Game Pass was always good. Now, it’s finally consistent

havoc00

Member
The end of 2024 was a huge moment for Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service. The day-one arrival of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the biggest possible blockbuster to add, felt like the climactic endpoint of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. And it was swiftly followed by another huge Microsoft release: Bethesda’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, an improbably great licensed romp starring a genuine pop culture icon.

The early months of 2025 haven’t seen such splashy day-one exclusives on Game Pass, and won’t until Doom: The Dark Ages arrives on May 15. And yet this period has been just as consequential for Game Pass; it has, if anything, done even more to demonstrate the value of a Game Pass subscription. The service is finally delivering something Microsoft has always intended it would: a steady, reliable stream of brand new games you actually want to play.
It started in January, with the surprise release of the Ninja Gaiden 2 Black remaster, the sleeper fantasy adventure Eternal Strands, and dependable Nazi assassination sim Sniper Elite Resistance. In February, there was Obsidian’s Avowed, perhaps the ultimate Game Pass release — a manageable, moreish, and colorful role-playing game. Now we have Atomfall, completing an endearingly janky one-two punch from Sniper Elite developer Rebellion. The pace is not about to let up. On April 8, there’s Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight. On April 24, the delightfully French turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Amongst all these titles there have been a smattering of must-play indie games, like Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, Citizen Sleeper 2, and the upcoming Blue Prince. There have also been some worthwhile back catalog drops of varying vintage, from the first Diablo, through Watch Dogs: Legion and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, to the now-ubiquitous Balatro.
These games are all great additions, but they are not the headline. What’s really striking when you look at this release schedule is the steady cadence of brand-new, mid-size, single-player adventures: the kind of game you can gorge yourself on for a couple of weeks and then move on, happy and satiated.





From January through to Doom: The Dark Ages in May, Game Pass is serving up at least one of these games every month on day one — and sometimes two or three. It’s also notable that many of them — Eternal Strands, Avowed, Atomfall, South of Midnight, Clair Obscur — are originals. Rejoice, for in the year 2025, Game Pass has become a reliable monthly supplier of a kind of entertainment that was on the verge of extinction: original AA games.
With all those new COD and Indy subscribers hanging around, the timing could not have been better.

Game Pass has long represented good value. Microsoft has kept the service’s catalog well stocked since its early days, and simply having access to every first-party game on day one — even before that lineup included Bethesda and Activision Blizzard titles — was always a compelling reason to subscribe. But the rate at which substantial new games would be added to the service was erratic, to say the least. Now, it’s a smooth conveyor belt. That success is just as attributable to smart partnerships with independent studios like Rebellion and smaller publishers like Clair Obscur’s Kepler Interactive as it is to Microsoft’s newfound publishing might.

 

HRK69

Gold Member
man writing these must be the easiest way to make money. gawk gawk microsoft for half a dozen paragraphs or so and you walk away with 50k in the bank
unimpressed michael keaton GIF

Oh yeah, because other console manufacturers won't ever do that. Like PlayStation or Nintendo isn't out here doing shady moves when it benefits them, right?
 
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I don't really understand Game Pass from a business standpoint. Initially I thought that it was to sell more consoles (likely at a loss), and thus increase earnings from third party games sold on Xbox.

But then why put it on PC? Why buy one of the largest third party publishers and put all their games on Game Pass for free? Why push for Game Pass to be on all these devices and platforms where Microsoft is not paid for licensing?

Does the monthly fee alone really turn a profit? A profit large enough for it to justify purchasing Activision/Blizzard for 70 billion dollars? Every individual in America would need to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate for a full 9 years just to break even that acquisition. And that's including 9 years of Activision's most recent profits, which I have to imagine would go down due to being on Game Pass.

How are they supposed to tum a profit with this? Are they trying to just throw money at it until they bully everyone else out of the market and then jack up the rates when there's no other options? Doesn't seem like it's working.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
The output is completely nuts. Still need to start Stalker 2. Some of the best gaming months of my life. Dropped College Football on the other day without even announcing it.

If SoM isn't one's cup, Clair Obscure is also on GP in April. And then motherflipping DOOM in the first half of May.


xbox-xbox-game-pass.gif
Commando Origins and Descenders Next too. Tony Hawk in June.
 

PeteBull

Member
Gamepass promotes mediocrity, since xbox "exclusives" dont need to be great/sell tons of copies anymore, they can be 70meta range and so what? MS doesnt expect them to sell tons of copies anyways, coz "its on gamepass".
It reduces competition and devs having any go geater mentality/striving for greatness.
U can see it in every ms product, including staples like gears series, halo series and recently even forza series that till its recent entry- never failed before, yet now it followed mediocricy of other "exclusives" for the simple reason gamepass doesnt force devs to make top quality games.
From what i can tell, last game that sold gangbusters and was on gamepass was starfield, it still is huge downgrade from previous bethesda rpgs like fallout and elder scrolls series, its boring af =/
 

StueyDuck

Member
people still tryna do damage control for gamepass, like it exists now and so does many others like Ubi and EA bespoke passes plus Sony has their own now too.

and you could argue the switch online expansion pass is kind of a gamepass also for older games.

they are all fine as well, they basically stop me from actually buying games that I'm teetering on, so i don't know if that's a good thing.

Like atomfall i probably would have bought prior to Gamepass, now I'll sub a month to play it for $10 and then unsub.
 

mathello

Member
I never manage to play through the games I imagine Im spending the money on with gamepass.

