Microsoft announced yesterday that it will be expanding its gaming subscription service, the Xbox Game Pass, to include first-party releases on day one launch. For subscribers, that means they will get Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3 on release day. This will also mean that future titles from the Halo, Forza and Gears franchises will also be added to the library when they launch.
The service launched in South Africa back in September last year at R159 per month, the service has one of the most diverse libraries of Xbox 360 and Xbox One titles which means subscribers will always have something new to play.
According to Head of Gaming, Phil Spencer, the response to the service has been truly overwhelming since the service launched in June 2017.
“We’ve been blown away by the incredible response. Following launch, we heard from fans around the world who wanted Xbox Game Pass in their country. In September, we expanded globally and Xbox Game Pass is now available to fans in 40 countries. We’ve also continued to expand the catalog with new games added to the Xbox Game Pass library every month, so there is always something new to play.”
The service was a pretty attractive little bundle when it launch which allowed players not just to stream but to download games, now subscribers get to play titles exclusively from Microsoft Studios. But on the other hand, Microsoft hasn’t faired well with Xbox-exclusive titles over the past few years with titles either delayed (Crackdown 3) or titles being scrapped altogether (Scalebound).
But with the Game Pass service and the backward compatibility being the driving force behind Xbox’s ecosystem (and let’s not forget the support for original Xbox titles), Microsoft is certainly no couch potato and definitely something Nintendo and Sony should be afraid of.
While this may be a sign of bigger, brighter things ahead for Xbox, Spencer has shared a similar sentiment for what lies ahead for Xbox this year:
“We’ve only scratched the surface of the opportunity this new model brings to the industry and what we can deliver to our fans. We firmly believe Xbox Game Pass will be a catalyst to create new opportunities for game developers and publishers to innovate in the way games are developed and delivered, leading to entirely new ways to play.”
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