Is Xbox Game Pass the best gaming subscription service around?

The only reasons I'm not switching from Sony to MS this generation are A) first party titles and B) the controller. I've been using the DualShock's form factor for nearly twenty years and half of my life. This THPS remake has been awesome but if I were playing it on a 360 controller I don't know if I'd be as enthusiastic...

But if anybody who doesn't really play games or fell off of them and is thinking about getting back in due to COVID or whatever, or buying a console for their kid, I'd recommend the XBox immediately and without hesitation. I imagine the Game Pass experience is the closest thing to the old Blockbuster kind of feel modern gaming's ever had.

I mean, yes, by a wide margin.

There was a long time where Playstation Plus was the best thing around. Free PSP/PS3/later Vita and 4 games? Sure! No one else has that! But now MS has been buying up studios at a rate I don't think anyone else ever has and they're putting those games on Game Pass, day 1? And, more importantly, it's not really a limited time thing - it's not a "handful of games per month" thing like PS Plus was, it's very much a Netflix-like thing. The only other things I can think of are EA Play and Stadia, the former of which doesn't even register on this scale and the latter of which appears to be dead on arrival unless an insane number of console-focused people really want to play Baldur's Gate 3.

By far, yes. Not just first party being available day one, but all the other games add up to a hell of a library.

Saw that Halo was up for preorder, and really, there's no real reason to spend that money unless I wanna put that statue next to my Halo 3 helmet.

My only experience was trying to boot The Outer Worlds on PC, but it kept crashing, so I did some Google searches, and found other issues that had the same error code, but it was for like the Windows 8 App Store and other unrelated applications, and I went through a thread that was like 7 years old, and nobody at Microsoft or anywhere else in the universe knew what the error code meant or how to fix it, and I got fed up with it, so I just said screw it, and I cancelled my subscription.

So.............no(?) <shrugs> The Xbox version seems to work fine.

It's a well priced subscription, and getting a console with that payment plan is hard to argue against. But as a very patient gamer that feels that nagging pressure to squeeze as much value out of a subscription cost, these services are probably not for me. I was playing Yakuza Kiwami on Geforce Now when suddenly i heard i had 2 evenings left to finish the game before it left the platform. I eventually had to youtube the ending to a game i put a good 40 hours in. That's no fun.

But even if there was plenty of time to finish a game (i've heard people say that game pass is quite good at giving you this info), i would still feel the pressure to get through as many games as possible and absolutely not decide to watch a movie instead or waste time on sidequests when i could be mainlining 2 games in the same billing period.

It's the same mentality that prevented me from getting into MMO's. Once i pay for access, i feel bad if i don't use that access effectively. I'm wasting my monies if i decide to go to bed early instead. If i don't play the games i really want to check out, they might leave the rotation before i get to them. So i better move at a brisk pace through the games eventhough that's 100% not the kind of gamer i am. I would feel bad about sticking with one game that really sucks me in for hundreds of hours while the other games i still want to check out are leaving the platform in the meantime. I much prefer buying the games i actuallly care for and having access to them whenever , wherever for no additional cost if i decide to take my time. That takes away all that pressure i put on myself and lets me relax.

This also stretches towards my stance on services like Humble Monthly. I'm sure that in an objective way, you obtain more value than you're paying for. So clearly it's a good value proposition. But in a subjective way, maybe only 10 or 20% of the games that Humble Monthly would offer to me are games i would then dive into afterwards. The other games have a monetary value, but offer no value to me at all if i don't play them. I think i know myself better than this service could ever do, and rather keep my money to myself and only spend it on things i actually want. Because that's ultimately how i get the best bang for my buck, even if it makes me end up with less game per $.

Until Sony comes with a good comeback, GamePass is and will be the best subscription for gamers.
The deal is just too sweet.

How does Game Pass make money? I just don't see how putting a brand new game up on Game Pass for $10/month when the game should be $60-70 normally.

Does a monthly recurring, but easily canceled, subscription bring in the same revenue as a brand new game?

@bmccann42: Most people only buy one or two games per year. If Microsoft are able to pool all that money in their corner and sell some cosmetics on top then it can make a lot of sense even now. But I bet that the real objective is growing the subscriber base while keeping development costs roughly as is. The costs for producing a game for 10 thousand subscribers are the same as producing one for 10 million subscribers.

There are currently 15 million Game Pass subscribers and 5 million of those have joined in the last six months. If growth continues roughly at this pace, let's say 50% per year, then in five years Microsoft could theoretically have over 100 million subscribers. That would translate to over a billion dollars per year.

