Microsoft Xbox news and discussion thread

[Chopper]

I'm probably the only one, but I'm really tempted by the discless XB1. That and gamepass would suit me fine, and I have a ton of digital games left over from my 360 I could play too. It's just too expensive, I guess, given the version with the disc drive is cheaper. I'd definitely think about grabbing one for around £140 though.

Game pass makes it pretty tempting but I don’t think I could justify it from a clutter point of view. I could retire the PS3 I suppose

[Stanshall]

I see the value in Game Pass, but I still find the actual collection of games to be mostly very very average. I can't understand when I see folk saying yep, Game Pass will do me now, years and years of gaming there. I don't think I have any GP stuff downloaded at the moment. I'll wait to hear their E3 plans but I'll probably cancel my sub when it expires.

[James]

It obviously depends on what you're looking for from gaming. I choose not to rely solely on Game Pass, Games With Gold, PlayStation Plus, EA/Origin Access, Humble Monthly, and Epic Store's free games; I'd feel like I was missing out on too many games that interest me if I did that.

That said, if I just wanted to fill my gaming time, with those services I easily could, for something in the order of £100-£200 per year. I think that's an incredible prospect, especially for anyone who doesn't have the time or interest to keep up-to-date with gaming releases and curate their own gaming library.

I wouldn't go to the cinema and just buy a ticket for whatever's on next, but I've seen people do just that. Presumably the enjoyment of the cinema for them is in the going, or in the discovery, as much as in the quality of what they watch.

Netflix is changing the way people watch film and TV, because of price and convenience. I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing, it just is. I don't doubt that gaming could also go that way, via streaming services, and likely will. If it does, I expect there'll still be room for the gaming equivalent of the high-tier home cinema experience, but plenty of people are happy with the convenience of streaming films to their computer, tablet or phone instead.

For another example, bargain-bucket mini-game collections did really well on Wii with a certain part of that console's audience. Sometimes cheap and handy, beats expensive and tough to find.

[Flabyo]

You can’t find anything on gamepass at all? Really?

And I thought I was picky...

[clippa]

I've just had a look and they're all either games I've played or games I'm not interested in. I thought there'd be at least a few where I'd go "Oh yeah, I've always wanted to try that"

[Stanshall]

You can’t find anything on gamepass at all? Really?

And I thought I was picky...

In terms of exclusives, I got FH4 with the One X. No other exclusives interest me but I can see what others might get from them. SoT seems unique and of interest, I just don't really play with a group because my variable work schedule makes me unreliable. I'm not really bothered about the 360 games because I already own and have played those of interest. That said, I was wrong before. I have Oblivion downloaded for the X improvements and I've never played NGB so I'll probably try that at some point. And yeah, no flattery bullshit, but I'd like to try Fable 'some rainy day'.

Broadly, though, it's full of what I consider 6/10 type of stuff which is perfectly serviceable and passes the time, like Tomb Raider, Mad Max, Metro, Wolfenstein, but I find that kind of thing boring. They're the equivalent of filling up on rice at the end of a meal, as far as I'm concerned. There are a couple of fantastic games there, as well. Alien Isolation, Monster Hunter World, Edith Finch are very good, probably a couple more, but I bought them a long time ago on the PS4 or, more often than not, ten years ago.

As I say, I see the value in it in principle and practice for the hypothetical 'average' gamer. There's a range of different stuff, something for everyone. It's a great way to build a diverse collection from scratch, it's just a fact that there's virtually nothing I actually want on there at this point.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

My current Game Pass playlist includes: Wolfenstein 2, What Remains Of Edith Finch, Vampyr, both Shantae games, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Rime, Prey, Mortal Kombat X, Monster Hunter World, both Metro games, Batman Arkham City, Hitman, Hellblade, Halo Wars 2, Gears Of War Judgement, Doom, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Alien Isolation, Abzu, The Gardens Between, Ashen, Strange Brigade, Mutant Year Zero.

I’ve got pretty broad tastes and am largely genre agnostic, so maybe I’m in the minority , but Game Pass has plenty to keep me going! If I wanted to I could get 12-18 months out of that lot without buying a single game (never gonna happen of course!) and there’s about the same number again that I’d at least give a go on top of that list.

