Xbox Game Pass was originally designed as a rental service, Microsoft reveals

Xbox Game Pass began life as a game rental service, according to a new interview.

[darthv72]

Well... it IS a rental service. Just no return date or late fees.

[DJStotty]

No, it is a subscription service, a rental service would be a rental fee per game, for a period decided by the gamer.

[Teflon02]

Seeing how often games are taken off, I'd call it rental still

[4Sh0w]

Call it what you want Xbox gamers are playing everything from BC, to Indie, to AAA games without shelling out $20-$70 a pop, I call that a win.

[PitbullMonster]

So do PS Gamers with PSnow.

[dbcoops]

A subscription service doesn't take away the item you're subscribing to and then expect you to pay again to get it back.

[porkChop]

@dbcoops
"take away the item you're subscribing to"

You're subscribing to the service not to any specific piece of content. And yes, subscription services do in fact take content away. Netflix and Amazon both remove content constantly when they add new stuff to the service. The library doesn't just get bigger and bigger. Every subscription has to deal with licensing.

[CrimsonWing69]

Isn’t a subscription technically a rental service? I mean you don’t own the games, you can’t play them forever, and if you want to own them you have to buy them. The only difference I can truly see is the duration of availability.

[CaptainHenry916]

It's a subscription and rental service that will be over $30 bucks a month in the future

[4Sh0w]

PitbullMonster

Except PSnow is more comparable to Xbox Live Gold, old games, thats great but theres a reason why Gamepass is either loved or attacked, while nobody talks about PSnow & Gold. The biggest selling point of Gamepass is all 1st party games & a few 3rd party AAA games day one, so yeah call it what you want.

[dbcoops]

@porkChop

The service is meaningless without the content so you're wrong and point me to any article anywhere ever that said "leaving Netflix soon" and then we'll talk. Defend and move goal posts all you like but I didn't set the service up the way it is that's on MS.

[porkChop]

@dbcoops
"point me to any article anywhere ever that said "leaving Netflix soon"

Sure. It's a simple google search. Netflix itself literally gives you notifications when stuff in your watchlist is leaving the service. Here's articles about content leaving Netflix for the past 4 months

November:
https://www.pcmag.com/news/...

October:
https://collider.com/whats-...

September:
https://mobilesyrup.com/202...

August:
https://www.nytimes.com/202...

"Defend and move goal posts all you like but I didn't set the service up the way it is that's on MS."

I haven't moved anything. It's not my fault you don't understand the basics of how all of these subscription services work.

[DJStotty]

Personal preference i guess on what to call it, i call it a subscription service, i am not paying each month, to say "rent" Halo Infinite, i am paying each month to have access to the entire catalogue of games, each of which are offered at a reduced price when they are set to leave.

Access to 1st party alone, justifies the price, and these games never leave the service, and are all available day 1 (before you throw Forza into the mix saying "but but but" Forza Motorsport historically gets all access removed to purchase, way before gamepass was even a thing), so 3 releases a year on gamepass, pays for itself as opposed to £70 each (£210 for 3 games each year).

Bash the service, call the service whatever you will, rental, sub, cash grab, mediocre, whatever, in my opinion, it is the best thing that has happened with xbox, and i have been subbed since Day 1, with zero interest in cancelling, even if they double the price (which is not going to happen) i still save.

But.... peeps be mad i guess....

[blacktiger]

read what he said lol!

[Magog]

Agreed. They yank the games after a set period of time. That's a rental. You own nothing. Most of the stuff I want to watch on Netflix has disappeared like Miami Vice and Borgia. Same crappy feeling of paying for nothing.

[darthv72]

...but unlike Netflix, you get the chance to buy what it is you are renting from GP. And at a discount. sort of like Redbox with their sales on previous rentals.

[Magog]

@darthv72 why would I want to pay twice for the same thing? I'm not about to let a corporation worth billions double dip into my pocket.

[Orchard]

"Same crappy feeling of paying for nothing."

We must have very different definitions of 'nothing'. Some of the highest rated games of the year are on GamePass.

