Featured image borrowed from Xbox.com
Microsoft is launching their Xbox Game Pass to the masses on June 1st, but they’re giving Gold members the opportunity to try it out now, in the form of a 14-day free trial. Since I’m an Xbox gamer about 90% of the time, I figured I would give my thoughts on the new service.
First off, I passed on the Preview program beta trial they were running, mainly because the list of games largely consisted of titles that I already owned. Little incentive to give it a try, and honestly I don’t even know if I would’ve been able to download many of them, since they were already installed on my system.
But the trial launched with a full list of over 100 games, so for the sake of science I signed up and downloaded a few games to give it a shot.
Value
For some reason this is the most volatile point I’ve heard out of most discussions. Most people applaud the $9.99 a month subscription price, and others claim it’s just not worth it. This is understandable, because of the simple fact that value is subjective.
Ten bucks a month for someone like me, who already owns many of the backward compatible titles, and a good number of other games, may not find as much value in it as someone who just bought (or is thinking of purchasing) an Xbox One. If I was a casual parent looking to keep their kids occupied and didn’t want to drop $60 every few weeks, this might be the answer. If I was a student strapped for cash, this would be pretty damn enticing. Who I really am though, is a person that has a hard time justifying a purchase unless there’s a real good chance I’m going to play a game more than once. Indie titles such as Gone Home and Firewatch are games I’ve heard can be amazing experiences, but offer little in terms of replayability. If Microsoft can manage a deal with these Indie developers, I can see where the Game Pass might hold value for me.
Functionality
After I activated the trial I downloaded a few of the smaller games just to give them a try. The process was pretty simple; you browse the Game Pass game list pretty much the same as you do the store, and then select the game and choose Install.
After that, the game appears in your My Games list, and this is where I have a problem.
Not that it doesn’t work, just the opposite, it works just fine. But as I mentioned above, I own a lot of games. At least 150. Not all of them are installed, but it general those are all that I own and have tied to my account. So you can maybe understand why these “rented” games being installed into my game library (and subsequently into the “ready to install” should they be removed) makes me a little uneasy. It’s hard enough keeping track of the games I own. It’s not like I can look over at my shelf and see a game case and say “Oh yeah!” Digital is different, and I started keeping track of games I uninstalled back in the Xbox 360 days, before Microsoft so graciously started keeping track for us.
But those are waters I don’t want muddied. Those game that are on that list are mine. I don’t want to be perusing my library six months down the road, after my Game Pass has long since expired, and see a game I would really like to get back into. I don’t want to boot it up, only to be greeted with a message or some such telling me I can’t play this game because I don’t own it. Well hell, I’ve been looking at it in my library for over six months, I just kinda thought it was mine!
In all honesty I don’t know what happens to the games after the Game Pass expires, but I doubt they delete themselves. Microsoft is a business, and they want you to want to keep playing that game. But would it have been so hard to include these games in a different section? My Games, Apps, Ready to Install, GAME PASS? That way there can be no mistaking that the game installed in that section is not mine to keep forever. I may be in the minority when it comes to wanting to keep my shit separate, but that’s just how I roll.
LL Cool J can relate.
Selection
To be honest, the opening selection could be a little better. I would like to see more ID@XBox games and more AAA Third Party titles, and less reliance on backward compatibility. But this is a starting pool, and it’s something that will likely evolve with time and depending on how much money MS is raking in, the newer games could be coming sooner if the adoption rate is high enough.
While it’s not a direct 1:1 comparison, Netflix struggled for a long time in getting the newer movies on the service. It wasn’t until after several years (and a price hike or two) that we started seeing the high quality original content and contracts such as the Disney one that are giving us Moana and Dr. Strange mere months after they release on home video. It will be a process, but the question is, will gamers support it enough (and for long enough) for that evolution to take place?
Conclusion
Microsoft is trying to be Number 1. Whether you think of them as generous, reformed Mr. Scrooges sharing the gaming wealth, or as a desperate, pleading company begging for gamers’ forgiveness, the fact of the matter is that we, said gamers, are the ones winning. I’ll never understand when fanboys wish for their “rival” company to fail. Competition is good, and when it’s a strong, healthy competition, we get stuff like Games with Gold, PSN+, Backward Compatibility, and now Game Pass.
Younger generations that grew up on Xbox 360 or PS3 may not think about it much, but this right now, is the biggest and healthiest market that gaming has ever seen. Again, as I mentioned above, I have over 150 games available on my system at this very moment. If I were go to back in time, to the mid-80’s and tell my kid self that this is what I have to look forward to, he would probably piss his kid pants in excitement.
Then sit and wait for 30 years.
