Xbox Game Pass: is this really the future?

Microsoft goes mobile!
After the Xbox One had almost sealed the end of their actually successful gaming division, a generation later they are stronger than ever. With the purchase of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, Microsoft digs deep into the war chest and Xbox Series X/S outsells any Xbox before it. The real driving force, however, is the Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft’s gaming subscription wants nothing less than to become the Netflix for games. We did some research and talked to game publishers to find out how the triumph of game subscriptions is already affecting the entire gaming world and what consequences it may have in the future.

In 2013, Xbox was dead. After having managed to stand up to the big competitor Sony with the Xbox 360 generation, everything that had been built up over many years was torn down with the launch of the Xbox One. Rather media center, because game console, always-on compulsion, Kinect compulsion, the limitation of the used market and a more expensive price than the competition. Microsoft wanted to foist all this on the buyers.

But the shot backfired because they scared off their most important group of buyers: the players. Gaming advanced with the vision of the Xbox

The Xbox One almost buried the entire Xbox division

Source: microsoft

One in the background. the famous “TV TV TV” – presentation became a meme in record time. That culminated in one legendary interview with DonMattrick, the Xbox boss at the time. In which he snidely advised gamers to just buy the old Xbox 360 if the new features annoyed them so much. The shitstorm was gigantic and is now considered the death knell for the One – even before it even appeared. He almost was. It was true that within a few weeks people completely backtracked and Don Mattrick decided to leave the company, but the damage was done.

While the 360 ​​generation was still able to partially outperform Sony’s PlayStation 3, the One was left behind from the start. Where they snatched the PS4 from Sony, Microsoft struggled to sell consoles at all. Gamers flocked to the competition and Microsoft was on the verge of ending the Xbox chapter entirely.

However, the Windows group decided to let the project continue. The division is restructured and gets a new head with Phil Spencer. Under his leadership, the “crimes” of the One Generation will be undone. Kinect is gone, the focus is placed back on games and with the One X you are at the top in terms of hardware. The clear statement: “We screwed up, we got it.”

The probably most formative change takes place on June 01, 2017. Quite inconspicuously, Xbox is launching a subscription service that offers over 100 games. Xbox Game Pass is an experiment by Microsoft. The subscription is not the first of its kind. EA Play started three years earlier and the Humble Bundle has been around since 2010. Not to mention the triumph of Spotify and Netflix.

But the service is showing initial successes and the group is recognizing the potential. Half a year after the start in January 2018, the initial spark for the Xbox new baby follows: All games from Microsoft Studios are coming Day One in Game Pass. So that there is more to come than just Forza, Halo and Gears, the division is gradually being aligned to the subscription.

Phil Spencer should save the Xbox brand

Source: Microsoft / Power On documentation






After falling into the misconception at the launch of the One that you could rely almost entirely on third-party providers for games, Sony pulled away with its outstanding first-party titles. The mocking stereotype “Xbox doesn’t have games” took hold over an entire generation and was pure poison for a new subscription service promoting really good games. So Microsoft starts the sprint and pulls out its wallet: You don’t have time to tediously set up new studios, because you now have to keep up with Sony.

Moving on to page 2 for Xbox’s resurgence!