Xbox Game Pass Is an Incredible Idea That Falls Flat (For Now)

Yesterday was a big day for Xbox One owners. After a couple of years of knowing they bought an Xbox One when twice as many of their friends bought PS4s, Xbox owners got to feel vindicated in their choice as Microsoft launched the first true Netflix for digital games. Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service whereby any Xbox One owner can pay $10 a month to get access to over 100 games spanning the entire course of Xbox’s history. That sounds incredible! Too bad most of the games are kind of crap.

[bolimekurac]

what a dumb article.
game pass is awesome for the person who is a casual gamer and doesnt have the funds to throw 60 bucks on games for each game. for 9.99 a month you get a large library of good to great games. its a great cheap way for a gamer to wet his beak and not break his budget. how is that bad

[Christopher]

It's likely from the perspective of a non casual gamer. Some people don't realize that not everything is aimed at their needs or interests.

[freshslicepizza]

That's true but at least the author should do their homework first.

"which unfortunately won’t enable offline play—as the system still needs to check online and ensure you’re a Game Pass subscriber."

You can play offline for up to 30 days. Of course you have to check in since it's a monthly service otherwise you would just download all the games and cancel.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/g...

"Download and experience games in their full fidelity from top industry publishers and play offline for up to 30 days."

[nitus10]

I have never thrown $60 USD for a game since my attitude to games is wait for a sale because even an old game is new if you have never played it before. Of course, it is always a good idea not to look at spoilers and cheats for games you are interested in unless you are the impatient type in which case what I have just said is irrelevant.

If you are the type who like online games especially online only then I guess you will need to pay full price before the game effectively becomes a coaster or wasted space although there are some of those types of games that are popular for very long time and can be good value for your money, however, it must be remembered that eventually, the servers will be shutdown and the online only game is effectively dead although when that happens is anyone's guess.

[Twinblade]

There's nothing wrong with ps now and there isn't nothing wrong with Xbox Game pass.

[badz149]

yeah, but with both PS+ and XBL Gold now giving free games every month, doesn't that mean that you already have a vast amount of games to play from your library without the need to subscribe to a new service? I know I wouldn't subscribe to PSNow or any other Netflix like gaming service Sony would offer if any later on because thanks to PS+, I have too many games to chose from already that I can play all I want and when I want without the need to pay another subscription. and it's not like PSNow and this gamepass offers anything new or recent. these are just old games that might be cheaper if you buy them used and if you know where to look if you really wanna play them THAT badly

[Twinblade]

I do know that once you lose ps plus, you lose all your free games.

[badz149]

and if you stop paying for game pass, you can't play anything too. what's the difference? both are subscriptions but you just have to pay extra for game pass

[mwjw696]

This is a great service for new customers or casuals getting into xbox. Mark my work every slim sold this holiday will have 1-3 months of game pass sold with it. What insane parent or kid would not like 100s of free games for there brand new system. Beets the crap out of 1 pack in game if you ask me.

[joab777]

Love MS, but ya need games. And the play anywhere idea is also great for gamers, bit not sure how much it helps the Xbox console brand.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

So the games are mostly 360 games and they don't stay in rotation very long. I knew there was a catch.

[gangsta_red]

What catch? It was known already that the rotation would change just like any other streaming service and exactly how long were you expecting anyways?

Also this service just started and from what I have seen it's not mostly 360 but a good variety of both.

You should try it out first they have a 14 day(??) trial, so far I'm enjoying a few of their offerings and can't wait to see what they have down the road.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

On ps now there is no rotation of games. Sony adds games and they remain a part of the service for customers to choose from. The streaming for ps now has horrible input lag and game pass limits your selection to 100 games. These services have positives and negatives, you jumping in to white knight in defense mode for Microsoft doesn't change that.

[gangsta_red]

Another sales pitch for PSNow, I was wondering when someone was going to conveniently bring them up.

"Sony adds games and they remain a part of the service for customers to choose from."

You sure about this?

http://n4g.com/news/1943475...

Sorry to say but I am sure Sony removes games from PSNow due to licensing or whatever issues that may come up the same way Live or PSN may remove games from their marketplace.

Mostly 360 games? Are you positive about this? The service just released how many games are you expecting at launch? If you consider when BC was introduced and what they have now then why the concern with the "catch"?

"...you jumping in to white knight in defense mode for Microsoft doesn't change that."

And nothing will change your super attack mode for Microsoft will it?

[glennhkboy]

Initially I was excited about the Xbox Game Pass. However, once I looked at the current offering, I was disappointed. Most of the current offerings are old Xbox 360 2nd tire titles. There aren't even must-have title back then.

[XXanderXX]

I have it and no complaints or anything to complain about.

[optimus]

Personally, I like those old 360 games. Especially since I haven't played most of them. And having classic compilations from Sega and capcom is simply a bonus. So yes, I believe $10 a month is well worth it right now.

[Gaming4Life1981]

I smell hate........How is this game pass not a good idea for all gamers?
,
Honestly I wont dive in just yet because my backlog is too serious but some of these games i bought because they were cheap or a friend was talking smack lol. So this maybe a way to shut haters and non gamers up and I may be in......

[BeOpenMinded]

It's actually a good deal for some. No need for this author to spit such venom on an optional service that may be really cool to others. It's a good business move and many people will take advantage of it. 8 bucks a month is so trivial. These journalist need to throw the salt on these articles for clicks, wether you like ms or not we should all be disappointed with how low journalistic integrity is nowadays.