Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: microsoft, xbox, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live, xbox one

Xbox To Roll Out A Subscription Service This Spring

Published Tue, 28 Feb 2017 12:22:06 -0600

If you want Netflix but with video games, Microsoft will start offering the Xbox Game Pass this spring which will give you access to a host of Xbox games for a monthly subscription service. Game Pass will have over 100 titles available from Xbox One and backward-compatible titles. The bad news? You still have to download the games to your hard drive. Xbox Live Gold members will get access earlier than silver members, and the service is currently in Alpha preview.

The titles will exist on a rotational basis, so that game you were playing last week might not exist when you log on today. Granted, you can purchase any of the Game Pass titles for a discount, but it ultimately sounds a bit too much like a cash grab.

Sure, it sounds great, but when you break down the math, the Game Pass subscription is $9.99 a month, assuming it takes you a month or two to decide you want to buy a game, that's another $19.98 on top of the purchase price for the game. Sure, those games will be discounted and we're not sure how much, but even if you decide to purchase the game immediately, it's still an extra $9.99 on top of the game. And that monthly fee works out to around to $119.88 for the year. Which is roughly twice what you'd be paying for Xbox Live Gold. And Gold members get free game access each month, which is a nice perk. There isn't much reason for someone with a Gold subscription to pay for Game Pass.

Now assuming you've realized that paying money for older games, even at a steep discount, wouldn't make much financial sense and decide to just browse, you're still lining Microsoft's pockets for essentially a game demo service that's going to eat into your HD space. Your limited, limited HD space.

It's essentially a dressed up PlayStation Now without the added benefit of not eating into your storage space. And it will, much like Netflix, be missing a lot of must-see content.

You can check out the official press release here.

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