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[Hohenheim]

It's pretty good.
8 of the 24 games I finished last year was played from Game Pass PC, so I guess that made it very worthwhile. So far this year I have already finished two games on the service.
These are all games I would have brought if they were not on the service.

I do use Steam more, but happy to have Game Pass as a option as well. If it's games I know i'm gonna replay a lot or play from time to time over a long period of time (games like Binding of Isaac etc), I prefer to own them on Steam, in case they get taken of the service. But most games I only play through once, and for those I don't really care if I play them of a service or own them in Steam.

 

[sigrad]

Game pass seems like a mix bag especially how it killed Xbox live.

How?

 

[Ozriel]

three page thread engaging what’s essentially a shitpost

I’m no fan of Souls-like games but I’d be all kinds of silly to make a thread claiming Elden Ring was shite.

 

[sigrad]

game pass is great until you've gone through their basic library (which took me, a new to xbox owner, a year & a half). after that? it basically becomes a 'get new major release cheap' machine...

That's when you just buy a month or three of off CDKeys for next to nothing when something new comes out. You can gets unstackable months on CDKeys for $7.

 

[iHaunter]

Game Pass is atrocious. I did the $1a month thing and a majority of the games are Microsoft of average indie games. You really need GP Ultimate which is too expensive. I'd rather just buy and own the games I really want.

 

[Kings Field]

I’ve only ever used it for TCM, High on life, to try other games. I could take it or leave it. My sub runs out in March and probably won’t be renewing.

 

[Sojiro]

Voted good for others but not for me. I am a physical game guy so the service already wasn't on the best footing for me, but I also would never want to be at the mercy of a rotating catalog of renting games. Happy for the people who enjoy the service, but I personally would much rather purchase my games and have the option of playing them whenever I want.

 

[JordiENP]

I thought it was an amazing deal back then but now it's just not good enough. Now we have too many options, on pc even more. Even my epic games library is better than gamepass, for free.

 

[TheUsual]

I sub when there’s something there I want to play. The selection is quite good. I just HATE their PC launcher.

Second that on the PC Launcher. Hated how it would always launch Ubisoft Connect as well.

 

[Three]

How?

I think they mean how it killed GWG. They started releasing trash on that and just moved the better releases to GP.

 

[Raven117]

It was awesome when there was a lull in big releases (like 2021). But now that the generation has picked up… it’s just not as needed

 

[panda-zebra]

3 years of Gold conversion Game Pass for £80 was decent, but didn't renew after Starfield dropped and it expired. All I'm left with now on that account is a £5 Outriders DLC and nothing more to call my own, so saying bye to it wasn't a tough decision. Outriders was the best game I got on GPU in those 3 years and cost about the same as buying it day one, so nothing lost other than a lot of time and bandwidth downloading games to delete after 5 or 10 minutes.

 

[FunkMiller]

It’s… OK.

It sometimes has a game worth dropping the sub money for, but that seems to be getting rarer and rarer.

Same goes for PS Plus.

Neither is delivering what I’d call a must have service, and neither is going to drive the video games industry forward.

The unlovely truth of both services is that their value is a lot lower than many would have us believe.

 

[KillaJamm]

I literally only sub for core to play online, then upgrade to Utimate to play first party releases. Which tbh I would buy if they weren't on the service first day, so it hurts sales from me specifically cause cause I can just play them for like 5 quid

 

[Mr Moose]

I "won" a month of GPU, gave it to Riky. Not sure if he used it though, he hasn't been around lately

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Game Pass is atrocious. I did the $1a month thing and a majority of the games are Microsoft of average indie games. You really need GP Ultimate which is too expensive. I'd rather just buy and own the games I really want.

This is a weird post, are you talking about game pass core, which is just a replacement for xbox live? Because if you're only on one platform, game pass ultimate has the exact amount of games as game pass for console/pc; the only thing game pass ultimate does is combine console/pc subs and give you online mp.

 

[Roufianos]

...the boss where the game tells you to use the special attack to continue?

The Alpha Chads at Kotaku also found it hard: https://kotaku.com/wo-long-fallen-dynasty-first-boss-zhang-liang-beast-1850192654

 

[Mr Hyde]

I sub once in a blue moon when I want to check out some games I'm hesitant on. Sometimes it works and I buy them (HiFi Rush), sometimes it doesn't and I just move on (Starfield). Next up is Hellblade 2. I would never have an active sub though. I prefer buying and owning my games so I can play them whenever I feel like it. Same goes for PS plus. Sub services are just not worth it for me.

