Introducing the new Xbox One Pass

http://news.xbox.com/2017/02/28/introducing-xbox-game-pass/

So for $9.99 a month Xbox One users will get access to 100 games from the Xbox One library and 360 backwards compatibility library. It's not a streaming service as far as I can tell and is coming out this Spring.

This sounds pretty cool, I don't own an Xbox One but my flatmate does and he's the sort of guy who would love this (since he only plays maybe 2/3 games and refuses to pay full price for anything). I'd be curious to see how many of these are simply single-player games vs multiplayer focussed games. They're putting Halo 5 on this, you'd wonder if they also add Gears of War and the rest of their multiplayer franchises hoping more people jump on board and start paying for microtransactions, who knows.

This is an amazing idea. Some people are going to complain that this is stuff that should be through Games with Gold instead of ANOTHER subscription, but this looks like much more than Games with Gold. It's like a bigger version of EA Access, which is also a great service.

I am sure most of these games will be older titles and such, but for gamers on a budget this allows them to have basically all you can eat games at a very affordable price. Almost anyone can scrape together $10 a month. Can you imagine being a teenager over summer break with this? For $30 you could have all the games you can play for a summer. That's an incredible deal.

The obvious difference between this and Playstation Now is that you get (some) current gen games and you can download them, so you don't need to worry about whether your Internet connection has too much latency, and its easier on bandwidth caps (though obviously that is still a concern.)

Obviously it depends somewhat on the games that will be put in the pass, but the promo shows games like Halo 5, Gears of War, and Mad Max that are pretty darn good games (if a bit older).

Will I personally get this service? I don't know. I own most of the games that I want from this generation so I'm not sure someone like me would find a lot of value in it, but for gamers on a budget, and especially kids and teens, this thing is going to be absolutely spectacular.

I know people give Xbox a lot of flack this gen, but with an Xbox One-S costing like $250, EA Access, and now this, Xbox is doing a ton for gamers with more limited budgets. Gold costs $5 a month (if you buy a year) EA Access costs $2.50 and this is going to be $10, so for about the price of HBO you can have more games than just about anyone could play available to you. I know that even as a teen I could have scraped together $20 a month for these services, and I would have been in absolute heaven with this many games available.

This is a pretty amazing deal. This is what Sony and Nintendo should have been doing for years with their back catalogs.

Yeah, unfortunately I think Sony don't feel the need to do it right now as it's still on top and I doubt this will help sell a huge amount of Xboxs. As for Nintendo, well, it would just make too much sense for them to do it.

I'm in!

Sony sort of IS doing it with Playstation Now. It's just PS3 only and streaming, but it's conceptually similar.

Nintendo will give you one month access to a single SNES game if you subscribe to their online service, so in a way that's even better, because you're not BURDENED with all these games you don't have time to play, and you won't let games slip into your backlog because you only have a month to play them. So in a way Nintendo's service is the best if you REALLY think about it.

It's good I think. Can't wait for the constant bitching about the library.

Yeah I think EA Access type services make a lot of sense for a lot of people. I doubt I would ever use this but a nice option to have for sure.

I'll probably get this - should save my kids constantly complaining that they have nothing new to play :-)

Edit: assuming it works like Gold sharing, otherwise it'll be too expensive to have separate subscriptions for the three of us.

Yea, PS Now is similar in concept its just that the execution leaves much to be desired. This is a much smarter and better solution since 360 games mostly run fine on Xbox One and it includes current gen titles at a cheaper price.

This seems like a cool service. Decent price point too.

Xbox Game Pass will only be available on Xbox One and Windows 10 devices.

Taken from their FAQ at bottom of this page. So PC version also incoming?

A great idea that hinges on how quickly new games come to the service and how transparent they are about games that are about to leave the catalogue. The 20% discount to permanently purchase a game (10% discount on DLC) that is part of the service is a nice feature, but carries more weight if those are newer titles. Either way, I'm keeping my eye on this.

EA Access must be doing really well for them.

That is a fantastic value proposition, basically reintroducing the idea of renting except on a massive scale and at an outrageously fair price point.