I got 3 months to try avowed and indiana jones. Got about 1/3rd through indiana. It just didn't manage to keep me engaged and this has happened many times with the gamepass exclusives.
 
Because it's a great value? You can try it and see for yourself.
Is it really, though? I thought about the games I played in 2024 and 2025 so far, and these are the games I played:

Persona 3 Reload (available on Xbox Gamepass)
Unicorn Overlord (not on Gamepass)
Final Fantasy XVI (not on Xbox)
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (not on Gamepass)
Stellar Blade (not on Xbox)
Fate/Samurai Remnant (not on Gamepass)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (not on Xbox)
Astro Bot (not on Xbox)
Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut (not on Xbox)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (available on Xbox Gamepass)
Monster Hunter Wilds (not on Gamepass)

What about the rest of 2025? Here's some of the games I want to play this year:

Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories and the Envisioned Land (not on Gamepass)
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (available on Xbox Gamepass)
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach (not on Xbox)
Ghost of Yotei (not on Xbox)
Grand Theft Auto VI (not on Gamepass)
DOOM: The Dark Ages (available on Xbox Gamepass)

Looking at the list of games I've played, and the games I want to play, seems to me like Gamepass is a shit value because I want to play games which are either not on Xbox, or there is an Xbox version but it's not on Gamepass. 2 games in 2024/2025 so far, and 2 games the rest of 2025, will be on Gamepass. The others all will not

If you're willing to confine what games you play to what is on Gamepass, maybe it's a great value. I play games I want to play though, not whatever Microsoft deems worthwhile to have in their catalog. Plus now that I look at my list of played games, there's a staggering number of games that simply aren't available on Xbox period
 
I'm glad you're enjoying it. Vanquish is possibly my favorite game of all time, but I'm not going to get up on my soapbox and tell everyone it's a masterpiece. (It is though, and I do, in fact, do that)

It's ok to love average games.
Vanquish is a special game, nothing mediocre about it.

And if I see someone parroting internet talking points about it, I will tell them to quit trolling as well.
 

calico

Member
I think you're getting a significantly better version of gamepass now than you would get if it succeeded in killing / overpowering the traditional model.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
It might sound strange but the value of GP might increase once their games hit PS5 day one.

I mean, you have the choice of signing up to GP and play those games, or pay 70-80 eurodollars to play one game on PS5. This will be more evident once those games consistently pop up on both systems simultanously.

Having said that I think GP isn't a good idea for MS. Mainly the day one policy. MS would be better off if CoD and big games like Foza Horizon 5 wasn't on GP day one, as consumers will buy those anyway. I think Sony is in a better position, no one expects them to put Intergalactic on PS+ day one and nor will they. MS sort of can't go back now.
 

Embearded

Member
🤣🤣🤣 Ppl still parroting this dumb bs?
As long as it is true i don't see a problem with that.
MS has not greenlight, funded and released as many critically acclaimed games as their competition the last 10 years.

Just went to metacritic, selected Xbox One & Series, 2015 to 2025 and checked the list from 100% to 85%
They have around 6-7 Forza entries, Flight Sim and Halo Infinite.
Did the same thing for Sony and they have significantly more games across multiple genres.
In my opinion this is the result of the current Xbox leadership and their decision to chase the subscription model. It doesn't make sense for them to throw money at AAA anymore. They need quantity, not quality.
 

Ashamam

Member
I mean, you have the choice of signing up to GP and play those games, or pay 70-80 eurodollars to play one game on PS5. This will be more evident once those games consistently pop up on both systems simultanously.
Or wait and pay 35-40 after six months or so. Given the cost of GP once my stacked sub runs out in 2026, plus a preference for playing on the Pro I'm pretty certain I'll be doing that. The product coming out of MS is generally not worth full price, and the current cost of GP is ridiculous now. With the recent quality of GP releases I'm confident even if MS beds down one game per quarter, I'll likely really only want to play one of the four per year. As far as the rest of the catalog goes, if an indi breaks out better to just buy it outright.
 
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Vanquish is a special game, nothing mediocre about it.

And if I see someone parroting internet talking points about it, I will tell them to quit trolling as well.

You're right. I was just fishing for Vanquish praise. As usual.

Perhaps history will prove Avowed to also be something special, but I doubt it.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Vanquish is a special game, nothing mediocre about it.

And if I see someone parroting internet talking points about it, I will tell them to quit trolling as well.
Avowed is great. And no one on this site even knows what Eternal Strands is or Citizen Sleeper 2. People are so full of shit if they are acting like its a mediocre lineup.
 

damidu

Member
gp is destroying the industry by devaluing it and games.
Nothing good about paying and not owning anything.
it only raises the expectancy for cheap and free shit.
I don't want to play whats free there. I want to play what I want.
good thing "game rental revolution" has been
categorically rejected by general public and it's only destroying xbox then.
 

Baemono

Member
I don't understand the point of these articles.

Last October we had the traditional "momentum" article, followed by the rough launch of Flight Simulator and STALKER 2.
We had it too when Hi-Fi Rush shadow-dropped, followed several months later by Redfall's disastrous launch.

We got it by the end of 2023 too, and there were only Hellblade 2 and Age of Mythology Retold between January and July (or August, can't recall).

It just jinxes the service everytime.
 
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