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

I can see the appeal if you just want a bunch of mediocre stuff to play.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

I sub once in a blue moon when I want to check out some games I'm hesitant on. Sometimes it works and I buy them (HiFi Rush), sometimes it doesn't and I just move on (Starfield). Next up is Hellblade 2. I would never have an active sub though. I prefer buying and owning my games so I can play them whenever I feel like it. Same goes for PS plus. Sub services are just not worth it for me.

should have been called Demo Pass

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

I really don’t care about Gamepass. I may try a game here and there, but is it really worth it to me? Not really. I own the games I love, spend almost all my time playing those, and to be honest, don’t really care about 90+% of the games on it. So is it really an amazing deal?

This narrative that Gamepass is amazing, I feel, is pretty much from outlets and organizations that have promoted it and conditioned us to think it is. FOR OTHERS. So if everyone thinks its great, for other people, is it actually great?

Am I alone on this? I added a poll to see really what everyone thinks. Its a brilliant strategy that actually paid off for them though.

On a side not, amongst all this XBOX craziness & 3rd party turmoil, I’m still happy with my $180 xbox series s I bought (crazy deal on tiktok from last year) for the halo games, forza horizons, and emulation. But if I had chosen it OVER the PS5 and not for those reasons, boy would I be pissed right now.

Exactly ...I want to OWN my games not rest them. I'll subscribe for a month here and there if there's something that I want to play but aren't sure about buying. Used to be a monthly subscribers but cancelled ...I like it better this way.

Great for someone without much disposable income. It is a great value. I don't like the model though and the effects its had on both Microsoft and the industry at large. Once GP became a big initiative at Microsoft they started to suck as a platform holder. They did away with their Backwards Compatibility program which is the thing I'm most mad about. So many games need 4k/60 fps patches still ...it's so weird they did away with BC program because it would only bolster GP but for whatever reason they feel GP is the only thing that matters.

Due to GP, the quality of titles has gotten worse too. Just look at Redfall, Halo Infinite (and making Infinite multiplayer free to play) and Forza ...you can't convince me that these games wouldn't have turned out better had GamePass not existed, it's common sense. They don't have the same incentive to polish a game and pack it with day 1 content anymore.

Microsoft has been a terrible disappointment for me this gen.

 

[Bodom78]

It's the only subscription I have and love using MS Rewards to renew it.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

The Alpha Chads at Kotaku also found it hard: https://kotaku.com/wo-long-fallen-dynasty-first-boss-zhang-liang-beast-1850192654

not giving alpha cucks kotaku any clicks, but the game even tells you on screen what buttons to press when the time is right (timestamped):

 

[Mr Hyde]

should have been called Demo Pass

Yeah, it's pretty much what the service is (for me at least).

 

[Js562]

I get it for cheap online. It's like Netflix for me I choose and play what they have. I've beaten some and I don't come back to those games. Until they had streets of rage 4 and I bought that before it was let go. Shit is good for me

 

[ReBurn]

I enjoy game pass. It hasn't completely replaced buying new games for me but I fill a lot of time with it and PS+. I'm not planning to renew either when they run out. Thanks to rewards points I won't run out of game pass until the middle of 2026.

 

[Ceadeus]

It's great for families or the more casual that buy the S for netflix and gamepass.

 

[Iced Arcade]

Don't like it? Don't buy it.h Whatt a world we live in!


I love GamePass and PS Plus Extra but I do think from a business standpoint, should be somewhere in the middle.

 

[meech]

I really don’t care about Gamepass. I may try a game here and there, but is it really worth it to me? Not really. I own the games I love, spend almost all my time playing those, and to be honest, don’t really care about 90+% of the games on it. So is it really an amazing deal?

This narrative that Gamepass is amazing, I feel, is pretty much from outlets and organizations that have promoted it and conditioned us to think it is. FOR OTHERS. So if everyone thinks its great, for other people, is it actually great?

Am I alone on this? I added a poll to see really what everyone thinks. Its a brilliant strategy that actually paid off for them though.

On a side not, amongst all this XBOX craziness & 3rd party turmoil, I’m still happy with my $180 xbox series s I bought (crazy deal on tiktok from last year) for the halo games, forza horizons, and emulation. But if I had chosen it OVER the PS5 and not for those reasons, boy would I be pissed right now.

Persona 5 Royal(would have never bought this one after i played Persona 5 already), Persona 4 and now Persona 3 reload. Absolutely worth it for this alone.

 

[DavJay]

GPU is 10/10 but I don’t see a world where that model is sustainable for MS. Either the price is going to go up through the roof or the quality will greatly decline.

 

[Killer8]

There is a lot of junk and old games on the service. The main draw for me is the exclusives being day one on GP, but therein lies the issue - there isn't nearly enough of them. My yearly usage of the service ends up being the handful of exclusives, plus another handful of whatever other third party games tickle my fancy.

Weighing up the value proposition of the service, I would guess that the cost of just buying those games outright (perhaps not day one) would actually not be that much more than a year of GP. And i'd get to own them too. It's a big reason why i'm going to be letting my GP sub lapse come summer next year.