[Magog]

@Orchard by "Same crappy feeling of paying for nothing." I wasn't referring to the content quality. I was referring to what you're left with when that content leaves the service. The better the content the worse the feeling actually.

[Orchard]

@Magog But the reality is, 99% of games are 'one and done' situations.

The number of games I replay beyond completion or play for more than a few months are very few and far between.

I subscribe to gamepass on PC and I've easily consumed more content than the subscription cost. So it's a huge money saver for me, and likely for a lot of other folk.

[Magog]

@Orchard I'm not necessarily referring to games I've completed more to games I never got around to playing or games that later receive expansions.

[MadLad]

You get the games for either 6 months, or even a year +

Some remain on the service for any foreseeable future. Paying for Gamepass also gives you free extra content for many games, as well as discounts on the games offered via the service.

How exactly is that paying for nothing? You drop the monthly subscription fee, and you instantly have access to a large library of many quality games.
That's not paying for nothing.

[Petebloodyonion]

I understand the feeling but I feel that it's a different stroke for different folks kinda thing.
Let me ask you how many games have you sold after completing them because you knew that you would never return to it?
Personally, I use Gamepass like Netflix or every TV show I watch basically a once-and-done deal.
But I have no problem investing in games that I feel deserve to be kept around.

But again to each is own.

[CR7JUVE1897]

But that set period of time you are referring to is anywhere from 6 months to at least a year. Especially the 1st party titles. Sorry to say, but if you are really looking forward to a game that is coming to Game Pass (Forza 5, or Halo Infinite for example) , know that it is going to be there for at least 6 months, and don't play it, well, that's on you, man. I could understand if it were on for only a couple of months, but the real heavy hitters A) Stay on there for an extended period of time, and B) are more than likely games that you want to play right away to begin with.

If they suddenly take Forza Horizon 4 off of the system, well, shame on me for not finishing a game that is over 3 years old

[franwex]

Did it feel crappy when you rented stuff at a video store 20 year’s ago? Or going to watch a movie in a theater, a theme park, casino, etc?

[glennhkboy]

So, do you ever buy a movie ticket & watch movie in a cinema? You watch the movie at that piacular time & place. Do you feel crappy for not owning the physical copy of that movie?

[343_Guilty_Spark]

You're just playing with words at this point.

[MadLad]

That's all he knows how to do, and doesnt even do it well.
Comes in, trashes something for a reaction; his point is usually easily broken down and delegitimized, and then he just dances around his own words; avoiding the criticism.

[shamon85]

lol

[XiNatsuDragnel]

So was a blockbuster now a Netflix I'm curious??

[blackblades]

And Netflix kept raising the price over the years.

[Magog]

@activision 4k game streaming is much more expensive for Microsoft. They need to buy and run "blades" ie entire Series X consoles for every person who streams. They also have to pay huge fees to ISPs to run that data over their fiber optics.

[Orchard]

@Magog That's not strictly accurate/true.

1. They need a Series X console for each person actively streaming at one time, so concurrent user counts, not one per subscriber.

2. A Series X is far cheaper than a typical datacenter blade that would be in Azure anyway

3. Cloud providers typically have their own leases for main backbones and bulk agreements, they aren't paying Comcast by the gigabyte like you are at home. That plus they would already be paying for said agreement anyway, assuming they continue to operate Azure.

4. Netflix has a higher cost to steam 4K because they utilize other companies datacenters. Azure, AWS etc are all sold at a (heavily) marked up price. Obviously for MS, they are operating at cost only since they own Azure.

[dbcoops]

And so will xbox.

[Godmars290]

@Activision:
Neither's making 2nd rate live action remakes of popular anime.

[blackblades]

@Activision
Yeah, I don't like there subs theyre are stupid. I just want 1 screen with 4k for cheaper not the 4 screen 4k plan for high cost when I'm the only one gonna use it. I dump that crap quick.

[Teflon02]

That's what annoys me with Netflix. Like here in Canada it's $20 now for 4K with 4 screens. While currently I have a little cousin who's not so little anymore using it and a family friends daughter using as well, I'm fine with 4 screens. But soon I plan to cut everyone off and let them get their own. But it's pointless because I absolutely want 4k streaming, but I want a lower price, so now I'm pretty much at the point of cutting it and I'll pay for a month randomly when I know there's a few things I wanna watch

[CrimsonWing69]

Netflix was a rental service.

