Why Xbox Game Pass Is Microsoft's Gaming Future

As the video game industry prepares to enter the age of streaming, Microsoft's on-demand service is starting to look like the future of content delivery.

[Xavi4K]

Well just like netflix the more first party content in there the better value it will have What I like the most about it is the ability to try some games before deciding to own it

[Goldby]

Only downfall to that system is if it creates exclusives games just for gamepass, you are not inky giving up ownership to brand new games, but locking them behind a paywall.

The same issue occurs with Netflix, amazon and such, but because in most cases a movie or show can be watched within a day or two it isn't as impactful as a game that takes weeks or even months to complete. Only to have achievements stating you completed it but no real ownership.

Gamepass is good for a bunch of reasons, I just hope they don't make exclusive content just for the service

[AmstradAmiga]

If that's your argument you're in the minority. How many gamers sell a game after completing it to be left with only achievements...oh, and also the experience of having played it.

[Goldby]

Point being though, once they were finished they sold it. They got money back on their product that they bought, this takes all that out.

That's the difference

[Zeref]

Why would they ever make exclusive content for it? That makes no business sense. If people want to buy the $60 game instead of joining your $10 a month service. Let them be. They won't lose money lol

[Goldby]

@Zeref

Why not ask Netflix, or Hulu, or Amazon.

Exclusives sell, whether it be a tv show like the GRAND tour, a movie like anon or a game like God of War.

If In time more companies are doing the service like MS. Then MS will need to bring something to it that players can't get anywhere else.

[paintedgamer1984]

I just feel they are too early to the party, had they waited until next gen and made it a staple to set themselves apart, it may have had a bigger impact

[giovanealex]

wut?

[PhoenixUp]

It’s an alternative delivery not the definitive future

[showtimefolks]

it's a nice service and will help some but to say it's the future i think is jumping to a conclusion without having years of data backing that up. I have said it many times to a lot of hateful comments but facts remain

gamepass
EA access
BC

are all nice features but they will never be the reason majority will buy an xbox brand console. Actual exclusives matter and that's where MS is lagging/lacking. It's always funny to me when xbox fans will be dismissive about exclusives yet we have over 2 decades of data that tells us the systems with the most games usually sell the most(unless your gimmicky console catches fire "Wii") Nintendo survived without 3rd partyies due to their exclusives yet on their 3rd console ms all of the sudden thought exclusives won't matter

it's a totally embarrassment that xbox one is around 30 million yet ps4 is about to get to 80 million for 2 consoles which launch around the same time. I really hope this is the wake up call(even thought MS/phil spencer have shown they care more about GAAS than actual games) if it was up to MS they rather make only 5 games in a gen but launch them all as GAAS and make as much as possible and some xbox fanboys will claim that that's the best way to play anyway

[KyRo]

Until EA, Ubisoft, SE, Sega, Activision etc all jump on the game pass bandwagon and before you know it your paying a shit tone every month. It's good for now as it's an option but if things changed gaming would get a lot more expensive for some of us.

[rainslacker]

Yep. And that's a problem. Either you have a centralized service like Game Pass, which gets content from the different publishers, or you have a whole bunch of services available from multiple publishers.

This puts the industry in a bad position, because while a person may buy from any publisher when it's easy enough to just pop in a disc, when you have a customer locked into a subscription, it becomes less likely they'll subscribe to a 2nd service, then a third, and much less a fourth....so on and so forth. This leaves smaller publishers at a disadvantage, or reliant on another company to get their content on such a service. Those with the most high profile games can leverage that to make more money in the mean time.

In any case, what kind of content do people really expect to show up on these services? Publishers have gone on about how expensive it is to make games. Why would they continue to make a plethora of games with huge budgets, when they know that they can make a few of their money makers and be just fine.

If a service such as game pass becomes "the future", then it is not going to be the beautiful utopia that some people seem to think it is.

I think people should see how these services hold up over the long term before clamoring for them to be the best way to consume games.

[ILostMyMind]

I'll pass...

[TheOttomatic91]

That’s not necessarily a good thing