Even if you were to continue down the GP 'rental' route, why subscribe year round when you can just subscribe a couple of months a year as a smash and grab? Hellblade 2 will be about 6 hours long, Indiana Jones will be about 10 I bet. I can blast through those in a couple of weekends.

 

[StereoVsn]

I had it for a few years in the cheap but cancelled last year finally. I just wasn’t playing many games there and I very much dislike Win Store backend on PC side.

I just purchase the few games from MS I want. Basically Forza Horizon series and MCC.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Gamepass is like Netflix, with all the benefits and drawbacks of that kind of streaming service

 

[Skelterz]

This says alot about the failed GamePass gamble by Microsoft

Literally man, and I’ve only ever played Gears of war online in that time as well tbh I honestly think porting gears halo lost odyssey etc will be a great idea for Xbox in general, there’s tons of lapsed 360 generation PlayStation owners who would love to play those games again but don’t fancy buying an Xbox.

 

[AJUMP23]

I really enjoy Gamepass.

 

[VaultBoy101]

Love it and will be disappointed if it changes (unless it's for the better, which we all know isn't going to happen anyway).

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

They priced me out. I had it from the beginning but I stopped seeing the value once they started getting crazy with how much a yearly subscription is.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

My point is it creates bad hobbit of Xbox players wont support these Japanese games unless they are on GamePass.

For exmaple, I dont think Unicorn Overlord is on GamePass and I have feeling most Xbox players wont give this game a chance because its not on GamePass.

I think most Xbox players won't give the game a chance because it looks like a pretty weird Japanese RPG. And Japanese publishers have spent a long time conditioning Xbox consumers to not consume Japanese games.

With regard to Japanese games on Xbox, it can be described as a chicken or the egg type situation. Maybe the games would sell more if they released more of them on Xbox, maybe they didn't release more on Xbox because the fanbase isn't interested in them, no one can know for sure. But GamePass is most definitely making a difference there. If you want Japanese games to do better on Xbox, then you should be championing these games being on GamePass, because that leads to more interest and exposure for these games. It also leads to people who never would have bothered with certain games or type of games getting to experience them.

You are definitely right that GamePass can lead to lower sales for a game. People can wait expecting that it'll hit GamePass eventually, and people can have a huge backlog thanks to GamePass and not want to buy an RPG. But I still think the positives outweigh the negatives.

 

[IFireflyl]

Too late, I've already come.

There's no way.

Unless...

 

[twilo99]

If gamepass enabled you to play a game that you otherwise wouldn’t have experienced and you fell in love with, I think that single handidly makes it a wonderful thing for us as gamers.

That’s me, and not just one game.. so many I would’ve never played.

It’s kinda like Spotify really, where you discover new music just because it’s available on there.

 

[sigmaZ]

I really don’t care about Gamepass. I may try a game here and there, but is it really worth it to me? Not really. I own the games I love, spend almost all my time playing those, and to be honest, don’t really care about 90+% of the games on it. So is it really an amazing deal?

This narrative that Gamepass is amazing, I feel, is pretty much from outlets and organizations that have promoted it and conditioned us to think it is. FOR OTHERS. So if everyone thinks its great, for other people, is it actually great?

Am I alone on this? I added a poll to see really what everyone thinks. Its a brilliant strategy that actually paid off for them though.

On a side not, amongst all this XBOX craziness & 3rd party turmoil, I’m still happy with my $180 xbox series s I bought (crazy deal on tiktok from last year) for the halo games, forza horizons, and emulation. But if I had chosen it OVER the PS5 and not for those reasons, boy would I be pissed right now.

Funny thing is that a lot of games' value comes from inaccessibility. When it was hard to afford and access games there was much more of an appeal to them even if they sucked because you would push through it. With Game Pass, if a game sucks you just don't commit to it. This is advantageous to players but perhaps not to certain developers I wonder. I'm still happy with the service though. It allows me to weed through have baked indies games until I come across gems like Nobody Saves the World and Celeste. I would never have bought such games otherwise.

 

[Generic]

Yes, Gamepass is really good. Sony should look at it and improve the PS+ service.

 

[Havoc2049]

I play a bunch of Microsoft single-player and multi-player games, so Game Pass Ultimate is great for me. I've been on Xbox Live/Game Pass since the OG Xbox days.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I think most Xbox players won't give the game a chance because it looks like a pretty weird Japanese RPG. And Japanese publishers have spent a long time conditioning Xbox consumers to not consume Japanese games.

With regard to Japanese games on Xbox, it can be described as a chicken or the egg type situation. Maybe the games would sell more if they released more of them on Xbox, maybe they didn't release more on Xbox because the fanbase isn't interested in them, no one can know for sure. But GamePass is most definitely making a difference there. If you want Japanese games to do better on Xbox, then you should be championing these games being on GamePass, because that leads to more interest and exposure for these games. It also leads to people who never would have bothered with certain games or type of games getting to experience them.

