Xbox Game Pass Including First Party Games was Bold

The Xbox Game Pass had already provided some great value for those that might have been newer to Xbox One though it now provides absolutely amazing value with the bold inclusion of first party games, at launch.

These exclusives are typically a big deal for consoles and where a publisher will make a large portion of profit. It was a very bold and exciting move by Microsoft to have future core Xbox games included within the monthly subscription right from their original release.

This includes their power house flagship franchises of Halo, Gears of War and Forza. Not only that, but it will also have the latest exclusives Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 prompting the possible inclusion of all their core games going forward aside from the odd exclusion.

No one in gaming is really doing anything this intense with their digital services aside from EA Access which is also locked onto the Xbox One platform. It's an interesting move that further cements Xbox's goal of a digital future and a push towards being a Netflix of gaming with their Game Pass.

In a sense it really is like the Netflix Original Content for streaming, but for games that you download to play. I mean, it immediately brought up the value of the pass in my eyes and the friends I let know of it when it was announced. It went from being something you might have to you're definitely missing out on savings.
Xbox Game Pass Including First Party Games was Bold
With some debate the pass was already great prior to this, but I found it mostly being something that was perfect for those that were newer to the Xbox One console. I already owned many of the games, so I thought it was perfect for players to get a fast library.

Now, this is the type of thing that any Xbox One owner may definitely want to check out. Looking at it from a purely value point there would only need to be two exclusive Xbox first party releases a year to completely justify it.

That doesn't even included the vast quantity of other games joining and leaving each month. I'm actually shocked they would do something like this, but perhaps the real money is in keeping you within the ecosystem. It follows almost the same model as Microsoft Office or say Netflix and this could work well for gaming.

I honestly never thought they'd ever do anything like this and it's a bold step towards being 100% focused on the success of the service. For those hesitant you can still buy to own the games and while it's great to straight up own a title, the benefits are beyond significant here.

You can Game Share the pass, it also supports Xbox Play Anywhere so that's just crazy. If that's not enough, you can enjoy a pile of the biggest games from every generation of Xbox whether that's the current generation, Xbox 360 or Original Xbox.

At the price point I'm just surprised this happened and I think they're perhaps really onto something if they see the value of placing their biggest games on it. Perhaps they see more profit as a services type thing like how Gears of War 4 or Halo 5: Guardians handled microtransactions, whatever the case it could potentially have a large impact on the gaming market.

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Gamerheadquarters Reviewer Jason Stettner