They literally evolved the format into streaming. Before it was pay for the service and they mail you the movie to watch and you mail it back.

[0rbital71]

gamepass is the sole reason ive gone series consoles only this gen, i have a 3080 pc, so can wait for sony now to drop their exclusives into it, also got very fast fttp and cloud gaming on my xbox one first gen is crazy good.

[Welshy]

If you have a 3080 PC, surely the logical choice would have been to go with PS5? Everything on Series X including the gamepass service is on your PC so you gain literally nothing by owning a series X.

PC and PS5 is the optimal 2 system setup so that you get access to everything from both Sony and MS instead of 2 systems in Series/PC that have the exact same games. You could throw switch in there too if you're so inclined.

[Teflon02]

Some people don't know how to make good choices lol. They literally made no sense if we're using logic. There's no way gamepass made them choose Xbox when they could have just played it all on PC with the Xbox control and get a ps5 where the games that don't come to PC are at still lol. It's like buying The same thing twice and saying they're happy they bought it twice and the thing that had some wanted differences sat there lol. I have a PC with a 1080 that I need to upgrade eventually and literally have been able to play any Xbox game release I was interested in. Thing is I don't mess with the MS store since the PSO2 situation and the fact it doesn't support ps controls which I prefer and steam does

[DJStotty]

@Welshy

"If you have a 3080 PC, surely the logical choice would have been to go with PS5?"

They literally stated the reason for going with the Xbox

"gamepass is the sole reason ive gone series consoles"

So logically, he has opted to sub to Gamepass Ultimate, to get the PC games, along with cloud gaming and Series, and awaiting Sony to put their games on to PC (PSNOW service), to me they have made the logical choice of owning everything, as opposed to just PS5 and PC games.

Just because you own a 3080 GPU, does not mean you have the PC grunt to get the performance, maybe they see better FPS/resolution results on the console? who knows, either way, that is their choice.

@Teflon02

"There's no way gamepass made them choose Xbox when they could have just played it all on PC"

But you need to sub to the xbox ecosystem to gain access to those PC games right? i mean yeah some are available to purchase via Steam/GOG, but why pay full price for 1st party, when you can sub to a service each month?

[dbcoops]

So why not play the xbox games on your 3080 PC through gamepass? Your comment makes no sense but maybe you just wanted to make the Playstation exclusives coming to PC comment. Might be a long wait.

[Orchard]

Not all gamepass games are on PC - a good amount are Xbox only.

Why would you care if someone plays Playstation published games on PC?

[dbcoops]

@Orchard

Not all Playstation games are on PC the majority are on Playstation. Hmmm guess that works both ways.

Wasn't about the ability it was about the intention of the comment. You're always looking to start trouble and instigate a fight, I'm not interested you'll have to try with someone else.

[Orchard]

@dbcoops Then the simple solution is to buy whichever platforms you need to cover the games you want to play ;)

I have a gaming PC (mainly for RTS & some FPS games) and a PS5 for everything else, that covers my needs currently. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

Start trouble? I just pointed out the obvious that not every game pass game is available on PC... I have a PC gamepass subscription and quite a few games are missing.

[GhostofHorizon]

@Orchard - The obvious is to pick PC and PS5 to cover majority of games.

The obvious is NOT to go with PC and Xbox since they share the same games, you can try to spin this however you like but you're defending someone who is either being dishonest in his choices or someone that clearly made a logistical mistake.
Neither of which makes you look good.

For someone who went out of their way to purchase a PS5, you sure seem to hate it. Perhaps that's why you hate it, you probably wish you could do all of your gaming on a PC. Perhaps one day, but for now, keep on hating.

[Orchard]

"The obvious is to pick PC and PS5 to cover majority of games."

Surely that's subjective? Not everyone is the same.

"you're defending someone who is either being dishonest in his choices or someone that clearly made a logistical mistake."

Firstly, I'm not defending anyone, secondly, there's no such thing as making a logistical mistake when buying a console - if you want the console, and you have the money, you are free to spend your money as you wish.

