Only for those who had an understanding how Game Pass would become the center of their ecosystem (instead of an Xbox console), with Xbox, PC and smartphones becoming equivalent entry points to that ecosystem.
Makes sense since we know xcloud goes live in september.
I assume that gold will become free, and xcloud will slip into the niche vacated by gold’s absence.
5 bucks a month and you can stream any game you own, with a selection of games delivered to you free every month. Upgrading to ultimate gets you access to the full library.
1 Like
I think there will be a limited list of games that will work with xCloud at first, but I am not really positive about this. Does anyone know for sure? Is anyone in the Beta?
People with more money will spend more on other stuff and be more happy as well.
Microtransactions Gamepass Are the revenues of the future.
And it works even on me. I bought a pet in Sea of Thieves and I’m NOT MAD.
1 Like
Killing off XBL as a name convention doesn’t make sense if they roll this into Game Pass. Keeping the name is what makes that scenario add marketing value to GP. “GP now includes XBL for free!” is much better sounding to the customer than “GP now includes online gaming for free!” while XBL gold exists. It’d be confusing and needlessly redundant when they are trying to do the opposite with their branding.
Also, making all online pay totally free evens things out with their PC end of the ‘Xbox’ platform spectrum. Their end goal seems to be to have Xbox as the broader platform and having it seamless across the different devices.
Further still, they want to be able to sell GP not just to console owners, but also folks interested in mobile gaming. If MS wants to market xCloud as a value added service to GP, the customer has to presume it costs $$$ to use it without GP. So to them, there already is an online service that lets you play your games and is required for mobile gaming anyhow (xCloud)…making them pay for another service that does essentially the same thing doesn’t make sense.
It’s almost certainly going to happen. It’ll be interesting to see the reactions of some. It’s a really bold move to give up all that revenue.