Hey folks!
We’re working on a new article for the site focusing on Game Pass and the journey from launch just over 4 years ago to today.
We want to hear from all of you about how, if applicable, Game Pass has changed how you game?
If it hasn’t and you have a different opinion on Game Pass, we definitely want to hear that too!
The best community posts may be featured in the article, so if you’re not okay with that, please let us know.
Gamepass is the reason I am gaming
I’ve been a member of Xbox Game Pass since March 2018 when Sea of Thieves launched. At first I used it to play some games I hadn’t played yet (Gears 4, Halo Wars 2) and the new Xbox Game Studios games. But from 2019 to mid 2020 this changed to a co-op service where I played a bunch of different games with my real life friends. I’m not huge on multiplayer games with random people (though I do dabble into it sometimes), but having a subscription service which allows my friends and I to play the same games is awesome. We played Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2, Age of Empires, Grounded and Deep Rock Galactic together. One of my friends even bought an Xbox Series X because of it. The last few months, with life going back to normal again and the weather improving I haven’t touched Game Pass a whole lot, but it remains as my go-to service for when I’m looking for something to play. Currently playing FIFA 21 and recently played Destroy All Humans! Hopefully some great co-op titles continue to drop on Game Pass, so I can get my friends to jump back on and play.
Overall I think I’ve played more games than I’ve ever done before and spend mroe money on games than I did before. But it has given me a lot of fun and has been a better investment than Disney+ or Netflix for me.
Three things have changed for me with Game Pass -
I no longer have to buy Microsoft published games that im 100% all in on to play them as I will play them via a $10 monthly rental via Game Pass.
Games that im 50/50 on like Starfield & Avowed for example, I can try out as a $10 monthly rental and if I like it, I will play to completion and if I don’t, I can drop it like I would if it was a GameFly rental.
I no longer have to buy third party games like The Ascent that im all in on and would have normally purchased day one because it’s on Game Pass day one.
Other than those three aspects, everything else for me is still the same. I’m not waiting for third party games (like the recently released, played, completed and traded in Resident Evil VIII) to go in Game Pass which is basically a if/when scenario with the possibility of it never going into Game Pass.
That’s pretty much it.
Maybe it’s because I’m old, but didn’t it launch just over 4 years ago on June 1 2017 ?
As to it’s impact, here’s a quick general vibe kind of post.
GamePass has broadened the genres of games I play while making gaming more enjoyable overall. I find myself trying out more of the smaller titles that some describe as Indie or AA experiences. I no longer force myself to continue playing or to complete games I’m not enjoying just because I sunk money into them.
It has allowed me to purchase games I normally wouldn’t day one, such as NieR Replicant and potentially Scarlet Nexus, because now I don’t need to spend any additional money on Xbox/Bethesda games. So instead I can use that money I would have spent on them on these games I normally wouldn’t get day one.
Another benefit is that I have a lot more co-op games to play with a friend. Ever since I got him to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass, we’ve been playing co-op games such as Halo, Gears, and Monster Hunter: World, and we’ve been having so much fun doing so. I am so grateful this service exists as it has brought so many good memories to me.
And of course it’s allowed me to try games in genres I never would have otherwise. Some examples being Cities: Skylines and Halo Wars 2.
I think you’re right! Good catch! It’s because I’m old that dates and times confuse me…
Game Pass hasn’t really changed gaming too much for me personally, yet.
It has allowed me to try out a bunch of games that I might never have discovered if they weren’t on the service. There have been a couple, like Eastshade & Ruiner, which I thoroughly enjoyed & went on to buy. I’m glad I didn’t miss them.
Have to say, even though it has millions of subscribers already, I still don’t think the service has really hit it’s stride yet. I’d guess that once 2 or 3 of the big new Xbox first-party titles land, things will start to get interesting. It has the potential to become seriously huge.
Overall is great because Its allowed me to find some hidden gems in there that I normally wouldn’t try out like Deliver Us the Moon for example.
I don’t got to shell $60 for a game on launch from XGS and I can later it add to my collection for cheaper (Gears 5, Outer Worlds, Etc)
The games I do want to play I buy day 1 and don’t wait for a hypothetical game pass arrival that may never happen.
On a personal note I think people use game pass a lot to deflect some criticism away from Xbox sometimes under the “its the best deal in gaming” line. A lot of people dont have game pass and are still in the traditional way of gaming and some people may be like me which use G.U for Gold and the occasional games that come into the service that generate interest. I certainly dont base most of my gaming around the service.
Still much to improve on the PC Side offerings for that sector of gamers Microsoft wants to cater to.
Great future for the service if the 1st party studios deliver.
Xbox Game Pass has expanded my interest in gaming in general due to trying out some different genres and games that I would never have been interested in before. The funny thing for me is that I am one of those customers that they have mentioned actually spend more on gaming as a Game Pass subscriber because I am more engaged in gaming discussion and end up buying games that I wouldn’t have otherwise in the past such as Yakuza Like a Dragon and Nier Replicant. It is also awesome as others have noted to be able to check out some multiplayer and co-op games with others without having to talk them into buying a game to try it out together.
In short Game Pass is the coolest thing for me as a gamer in the many years of playing on Xbox and other platforms.
I subscribed for 3 years with the 1$ deal to convert all of it to Ultimate and since then I’ve bought like a year and a half on sale at 50% to keep my subscription maxed out to 3 years. This is the most incredible deal in gaming and I think you have to be stupid not to take it or at least consider it. My brother and I used to each buy a game or 2 every month to play or a bunch of indie games that looked interesting (we link both of our Xboxes with the Home Xbox trick). Ever since I’ve gotten Gamepass we barely buy 2-3 games a year and yet I play a lot more games than I used to and I save money doing it. And that’s not taking into account all of the extra rewards I am getting thanks to Gamepass quests and MS Rewards program.
