covered in the service, according to Microsoft, including RPG, shooter, puzzle and adventure games. An Xbox Live Gold subscription is not required to play, however any multiplayer games will require Gold.
The service is more similar to EA Access than PlayStation Now, the latter of which uses streaming to play the catalogue of games available. All of these services are great for gamers, as they allow experiencing many titles otherwise left untouched, over a lengthy period, for a relatively small fee per month. Obviously if you don’t want to pay, you don’t have to sign up, so there is no real loss with it.
What do you think of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service?