You are definitely right that GamePass can lead to lower sales for a game. People can wait expecting that it'll hit GamePass eventually, and people can have a huge backlog thanks to GamePass and not want to buy an RPG. But I still think the positives outweigh the negatives.

The problem with Xbox and Japanese games existed long before Gamepass was a twinkle in Phil's eye. The reality is that Xbox is basically only an American console, with only market share in America (and a little bit in the UK). So there exists no market for Japanese games on Xbox, because by and large Americans do not play non-American games. There's a niche but healthy market for Japanese games on Sony and Nintendo consoles but that's driven heavily by Asia and Europe, not by America.

As long as Xbox is only an American console, played only by Americans, then the problem will always exist for Japanese games on Xbox. And since Microsoft has been incapable of making non-Americans want an Xbox for the past 23 years, it will continue to be a problem forever or until Xbox is finally discontinued. And none of that has anything to do with Gamepass.

 

[SportsFan581]

Gamepass and PS+ Extra are great if you aren't a day one buyer of many of the games you want to buy. If you are a big spender and buy everything you like straight away, I can see there not being much for you then. Helps if you like indie/AA games also.

 

[A.Romero]

Have had it for PC since it became available in my country and love it. Not only allows me to try new games but it also facilitates playing with friends that are also subbed.

 

[salva]

If you bought it on a $1 gold --> ultimate upgrade, what's not to love about it?! I spent somewhere around ~$120 (bought gold from I believe Turkey where it was crazy cheap on cdkeys) to stack on 3-4 years worth of gold, or whatever the max is/was at the time that you could stack on. Ever since having gamepass, the only game i've actually bought is Cyberpunk. A crazy deal and absolotely worth it.

 

[Leonidas]

Its great if you don't already have a massive collection of games, or want to get the MS first party games without paying $50-$70 a pop.

I was subbed from 2019-2022 with the old Gold conversion. It was good at that price but loooking back, I probably would have came out ahead had I just waited for the games that I actually played to drop in price and buy them in a sale or something...

Haven't re-subbed, and don't really plan to since I'm primarily a PC player and already have a massive backlog of games on both PC and console going back multiple generations.

PS+ Extra/Premium is the same, but a little worse since you have to wait a while for Sony first party games to appear. I subbed to that for a year, beat like 30 games and have no plans to sign up to that any time soon either...

 

[Northeastmonk]

I used it for Gears 5 and Halo Infinite. What’s crazy is I finished Gears 5 the day I got my Xbox key. I got a refund for Halo Infinite and finished that with GamePass. It worked out for me, but I won’t sub just to sub. I’d rather buy my games. For kids it works perfectly. Kids are never really satisfied with traditional games. This way can just enjoy a big library. I have enough in my backlog and I purchased a lot of the well known game pass games. I bought a lot of them at full price. Seeing them in a sub service isn’t that great to be honest. They’re letting someone play the games now for whatever their sub cost.

 

[Bridges]

Gamepass got me into the Yakuza series, that alone makes it worth it.

A lot of games I want to play end up in Game Pass, a lot of weird things I wouldn't pay for but want to check out pop up, ports of games that used to never come to Xbox (Yakuza, Danganronpa, Persona, etc), Day 1 Xbox games that I wanted to play but couldn't justify the purchase (Crackdown 3, Redfall).

But actually I think its best strength is for multiplayer. Trying to figure out what to play with the mates can be an annoying game of "what do we all own" and/or "what are we all willing to buy" whereas with Game Pass, we all have access to decent pool of multiplayer games where the only further barrier of entry is hard drive space. Rainbow Six Extraction, Crusader Kings III, Redfall, Exoprimal, Palworld, Minecraft Dungeons, Craftopia, Aliens Fireteam Elite, Solasta: Crown of the Magister, The Master Chief Collection, Sea of Thieves, Dead By Daylight, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, As Dusk Falls, It Takes Two, Battletoads, Nobody Saves The World, Super Mega Baseball, For The King, Fable II, Outriders, Drake Hollow, Wasteland 3, Back 4 Blood, Wolfenstein: Youngblood...
Yeah, not all of those games were great, but they were all fun ways to spend a few afternoons with some good friends and I didn't have to buy any of them (except for Sea of Thieves but that's on me).

For people who think there's nothing worth trying on game pass, that's your right to think that, but you must have incredibly narrow tastes. I like to try a lot of things and it's been perfect for that. Yeah I realize now this kinda sounds like an ad, but it's not any more cringey than the constant "here's why I think Game Pass sucks" stuff. Ya don't have to use it. For me, it pays for itself because I'm always playing something.