It’s insane how much value I get out of it and how it’s growing as a service to the point where we are getting AAAs day 1, and it’ll only get better from here! Gamepass means I am never leaving the Xbox/PC ecosystem.
I use Game Pass more like a demo service and try out a lot more games this way. Reminds me a bit of the time with 360 and XBL Arcade demos where I played almost every new release. And if i like something I play it longer and maybe buy it in the end.
And thanks to Game Pass I played Unavowed, one of the greatest point & click adventures ever made.
So thanks Game Pass.
I would say similarly, it hasnt massivley changed much for me, I still buy games I want to play and splurge on Indies on a whim.
What it has done though, is replace that which was missing so long without me realising it. Game rentals. The best games history thread Delroy made has reminded me how many good games I got to try simply from spending a couple of pounds on a rental. I hadnt missed it until I realised it did, so for me Gamepass has brought back that fun “have a try” thought I used to get from rentals, or really good Steam sales.
It has absolutely changed the way I play. First of all, it has converted me to Xbox, and I’m now a huge Xbox fan and consumer. I used to buy most PlayStation first-party games on launch on PS4, and now I don’t even think of buying a PS5 in the near future because I simply have too much to play already, and can no longer easily justify buying a machine simply for a handful of exclusives that will increase slowly over the years. Now more than ever I want an instant library of games with my console at an affordable price. Since the Series X launched I’ve played more games than ever in a similar period of time. I have tried a huge variety of games and genres that I would have never bought simply because I would be afraid to risk not liking the games after dropping $60 on it.
At the same time, my best friend was also swayed to the Xbox side, and having an instant multiplayer library is amazing and we play together every week because we are no longer tied to playing the same F2P games over and over again because we might not want both to buy the same multiplayer game.
I’m buying less games simply because I would mostly buy exclusives for PlayStation or Switch, and dropping what is almost equivalent to 6 months of play on Xbox on a single game is no longer appealing to me, and plan to do that very sporadically.
Gamepass let’s me try games without worrying about wasting money. If I love something I’ll buy it and if not I can uninstall it.
Joined Game Pass in March 2018 with Sea of Thieves.
It made me discover a lot of games that I would probably have never played otherwise, or way later (like Arkane games, Yakuza games, Wolfenstein games, Tetris Effect, Hellblade, Observation, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, Deliver Us the Moon, Battletoads…).
I think I’m buying less games but more DLCs / Season Pass (DOOM Eternal, Metro Exodus, The Outer Worlds…).
It led me to go more digital from now on (I was more attached to physical before Game Pass) as it’s easier to alternate between games.
I’m also playing more on mobile via xCloud now thanks to Game Pass.
It is gaming.
Growing up, I was always a Nintendo and PlayStation kid. I was never a stranger to Xbox, in fact, some of my earliest and fondest memories include playing the old Green Giant, Duke and all with my cousin, but it was never a system I had in the house. Over the years, as the turn of the generation came, I bet on Nintendo to continue the charge with the Wii U, and what PlayStation showed of the PS4 did little to grip me. Xbox’s 2013 showing spoke for itself. By the time PlayStation announced Uncharted 4 would be directed by the Last of Us guys instead of Amy Hennig, I swore off the PS4 entirely as I was not a fan one bit of that game (Funnily enough, I would later come to realize that A. Last of Us, while nowhere near what it’s hyped up to be, is far from a bad game, B. many of that same team worked on Uncharted 2, my fave and C. Uncharted 4 is a pretty alright game)
Flash forward to 2018, I once again bet on Nintendo, and I was starting to see some warning signs. A lot of Wii U ports, not a ton of new stuff. I also started writing for a quiz site and found I needed to step outside of my Nintendo bubble. I tuned into E3 that year and was absolutely blown away by Microsoft’s commitment to diversity of titles, new acquisitions and day one Game Pass releases.
I started to save up, and when it went on sale, I crunched the numbers, and for the price of 3 scaled down Switch ports, I could get an Xbox One, Game Pass, Live Gold and RDR2. As a Spider-Man fan, going away from PlayStation seemed a bit risky, but the rumour of Obsidian (a favorite studio of mine) sold me.
When I got home, I jumped into Game Pass, and I started off with the comfort food. SRPGS, WRPGS, Third Person Shooters, Rare Replay (actually bought that one), Fighting games, etc.
But then, I started stepping outside my comfort zone. I rekindled an old love for point and click titles. I got really into racing games (especially Forza Horizon 4).
Finally, I managed to try out first person shooters, a genre I despised as a kid and got motion sick from. After getting some help from Era, I learned how to adjust settings and I loved them. I started playing (and buying) more and more of them.
And then immersive sims. And stealth titles. My horizons were expanded even more. Sure, there are some odd exceptions (no amount of Game Pass titles in the genre will make me Git Gud at Soulslikes and Roguelikes) but on the whole, I went into the ecosystem with a list of like 6 genres I liked, and now have so many on there, my list of dislikes is less than 5.
That’s before we even get into legacy franchises outside of Rare’s catalog I came to love like Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable and Ori. Or titles I tried on a whim like Golf With Your Friends, Tetris Effect Connected and Goose Game.
Game Pass has quite literally changed how I consume games. I play more, I buy more, I enjoy more. The only I guess downside is that my backlog is bigger and I am a bit more discerning for day one releases outside of GamePass (but less so for later down the line).