"For someone who went out of their way to purchase a PS5"

Went out of my way? I had to punch in my credit card number to a website, it wasn't particularly physically or mentally challenging 😂

"you sure seem to hate it. Perhaps that's why you hate it, you probably wish you could do all of your gaming on a PC. Perhaps one day, but for now, keep on hating."

Hmm? Where did I say I hate my PS5? I have two, and I love them. I don't wish I could do all my gaming on the PC - the opposite in fact - I find it a lot more comfortable to play on the couch on my console. I use my PC for RTS and a few FPS games. If console had those RTS games, and the controls were decent, I'd get them on console instead.

[GhostofHorizon]

I'm sure this whole act will work on someone who hasn't been around here for a while but it's getting really old.

You have used up any good will you've had with me at this point, you're not much better than that guy that creates multiple accounts each day to bash Nintendo and Sony fans, at least he can admit what he stands for.

You're not fooling anyone.

[Orchard]

@Nakiro I'm going to assume that means you don't have answers to any of my questions.

And I'm not sure where you got it from that I'm trying to fool you? Fool you about what?

[DJStotty]

@dbcoops

I have a PC, and also have a Series X, why you ask? because the Series X outputs better performance than my PC currently does, along with having access to games across both platforms.

Like Orchard, games like AOE4 and thousands of other FPS/RTS games, are simply not available on Series or PS, so you play these on PC, then it is just preference on the console platform, Orchard opted for PS5, nothing wrong with that, i opted Series X, again nothing wrong with that, main reasoning is my fellow gamers, are all on xbox, and i did not feel like starting a new community from scratch on a new platform.

People call it opinions and preferences, to say things like "So why not play the xbox games on your 3080 PC through gamepass? Your comment makes no sense" is simply showing that for some reason you are unhappy with that persons life choices. I like having a PC in the office, a console in the bedroom, that is all.

[DJStotty]

@Nakiro

"The obvious is NOT to go with PC and Xbox since they share the same games, you can try to spin this however you like but you're defending someone who is either being dishonest in his choices or someone that clearly made a logistical mistake."

Ok so i own a Series X, Xbox One X, Xbox 360, and a gaming PC.

So everyone like me is illogical in their choices because they do not align with yours?

[dbcoops]

@DJStotty

"is simply showing that for some reason you are unhappy with that persons life choices."

No it shows I made a simple suggestion to Orbital71 that made far more sense based on his setup, which for some reason you are unhappy with me making.

[Magog]

Switch Online has 32 million members. Nearly double that of Gamepass. I wonder why we don't get daily articles about Switch Online? It comes with game rentals too. 💪

[TheGreatGazoo30]

@ Magog

When switch online includes the new Zelda and Mario games for no extra cost, then it'll be like GamePass.

Also, GamePass is estimated at 25-30 million which is not half of 32 million.

[CBaoth]

estimated lol? You mean like the last time xbox fans tried to inflate the GP numbers?

[FanboysKiller]

They choose the wording carefully for marketing purposes, we get it.

[darkrider]

Its a rental service and gamers that have it are buying less and less games.

[4Sh0w]

As they should, since they are paying for a service that developers get paid to be a part of.

Next you'll tell us that *most Netflix subscribers dont buy the same amount of movies they did before they started subscribing.

Next you'll tell us water is wet...so what Captain Obvious we like wet water and Gamepass.

[blacktiger]

movies and games are not the same, thats where you are bad at math

[TheGreatGazoo30]

The number of people that don't understand the difference between rental and subscription services is disturbing.

[ScootaKuH]

That's basically what it is though

[blacktiger]

how many second does xbox game pass lagg has? Because my wireless mouse with $200 has lag, PS NOW has horribgle lag. I wonder how much lag does Gamepass has

[anast]

They figured out how to provide a rental service without saying it's a rental service. People are not this stupid, it's just that there are few options for cheap mid-low tier gaming. There's basically three: Playstation, Nintendo and Xbox. Anyone can turn water into wine, if the people are starved enough to believe it. It's cool, I get it, but be aware that there are no favors being extended here, it is still a rental service.