Thursday, October 25th 2018
Nadella Announces Xbox Game Pass, 'Microsoft's Netflix of Video Games', Is Coming to PC
Microsoft launched Xbox Game Pass in June 2017. This video game subscription service allows users to install and play Xbox games (not just Xbox One ones, there are titles from the Xbox 360 and even the original Xbox) , with over 230 games currently available, a number that is constantly growing. Often called 'The Netflix of video games', the service has been improving its offering, but now the project will go beyond it's initial focus. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, announced during an investor meeting that Xbox Game Pass will come to PCs soon.
Nadella gave no further details, so we still don't know what games will be included on that service or the subscription price (currently $9.99/month), but the announcement is promising and another sign that the company is moving forward to expand their reach and, of course, their earnings. On the latest earnings release (FY19 Q1) Microsoft pointed out how gaming revenue "increased 44% with Xbox software and services revenue growth of 36% mainly from third-party title strength". This move could make that growth go even higher, and it joins other recent announcements that could improve Microsoft's role in this market.
Lately we've seen at least two smart moves from Redmond. The first one, the mouse and keyboard support for the Xbox One. This feature will arrive soon and will allow players to take advantage of these peripherals though there are critical voices that warn about an unfair situation for 'classic' gamers. The second, Microsoft effort to gave users an optional cross-play experience. The Play Anywhere titles allow Windows 10 PC and Xbox One players to enjoy online matches together amongst other things. Initiatives such the one led by Fornite's global cross-play (even Sony had to surrender) make the future look really interesting: players will play with (or against) other players on different platforms, with developers hopefully adjusting matchmaking to avoid unfair matches unless the players explicitly choose to go that way.
Xbox Game Pass won't be the only option on the market: Origin Access is an existing alternative that includes over 50 Electronic Arts games (there's an Xbox One version called EA Access), but we have also the elephant in the room: Steam, which doesn't have a subscription model and according to some people, won't ever have. Microsoft has some advantages on his strategy, but the problem for Microsoft could be not what they have on their game catalog, but precisely what they don't have. We'll have to wait and see if that version of Xbox Game Pass -the name should change, we guess- goes beyond what its current console service has gone, but the idea seems at least promising.
Source:
GameInformer
Nadella gave no further details, so we still don't know what games will be included on that service or the subscription price (currently $9.99/month), but the announcement is promising and another sign that the company is moving forward to expand their reach and, of course, their earnings. On the latest earnings release (FY19 Q1) Microsoft pointed out how gaming revenue "increased 44% with Xbox software and services revenue growth of 36% mainly from third-party title strength". This move could make that growth go even higher, and it joins other recent announcements that could improve Microsoft's role in this market.
Xbox Game Pass won't be the only option on the market: Origin Access is an existing alternative that includes over 50 Electronic Arts games (there's an Xbox One version called EA Access), but we have also the elephant in the room: Steam, which doesn't have a subscription model and according to some people, won't ever have. Microsoft has some advantages on his strategy, but the problem for Microsoft could be not what they have on their game catalog, but precisely what they don't have. We'll have to wait and see if that version of Xbox Game Pass -the name should change, we guess- goes beyond what its current console service has gone, but the idea seems at least promising.
28 Comments on Nadella Announces Xbox Game Pass, 'Microsoft's Netflix of Video Games', Is Coming to PC
Hard pass.
In the Uk every man would argue it's rubbish since they have all completely ruined football by never showing a whole competition on a channel despite them all paying for there bit, it's total garbage.
Any providor of entertainment you pick cannot show you all of whqt you want here.
And they're just doing the same to games imho.
Im not into it.
Thats whats interesting about game pass. MS buying all of these independent studios, they're loading up on their content to be able to deliver a lot of good games (if these good games ever show up) without worry about others breaking off and going solo.
I'm interested in game pass. Especially if they do a PC/Xbox combo price. However, I'll be curious what the PC version will bring?
So even something like Fox can do its own bit of content and still make lucrative Netflix deals on other stuff. The problem is making that switch, because you can't just cut out all the regular broadcasting from one day to the other, and doing it gradually keeps the content available in multiple places. So what we get is ever more advertising on cable, everything to annoy the shit out of you while you're watching it.
When it comes to content providers, honestly, these problems will never cease until everyone can bring their own content under a single, independent storefront where each publisher is a shareholder. Thát would be a vehicle that would work for on-demand gaming too, and it create a completely different world where the only thing that matters is quality of content, instead of forced exclusives and uninteresting paywalled services.
Nah, I'm good.
Netflix started with 2 o 3 series and a catalog of third-party content. Nowadays they have been retiring very slowly most of the third-party content, since now then have a huge in-house catalog.
This is what is need to be done in PC, start with a good third-party catalog of games and after some years push Microsoft games until they are more than the others, all that from a business point of view (some consumers will always want to play games from other publishers).
$10 a month for this might be a good deal. I mean, even if you don't play anything, it's like you've bought two games a year that you didn't like. And you're bound to do better than that with so many titles available.
edit: For the record, I'm totally against any kind of "streaming" of games. But a pass is cool, I guess. Not my thing, but maybe it holds some value.
In fact you could say that streaming is specifically more suited to single player games because they lack competitive requirements. Ironically...
Still, new titles (and especially AAA titles) aren't like that.