What I don't know is how the revenues are divided between publishers and developers. I've read a lot of positive comments from developers on how they benefited from Game Pass, but who can tell what the overall picture is.

this is the 15 million dollar question- and i think the answer is still actively being determined. we know microsoft has 15 million subs, and that it's not a moneymaker (and that's not the priority it seems for now).

it feels like there's a difficult-to-suss-out balance that needs to be achieved between adding new high profile (read: full price) games to service, while at the same time growing the sub base to pay for it all.

publishers and devs seem to be pretty pleased with the setup thus far- but it does stand to reason that microsoft won't want to burn money forever, and eventually the more games (AAA or indie) that are added, without commiserate growth in subs (or an inevitable sub price hike), the harder the service will be to maintain.

we also have no idea how publishers and devs are being compensated. like most services seeking to grow quickly, as a creator you can do well (see: everyone that got paid well for quibi content). and people seem to like working with something like netflix- even if ambitions sometimes get cut tragically short (see: all the shows netflix has greenlit and swiftly cancelled). but then there's also spotify- which i think has a deeply unclear assessment as to whether or not its been a net positive for artists.

i think we're firmly in wait-and-see territory. hopefully over the long term it's a net win for microsoft, devs, and consumers alike. most of my anxiety stems from unfounded suspicions as to how developing-for-a-service vs. boxed-product affects the thing we consumers end up playing. but we're in uncharted territory for sure.

@mellotronrules: Microsoft is one of the richest companies in the world. It can afford to burn money for a long time. It is also clearly on bringing a lot of Gamepass game creation in house rather than paying licensing fees to third parties, just like Netflix has.

This service scales really well and already has caught on pretty well all things considered. I think Microsoft will support it for a long time and the $7.5 billion they just invested is pretty strong evidence of that. Microsoft is always looking for new businesses to expand into and the fact that they already own the closest thing gaming has to a Netflix means they are going to keep chasing that for quite some time.

Will it eventually make money? Hard to project. If they win the streaming/subscription gaming war or are one of the top few services then it almost certainly will. Video streaming makes money and there's no real difference in the business model.

I think it sort of wins by default. Nothing comes even close in terms of variety. EA and Uplay offer a tiny sliver of the gaming market with their own libraries and Playstation barely even have a finger in the door.

@humanity: Apple Arcade targets a different market but it does a pretty good job of providing a bunch of appealing games for a reasonable price.

@bigsocrates: Dunno anything about that despite having an iPhone. Don't really play games on my phone, but I'm sure it's a nice alternative. I was speaking more in terms of the console market and specifically Playstation and Xbox as Nintendo are like their own side thing.

I feel old, I like to own my games

I will buy the big games I want to own, but have been making more use of Game Pass recently (Carrion, Minecraft: Dungeons, and Bloodstained I have played recently), but I don't find myself really grabbing that much.

Great service, looking forward to what happens. Won't make me buy a new XBox anytime though, and after getting pretty deep into the PSN ecosystem a PS5 and my PC will do me fine.

no doubt- but like any high profile publicly-traded company- the rubber is going to meet the road at some point, and even phil spencer has a boss in satya nadella and shareholders. it's not a matter of 'if gamepass ever gets profitable' but moreso 'how much runway have they given phil, and when's their deadline.' because as you also mentioned- they've made some sizable investments, and corporations don't do that without an expectation of return.

let me be clear- if anyone has the resources and experience to get it done, it's microsoft, no doubt. they are the best positioned and have the most competence when it comes to online infrastructure for consoles.

my concerns mostly lie within the business model and its consequent effect on creative output. like you mentioned the closest analogue we have is probably film or television streaming services- but i think many would agree it's not a 1-to-1 comparison. this is all new, and i'm curious what the long term implications are.

@mellotronrules: Obviously at some point if it's not making money or on its way to making money then they will cut bait. That's a given in any business.

But I think that Gamepass almost certainly has a multi-year runway. It's already near or at over a billion dollars a year in revenue. It's in a growing and valuable sector Microsoft wants to be in. They've put a lot of money into it, and they have a lot of money to invest right now. Nadella is on board and has said that they may make additional acquisitions.

Microsoft has been in the console market now for longer than Sega was, so the idea that they're close to bailing out of it, especially after doubling down, is very unlikely.

It's possible it won't work out and they shut it all down eventually, but that's true of any company. It's true that Sony and Nintendo are more video game companies than Microsoft is at this point (Sony has other business lines but Playstation is much more important to them than Xbox is to Microsoft) but that can cut both ways, since Microsoft can afford to invest more into unprofitable businesses that have a lot of potential than either of its competitors.

It's not that I think that Gamepass is guaranteed to be around forever or anything, it's just that I think that pointing to other Microsoft initiatives that didn't last long is misleading both because MS is a different company now and because video games are a market they've been in for a very long time at this point and have committed to deeply. It's not trying to break into a new market and failing like Zune or Windows Phone were.

I mean Bing is still a thing. BING!

