Pass

I’m not going to argue that Game Pass, following its recent price hike, is cheap. It’s not. It’s creeped into the “hmm” category, similar to the £35 a month phone contract I’d scowl at every time I looked over my bank statement, which had actually gone from “mmm” to “mmm?” and was followed by a cost-cutting exercise that has now made me £28 a month better off, albeit with an old phone. At £22.99, Game Pass Ultimate is right on the precipice of doom – or in other words, me considering if I really need this expense. I’ve got some time to think about that. What I am going to argue, though, is how much of a terrible loss to game discovery it’ll be if Game Pass eventually dies out.

First, a story. Let me tell you about what game discovery used to be like as I take you on a journey through the latter half of the 90s. A pre-internet era full of wonder, and a burgeoning games industry that felt like it was walking perfectly between nerd culture and mainstream cool. What a time to be exploring what was out there. If only we had appreciated how good we had it.

Magazines, remember those? (I know they still exist, before someone from Edge emails me to say they are still relevant, actually – I prefer Retro Gamer these days as I’m old.) I bought a lot of them, spending an awful lot of my pocket and paper round money on about six per month, and generally each one would be able to keep me informed on 90-100 percent of all the games releasing in the next month or so. Excellent. Demos were widely available for disc-based consoles via official magazines, PC demos arrived alongside a handful of PC gaming mags (PC Zone, the best, obviously), and you could fairly easily rent games from video stores. I’d generally only be able to buy two or three games per year, but I played way more than that and felt like I was all-knowing – perhaps all kids feel this way, but it’s rare I’d see a game in Dixons and not already know a lot about it.

Image credit: Xbox

Fast forward 30 years and we’re in a very different world. No magazine could ever keep you properly informed on 90-100 percent of all the games being released, even if it only focused on the ones that looked great. Demo discs are no more, demos themselves are rare outside of indies on Steam and beta tests for shooters, you can’t rent games on the high-street any more (you can barely even find a shop that sells games on the highstreet to be fair), and some of the biggest voices talking about games focus on just a few that everyone already knows about. Websites, which I obviously have to big up as I run this one, do their best, but I can probably count five or so games every day that I am told about that we simply don’t have the time to write about.

All this means that people tend to know about the same bunch of games because those few games are all everyone is really talking about. Now, I know Game Pass doesn’t fix this entirely, but it really does help get some other games out there in front of people. You can tell me this is all anecdotal nonsense (after you read the following anecdote), but I honestly believe that Game Pass offers a way to freely explore new games that is almost impossible to do outside of these subscription services. Yes, you pay for it, but once you’re paying the catalogue is your oyster.

My son (for regular readers, yes, I know I’ve mentioned him before, but why would I talk about anyone else’s son? That would be odd. Plus, he’s my barometer of what people who aren’t me think about video games.) is a fairly typical 12-year-old who plays video games. He loves Fortnite, Rocket League, Minecraft, and wants to play Roblox but I have banned it. He also has a Switch 2 and will play most of the big Nintendo games. Where he differs from some 12-year-olds is his love of the Xbox. This is partly for fairly boring reasons, like the way the UI and services work, but also a lot to do with Game Pass.

Speaking of UI, this one’s not exactly at-a-glance digestible, is it? | Image credit: Xbox

Obviously he’s not paying for Game Pass, so doesn’t know the financial implications of the price rising (although already knows about Fortnite Crew coming to it soon, which he’s very happy about), but he uses Game Pass a lot – and often in ways that surprise me. In recent memory he’s, completely of his own accord, started playing and enjoyed Wildfrost (roguelike deck-builder from Chucklefish), Herdling (adventure from Panic Inc.), Donut County (casual puzzler from Annapurna Interactive), Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (top-down survivor from Ghost Ship), Brotato (another top-down survival game, this from Blobfish), and Tempopo (a curious music puzzle game from Cult Games). These are just the indies he’s told me about, games I would never have imagined buying for him or him asking for them. Yet, thanks to Game Pass he’s discovered them. That, no matter what you think about the price of Game Pass, is great.

Whether or not Game Pass continues on for years to come or if the cheaper “premium” middle tier (£10.99 a month) offers enough of what players want without the bells and whistles, well, I think we’ll find out in the near future. Xbox has stated it will release new console hardware beyond the Xbox Series consoles, and honestly I find it hard to see how that console has any reason to exist if Game Pass isn’t a major part of its offering. The two feel symbiotic at this point – cut one and life, I expect, would rapidly bleed out of the other.

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