Xbox Game Passhas shaped up to be one of the most impressive services currently offered by Microsoft, with the monthly subscription potentially shaping the future of the Xbox franchise and the launch of the highly anticipatedXbox Series X. Originally launched in beta in 2017, Xbox Game Pass offers a catalog of games to play at varying payment intervals being between monthly and yearly. It could be compared to Netflix to a degree but only in the fact that it follows a monthly subscription and allows players access to the aforementioned catalog of games.
The “Netflix of games” style of service that companies likeSony (with PlayStation Now) and Google (with Stadia) have been trying to crack would imply that such a service would allow games to be streamed remotely and at an instant. But Microsoft has figured out a way to make it work for video games without the trouble of worrying about latency issues and the like. Xbox Game Pass lets users download any of the games available to a disc drive, allowing the players to play games in a title’s native environment - a console (or PC), a controller, and a TV.
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Cutting out network lag during gameplay entirely, Xbox Game Pass puts itself in a different category from services like PlayStation Now and Stadia. Its massive advantage of convenience was not the only thing that set it apart though. In 2018, Microsoft announced that all future first-party titles produced by its studios will be debuting on Xbox Game Pass day and date with retailers. This included its big titles, at the time -Crackdown 3andSea of Thievesand also eventually included the likes ofGears 5.Itwill also includeHalo Infinitewhen that game launched with the Xbox Series X in the holiday season later this year.
With all of these facts in mind, one is bound to wonder just howMicrosoft is able to possibly run Game Pass at a profit, yet it has over and over again. Microsoft launched the Xbox One in 2013 through a staggering amount of negative press preceding its launch yet still managed to turn the console into a relative success. Still, it had to play catch-up with Sony which put out the PS4 in the same month and ran away with the competition, to the tune of eventually passing 100 million units sold.
