@bludgeonparagon: Alright, let me ask you this - how many of the games in that screenshot did you actually play? Not just "dipped your toe in out of curiosity" but "actually played a substantial amount"?
I don't dispute that there are good games on that list. Neither do I dispute that some of those games are "new". But it's not just about whether those games are there and good and are recent, it's whether you'd play them in place of the newest releases and if you would whether you'd play them on Gamepass as opposed to somewhere else. For example, in my case I've played five - Football Manager, Dead Space, Like a Dragon: Isshin, and Lies of P, and Spiritfarer. The first four I played on PS5. The last one I played on Switch.
All of which begs the questions, if I'm not going to play them on Xbox, then do they really have value as part of the Gamepass subscription?
It's like one of those gym memberships where they try to get people in the door by advertising a $10/month membership. And sure, that's great value for a gym, but only if you actually go. Otherwise it's just a recurring charge on your credit card. That's before the "sign-up" fee of actually buying the box on top of it.
I'd also point out that of the games on that list, only two are exclusive to Xbox - Forza and The Lamplighters League. Forza may as well not have been released for all the attention it got and The Lamplighters League flopped to the extent that it caused a business split and a bunch of layoffs. Not exactly great case for FOMO if I don't have Gamepass.
The answer to this is that yeah, if you're an individual in a specific situation that for whatever reason owns every single current generation console and aren't interested in playing games on the Xbox, then... yeah, spending money on Xbox Game Pass is not really a wise financial decision, for you?
These games provide value to the subscription because... they're provided as part of the subscription. If they weren't considered value for the subscription, reviewers et al. wouldn't be pointing out that they were on Game Pass ad nauseum when they list the platforms they're available on.
Not that it means too much because actually laying out stuff like playtime and so forth is obnoxiously difficult on the PC app but based off my achievements unlocked in 2023, from Game Pass I installed:
State of Decay 2 (played through to credits)
Soul Hackers 2
Crossfire X (played the story mode through to credits)
The Last Case of Benedict Fox
Planet of Lana (played through to credits)
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (couldn't beat the final boss)
Eastern Exorcist
Redfall (lol)
Venba (played through to credits)
Midnight Fight Express
Exoprimal (played through to credits)
Sea of Stars
Lies of P
Party Animals
Quake II (played through a few campaigns to credits)
Starfield (one playthrough to New Game+)
Hi Fi Rush (couple of playthroughs, this is my brainrot)
Wild Hearts
This excludes multiplayer heavy installs like Halo Infinite, Gears 5 and Forza Horizon 5 (the last of which I kind of have an obscene number of hours played out of habit).
Now it's pretty obvious that I'm an Xbox power user, and I don't own a Playstation 5 (I do have a Switch). But if I did own a Playstation 5 and a Game Pass sub at the same time and wanted to play Dead Space remake, Like a Dragon, Monster Hunter, Persona etc. etc. why would I not just download it to the Xbox? (Or my PC, for that matter? I don't think my Game Pass list here actually includes console exclusive Game Pass options)
Also, I'm probably in the minority on this but I think there is more than one way to consume a subscription-based service, and treating it as a tasting platter by drastically lowering the barrier to entry to titles that players might not have tried otherwise is no less a valid approach. I can pretty confidently say that I would not have bothered playing half of those titles listed if I had to go through the process of spending 30-100AUD to purchase them individually, and my broader gaming experience is all the better for having done so. You can split hairs about the monetary value of that practice however you like and argue that the industry should never have done away with demo culture, but that's really kind of a different set of goalposts and we've already spent enough time trying to vaguely declare personal experiences as some sort of universally-agreed median.
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