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Xbox Game Pass: why the subscription is right or wrong for you

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Xbox Game Pass is a subscription that gives gamers with an Xbox One access to over a hundred games for a fixed amount per month. But is the service something for you? In this article we provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages

Xbox Game Pass: the advantages and disadvantages

Both PlayStation and Xbox both have a subscription where you can play unlimited games from the range, for a fixed amount per month. On Xbox this subscription is called Xbox Game Pass. Unlike PlayStation Now, as the subscription to PlayStation is called, you do not stream the games from the catalog to your console, but install them. You have to come online once a month with your Xbox to keep playing the games, in addition to paying 9.99 euros per month for access.

Not so long ago, Microsoft announced that it intends first-party titles (games created by – studios from – Microsoft) launch directly within the subscription. This means that you can immediately play the latest Microsoft games for the price of two normal games per year. That sounds too good to be true of course, so there must be some catches. In this article, we discuss the pros and cons of the Xbox Game Pass gaming subscription.

Advantage: many games for little money

The first advantage is immediately clear: with Xbox Game Pass you get access to over a hundred games a month, often a little more. You do not have to download and play them all at the same time, so you can play them all one by one and start the next title (even if you have little disk space). The catalog contains games from the Xbox (the first!), The Xbox 360 and the Xbox One, so you are not ready with gaming. In addition, new games are added for a few months.

Advantage: many single player games

This is closely related to the previous advantage. And it is more of an advantage that might show its value in the longer term. Creating single-player games costs a lot of money and does not yield just as much as multiplayer titles, free-to-play games and games as a service . By delivering (sometimes short) games directly to the service, you gain access to many single player adventures, and the developer is assured of an income. Moreover, you do not need Xbox Live to get the most out of such a game.

Advantage: Microsoft games directly to play

We mentioned it just like that: the games of Microsoft will soon be directly playable via Xbox Game Pass. Are you looking forward to Sea of ​​Thieves, Crackdown 3 (when it may be released) or State of Decay and do you think there are a number of attractive titles in the range? Then you would do well to invest in this subscription. Moreover, this also applies to all future releases of Microsoft, so you get access to exclusive content and of course the rest of the offer for the price of two (basic) games per year.

Advantage: games do not install and stream

Unlike what Sony does with PlayStation Now or Nvidia with GeForce Now, you do not stream the games from the range to your Xbox One. You install them on your hard disk and play them just like your other games would play. You do not have to worry about high Internet speeds or lag, because that is simply not the case. You just find the downloaded titles in your My games & apps section and you can download everything from the cloud right away. And as long as you have a subscription, you also have access to everything from the catalog.

Disadvantage: expensive subscription in these situations

If you are a gamer who plays a game now and then, you already have a gigantic backlog (a backlog is a pile of games that you have not yet arrived at) or who prefers to play the latest games directly, then that 9.99 euro per month is quite a big amount. That is 120 euros per year that you spend on a subscription that you do not use optimally. That’s why you might want to look first at what you want to play, so you can calculate what you would save if you were to buy all those games separately.

Disadvantage: downloadable content must be purchased separately

For that decade per month you get access to a large number of titles, and that is of course nice. But when you have finished the game and would like to start with downloadable content, you will have to buy it separately. Then you buy, as it were, digital goods for a game that you technically do not own. It could be that in the future games will be added that are complete (called GOTY or Complete Editions), but then developers and publishers can earn less on their products.

Disadvantage: games can be removed from the catalog disappear

Suppose you just have a game in mind or on your list that you want to play next. But then you come to your download list and you see that that game has disappeared – that can happen. The fact that the game can now be played with Xbox Game Pass does not mean that this is always the case. You will be notified when the game disappears from the list, so you have the chance to buy it (with a discount of twenty percent). As a result, the offer fluctuates not only from Game Pass, but in fact also the value.

Disadvantage: many old games

When you look in the catalog of Xbox Game Pass, it is striking that you mainly come across old games. Games released on the Xbox 360. These are not necessarily bad games of course, but you buy an Xbox One to play modern games. In the coming months we hope to find a lot more Xbox One games, and preferably also some recent titles. Now there is some improvement in that, but nonetheless you have to assume that you are dealing with a ditch of ‘old content’.

Xbox Game Pass: the provisional conclusion

Xbox Game Pass is really not a bad subscription, but on a number of practical examples the service is still a bit disappointing. You get access to a wide range of (mainly) single player titles and you can also play the latest Microsoft games directly. Moreover, you can purchase games and dlc at a discount and you do not have to worry about high download speeds. On the other hand, it is regrettable that games will disappear from the offer, which means that you will have to buy separately and that you will have to deal with a ditch of old games.

That’s why Game Pass is now especially good for people who have a lot of time to play games and games. still lag behind when it comes to playing games. For other games the service needs to be strengthened a little; the offer can still feel somewhat limited at the time of writing. Fortunately, you can try Xbox Game Pass before you spend € 9.99 each month. You get free access to the subscription for two weeks; if you notice that you already use it often, then it is probably worth the investment.