Microsoft announced today a new digital game rental service called Xbox
Game Pass. Microsoft boasts that it will contain over 100 Xbox One and Xbox
360 Backwards Compatible games to be played on your Xbox One or Windows
device.
Famitsu has published its estimated physical game software data for Japan for week of June 2, 2025 to June 8, 2025.
Hardware Sales (followed by lifetime sales)
Switch 2 – 947,931 (New)
PlayStation 5 – 14,535 (5,690,661)
Switch OLED Model – 8,040 (9,060,680)
Switch Lite – 6,089 (6,581,795)
PlayStation 5 Pro – 4,230 (218,056)
Switch – 2,482 (20,109,545)
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 2,017 (974,094)
Xbox Series S – 163 (337,686)
Xbox Series X – 113 (320,660)
Xbox Series X Digital Edition – 57 (20,820)
PlayStation 4 – 24 (7,929,628)
So its official. Switch 2 dethroned PS2 in Japan for the biggest hardware launch ever.
Tripled the switch launch numbers, yeah Nintendo's domination of the Japanese market is going smooth
And take note. This is just for retail sales only; sales from the Nintendo Japanese website are not yet included.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer explains that the new ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X is Microsoft's best collaboration between gaming and Windows teams.
Next Level Racing just revealed an officially licensed flight simulation cockpit for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and MSFS 2020.
Tempting... but I have to say I am more of an arcade deluxe cab fan. I loved the ones for Galaxy Force, Thunder Blade and After Burner.
I am curious if this will impact their games with gold offerings. Meaning if they will have games overlap or if GwG will have games not offered in game pass each month. OR... if game pass would mean the end of GwG....? That would suck but if given a choice of $10 a month (I know there are cheaper rates) for 4 games (and online play) vs $10 a month for 100 games... I may drop the online play in favor of more games per month.
I don't really play much online anymore anyways. Hopefully there will be a yearly option as well.
It seems like the looked at EA-access and decided to bower some ideas for it, then offer to include other companies. The main differences here being the price and lack of a vault. The added benefit is obviously access to a larger variety of games from multiple publishers.
I would have preferred if they gave a yearly payment option. When you renew, you could pay $130 and call it Xbox platinum... obviously replacing the current Xbox platinum and put gold back to $50.
It's a rip off that's what it is, providing games that you would find on eBay for cheap on a subscription, yes that's right another subscription.
Don't be suprised when they start rolling out new games with subscriptions to continue playing as it's already been discussed. Not a season pass, a monthly fee.