I can see timed exclusives for GP happening for sure. At first it will be stuff where ya get to play ti a week or so early, but then I bet eventually we see games be 30 days early on GP or something along those lines. Not for a while though.
According to some people cloud and Game Pass is all we will be left with so I guess “yes”.
I was thinking about the possibility of something hybrid like those Early Access features you get with the Ultimate editions (like Forza Horizon 5 on November 5 instead of 9, same for Battlefield 2042, Back 4 Blood on October 12 instead of 14 and other big games). Those are basically just incentives.
It’s all about how MS sees Game Pass in the long-term (in several years, not now). Do they want it to be a central platform with agressive incentives to suscribe and advantages if you’re a suscriber or keep it more like like a “companion” or interesting alternative.
More like: “must have” or “great deal” ? (that’s 2 very different goals in my eyes)
I think this will be interesting to see if they will try to expand to people and casuals who play only few games a year (not really the audience of Game Pass as of today imo).
1 Like
Yes, I think they will go for some form of timed exclusivity later on. Like, why not? If you have an Xbox but don’t have Xbox Game Pass yer a bit weird.
Remember gamepass is “liked” netflix. It’s not netflix. The business model is slightly different. Gamepass can make extra money from microtransactions and dlc. Gamepass will never be exactly like netflix/disney+. What is more important to gamepass going forward is non-licensed content.
Currently they have no game in development which would make sense for Gamepass Exclusivity
On the matter of the topic…
Video media Exclusivity differs from that of the Games Exclusivity
Exclusivity of games comes from the hardware platform (xbox, Ninetendo and PS. On PC it comes via store front)
There will never be Gamepass exclusive games. Only exceptions will be Cloud native games which can’t run on consoles in the meaningful way.
I can see smaller titles having something like 1-2 weeks exclusivity as a possibility…but nothing beyond that being feasible.
Another scenario that could be likely is an early demo or beta available for Game Pass subscribers. Remember how Metal Gear Solid 2 had a demo with Zone of Enders? It was used to sell ZoE, to some extent.
Forza Horizon games have had demos publicly and widely available with much of the game restricted. It was a good way to wow prospective buyers. I think they released them as the game did and not prior. But what if two weeks before launch they released a demo only for Game Pass subscribers? That doesn’t seem too outlandish. Now do that with a big IP or a highly anticipated title like Perfect Dark, DOOM 3, or Indiana Jones and I can see it pushing the needle.
I think at sone point they will experiment with excluaive gamepass content and see how the reaction is.
@Ruthwik_Rao I’m posting in this thread because I have a question that’s more so l appropriate for this one:
Yeah I think history backs up your statement quite well. Dungeons was developed well after Microsoft bought Mojang and that hit every platform possible.
But I have a question for you that ties into this Game Pass thread… Do you think a Minecraft game could become a timed Game Pass exclusive? I’m not talking about a year but something more like a month’s exclusivity before it hits other platforms. I personally think it’s smart and doable to where it doesn’t alienate any of the fan base that are on this Switch or PS consoles. Mostly because the PC is a huge part of that user base and will have access to it Day 1 through Game Pass.
Ruthwik is already against Gamepass exclusivity so I think you are asking the wrong guy 
1 Like
ah ok. I think there will be some (more) perks like extra skins, themes, trials for Game Pass (Ultimate) subscribers. That makes sense. Like Gold has trials or free weekends but no exklusive games.
Xbox really has to be careful to relegate their non Game Pass subscribers to a second tier customer. You want their money, not their hate.
lmfao true, but I mean I could be against something and still detach what I want/don’t want from what could actually happen. 
I see where you’re coming from, but yeah, I don’t think there will be entire games that are exclusive to Gamepass but maybe features or things that make it be exclusive by virtue of other platforms not having said tech/infrastructure. Like for example, if Mojang uses Xcloud for some exciting new thing in the future, that might be exclusive to Gamepass ecosystem as it would have to necessarily run on MS’ Azure servers and not locally on any specific hardware, in those cases I think those things will be exclusive by default. I don’t see Minecraft releasing on Amazon Luna or Stadia for example, that’s where MS would leverage their ownership of Minecraft to exclude it from other streaming platforms. But again, there’s nothing stopping Gamepass from coming to these other platforms like Switch and Playstation, they just gotta allow it which is still a real possibility but something very difficult to imagine especially on the Sony side. Nintendo’s case might be sooner than later given the rumors we have been hearing. Also, Xcloud will certainly decouple from Gamepass down the line, so it would further make Gamepass exclusivity less of a thing in this case.
So in conclusion, I don’t see entire games being exclusive even timed, because Minecraft is just too goddamn big and transcends the hardware/ecosystem war that Microsoft is leveraging XGS and Bethesda for. They don’t see Minecraft in the same way they do everyone else under them. This is why I think it goes back to the whole “Minecraft was a Microsoft purchase, whereas Bethesda was an Xbox purchase”, the goals are very different, and the former’s transcends the strategies of the latter for exclusivity-powered platform growth.
1 Like
No.
One of the key offers of Game Pass is that you can buy any game on it at a discount and own it.
Making a game GP exclusive also cuts off huge revenue from non GP subs on PC and Xbox.
Won’t happen.
2 Likes
The question should be…
When gamers will stop buying games months after release?
Similar services on the movies and music entertainment industry have exclusive content because otherwise they would not be able to sell it individually (or volume is so low that they can ignore it in favour of a new business model).
No. Why wall it off like that?
Wait wait wait, might we have just seen the first gamepass exclusive something today?
From what I hear, the GTA:SA DE is not available to purchase as a standalone (at least going by the MS Store), but it is given as part of gamepass.
1 Like
This thread should now conclude with the answer -yes, and done!
1 Like
We already have exclusive content in the perks section for games like Apex, FO76, Rocket League and many more so yeah I do see this expanding as time goes on.
No, that’s what a closed ecosystem is for.
They expanded that ecosystem natively to pc, but only way to consume the gamepass content outside Xbox and pc already is through the subscription like the other services.