This is where I land, it likely is a great price for what you get. But, meh, it’s not for me. I like Gear of War...and that is about its form MS first and second party stuff. For 3rd party games, I play a few game a lot, but most game hold zero interest to me. So, for me is $120 a year worth it...it might be if I wanted an Xbox Series X for any other reason - but I don't.

The tricky part with Game Pass vs PS+ is what you walk away with. XBox gamers can spending $120 on Game Pass and can zero games you are still handing over a lot of money to MS. Nothing for free, when you end up owning nothing. With PS5 and the PS+ (as it currently works) I pay $60 a year and get to keep 24 games; 95% of which will be PS4 and PS5 games. I keep those games, I OWN them and can download them three times on various hardware I'm signed into. Moreover, I get discounts on games I buy through Sony Store, and I KEEP those games too.

With PS+ I might get less variety to browse, but I get to keep 24 games for free and I get discounts on stuff I want to buy. In a year or two I wonder if the Giant Bomb crew will be raving about "the deal" they were getting from Game Pass? Or will they be saying, "I loved this game I played on Game Pass, but now it gone and I don't own it - do I now buy it?"

That will be what I want to hear from people in four years, when Game Pass has had a while to show gamers what gaming that was is like, "Was it’s the deal you felt it was at the start or is it a mixed-bag you are conflicted about?"

There's no Falcom games. Anything without Falcom games in inherently terrible.

@monkeyking1969: You don't get to keep your PS+ games and you don't own them. If your PS+ subscription ever lapses you won't be able to play them anymore. The only games you get to keep permanently from these services are Xbox 360 games from Xbox Games With Gold.

It's more of a "build a static rental library over time" vs "a rotating crop of rental games" model. And with Gamepass ultimate you get both Games With Gold and Gamepass.

@monkeyking1969: I mean, I’ve been a Gamepass subscriber for nearly two years straight now and I have no regrets. Anything leaving the service usually goes on sale, and you get a subscriber discount on it as well. But mostly I don’t buy them , because I rarely replay games (except for Rare Replay lol). I’m perfectly content with the service and don’t expect that to change in the foreseeable future.

And bigsocrates is right, Sony is taking you for a ride if you believe you actually own PS Plus games.

I'll go one further... I think Xbox All Access might be the best deal in gaming.

I just did some math and after the $34.99 for 24 month Xbox Series X All Access period, you actually come out $19.99 ahead (fixed amount, thanks @morningcoffee for pointing out my error) versus buying the console and paying for Game Pass Ultimate piece-meal. That is crazy - actually coming out better for doing a deferred payment? I can't think of a single payment program that works like that.

@whitegreyblack: You come out $20 ahead.

$35 x 24 = $840

$499.99 + ($15 x 24) = $859.99

Still a good deal though all considered.

@morningcoffee: Stupid me, I accidentally calculated the Series X at 599. I'll fix my post.

Still, the point stands... what other payment plan in the world brings you out paying less for the stuff than if you just buy them outright? (Yes I know the Game Pass sub is a payment plan either way)

@whitegreyblack: Yeah, it's great. Especially if you're already a game pass ultimate subscriber. You figure that you're already paying $15/mo why not just throw in an extra $20/mo and get a brand new console?

Hey you wanna hear some truly wild shit?

Microsoft Edge is pretty fucking good, actually.

Yes,

and Live and Ps Plus are worthless and should be shuttered. I could see if they maybe offered games dedicated servers to use or something, but why would I pay extra to just play an online game on top of my internet bill and possible mmo bill etc etc. It offers nothing to consumers and is just a profit margin for the companies they would like not to get rid of. Even when I had consoles I stopped buying ps plus and live for maybe 2 or 3 years.

I thought about doing all access, but if I let my ultimate subscription lapse for just 2 months, that would put me ahead of all access.

I fully expect there to be AT LEAST 2 non-consecutive months I don't sub, so knowing that and not having to worry about yet another monthly payment budget is a better deal.

That said, and on the actual topic, Game Pass Ultimate is a huge deal. As for MS profits, its the same thing Netflix has been doing since day 1. And heck even cable companies. The reason why most subscription services work is because even just a handful of people either forget they're subscribed, or just say "it's only $15" and for some reason don't bother cancelling. Honestly I'm surprised it took this long for game companies to finally get here.

You have the potential to make $60 off of 4 people who forget to cancel, in a month that normally wouldn't have ANY game releases(which are usually stacked in Q1 and 3/4 anyway).

Regular Gold subscriptions still make sense for households with multiple accounts on a single Xbox.

I'm gamesharing and my friend has Gamepass, which means I have gamepass. With the new consoles coming out, I'm more than happy to actually pay the $35 a month for a console/Gamepass because I'll already be getting bonus amounts of time from my gameshare partner.