Might be a good reason to knock the dust off the ol' XB1

I'm of the opinion that whoever can create an affordably priced and user friendly gaming subscription service (aka gaming Netflix) will eventually dominate the industry. Microsoft's implementation has a long way to go to achieve that, but this is the closest I've seen so far. Who knows, maybe in a few years it'll develop, but for now I'm glad that they're trying.

This is a really, really cool idea that's been a long time coming.

I've become increasingly less bothered about playing new games at launch, so the idea of having access to a bunch of games from years gone by to check out and catch up on is actually really appealing.

I wonder if it's going to push developers even further into the idea of new games as live ongoing services and incentivise people into buying them while they are new, with some 'Elusive Target' style elements.

This is pretty awesome. I have EA access and enjoy that service and this seems like a better version of that!

It's a really smart move - probably a lot easier to sell access of $10 a month instead of an individual 360 game for $10.

@paulmako: Someone should run some numbers and see how the profits could work out, I think people will be too greedy to roll out something like this for anything but back catalogue or older games...

This is a cool thing. I hope they're able to fill out the library with quality games. $10 seems like a steal with the amount of value they are suggesting here. I won't buy into this, but I could see this being very successful.

@wynnduffy: very much depends on the subscriber base. If only 500,000 subscribe then that is just 5 million a month, hard to get anything but games that have pretty much exhausted their commercial lives.

If 8.5 million people subscribe that is a billion dollars a year. At that point much more is on the table. Might even start commissioning games released only on Xbox Pass, like Netflix original programming.

Very hard to know until we see if it gains momentum.

I think that it will not be popular among duders until it gets exclusive content because most of us have already bought the games we want. Of course if they do something nuts like release Halo 6 on Xbox Pass only that might change things, but there would also be backlash.

I'm definitely in on this! Where did the $9.99 figure come from? Did I miss it?

@tyn0mite: end of second paragraph

@bigsocrates: Oops duh!

fantastic news for Xbox One owners and PC!

frankly this makes PS NOW look like a bad deal by comparison

Your move Sony & Nintendo (please offer something similar)

I'm glad they're doing this, but as someone who has a 2 terabyte drive literally filled with unplayed games I think I'm good. For anyone buying an Xbox One for the first time, this should be a no-brainer though.

Looking at the picture of possible games there is still nothing that would want me to 1: buy a xbox1 2: pay an extra $10 (£10?) for an added service. Yes PSN is crap but I don't see this offering anything better.

It's not for me, since my backlog covers everything I'd want to play from that back catalog already; but to anyone with the desire to play back-titles from the Xbox catalog but not the established personal library to do so, I bet this is very enticing.

We always knew some day someone was going to introduce a "Netflix, but for games" service that works and takes off. This could be the first one that does that.

That's a really cool idea. I'm not going to subscribe because I already have a lot of games to play but, it definitely seems like a good service for people who don't own a lot of games.

I would be really interested in something like this if I had an Xbox One. Cool idea.

I just realized I pay 10 bucks a month for Netflix, use it sparingly, and barely blink an eye at this purchase. I would have to imagine that I would get much more out of my 10 dollars with this service!

It's a really nice idea. A lot of the wording in the release statement is also very clearly addressing the shortcomings of the PS+ and PSNow system.

'One of the best things about Xbox Game Pass is that you can discover and download the full titles directly on your Xbox One. That means continuous, full-fidelity gameplay without having to worry about streaming, bandwidth or connectivity issues. In addition, all Xbox One games in the catalog – and related add-ons – will be available to purchase at an exclusive discount for Xbox Game Pass members, so you can make the games you love part of your permanent library to play whenever you want.'

I think it's a great idea at a great price point, but it might not be for me. Much more often than not I know well in advance what games I'm going to be playing, and pre-order or buy them day one. This service might be good for filling in the gaps between those games, though.

Now this makes for something really interesting!

Oh how the times change.

Just now finding out about this. I like this idea. I've subscribed to EA access in the past and its been fantastic. Especially since I can cancel at any time. I went through, payed $5/month for two months and played through ME3 and dabbled through some other titles. I wouldn't have want to buy them outright. So something like this on the Xbox One will be great. Definitely intersted.

Not sure how I missed this news a month ago!