Obviously entirely depends on your tastes as to whether Game Pass is for you, but for me personally the line-up is very good indeed.

[Scrustle]

Game Pass doesn't really appeal to me either, although there are a decent amount of pretty good games on it. But it feels like it's not meant for me. With all the games on it, there are practically none that interest me that I don't already have, or that I wouldn't mind just buying individually. I'd rather do that and own the game forever than have to continually have to pay for a subscription to have access to. I find the idea of that puts me under pressure to play a game in the shortest period of time possible to make the most out of my money, which kind of makes it hard to enjoy. I'd rather just have a copy I can play whenever I feel like. If I imagine that I didn't already own all those games then there is probably more than enough to justify getting it, but most of the appealing games are multiplatform. The only things that aren't are probably Forza and Halo MCC.

So to me it feels like this service is meant for someone who isn't really in to games that much, and somehow hasn't already jumped on to this generation of consoles, and so doesn't already have a sizable library. Someone who wants a good deal to see what kind of stuff is out there, but isn't really interested in getting that invested in any of it, at least at the time they're picking up an Xbox and this subscription.

[ratsoalbion]

I mean, I’m quite into games and I have Game Pass.

[Alex79uk]

So to me it feels like this service is meant for someone who isn't really in to games that much, and somehow hasn't already jumped on to this generation of consoles, and so doesn't already have a sizable library. Someone who wants a good deal to see what kind of stuff is out there, but isn't really interested in getting that invested in any of it, at least at the time they're picking up an Xbox and this subscription.

I don't really agree with that. I'm in to games. Really in to games. As in they're my favorite thing to do, out of all the things in the world that there are to do. But as a gamer on a budget, I do not have an XB1 and unless I'm buying stuff in a sale digitally, tend to trade in my games as soon as I finish them, meaning I do not have a collection as such, just a rolling library which changes monthly. Gamepass, and even PS Now if it was more reasonably priced, appeals to me completely. Just a constantly changing and growing collection I could dip in and out of to find something to play. I really like the subscription model of gaming we've seen over the last few years. I have no interest in shelves and shelves of games to look at, not really bothered about 'owning' things either or playing the very latest games, so this sort of thing is perfect.

[Scrustle]

I'm not saying that you can't like Game Pass if you're really in to games. But just when I think of what market they're trying to get to that they don't already have served, that's what it seems like they're going for to me. It still seems kind of odd for someone who isn't already really invested in medium though. Since if you're in that position, the more money you already spend on games, the less valuable Game Pass is. You're more likely to already own what they are offering, so you're spending the same price for effectively less content that's relevant to you. The only thing I can think of is maybe you don't mind spending extra for the sake of exploring out of your comfort zone a bit. But even in that case, why not just buy any game like that that catches your eye when it's on sale somewhere? It would make for an extremely specific case that you would be spending less money on Game Pass for those few curios, than you would if you spent that money on simply buying that handful of games yourself.

And if you're someone who isn't that bothered about keeping up to date on the newest releases and wants to keep your shelf space clear, getting things on sale digitally still seems like a more appealing idea to me. I do that a fair bit myself. I don't really keep that up to date with the latest stuff either. When I do get on stuff early it's usually with pretty niche games that don't come around that frequently. But otherwise there's plenty of chances to pick up stuff a few years down the line for next to nothing.

I'm not trying to criticise anyone for signing up for this though. You do you. I just don't really get it.

[Suits]

I’m with you on this Scrustle.

There is undoubtedly massive value in it and I’m pleased others get the most out of what it has to offer.

The current library of games that I don’t already own and exclusives available don’t interest me enough to pay £10 a month for.

The only exception was FH4 - which I used the free month trial for. Great game.

I’m keen to see what new releases and exclusives MS will add to the service and whether that will be enough for me sign up.

[Chopper]

It’s one euro/pound/dollar for three months for the next three days, if you open a new account.

[FemalePheromones]

It’s one euro/pound/dollar for three months for the next three days, if you open a new account.

Or if you actually run your subscription down so it ends and don't renew. They word it as if it is only for accounts that haven't subscribed to Game Pass before but really it's for any account that doesn't currently have a subscription.

Rather than paying X amount each month I'll get whatever deal is on and run it down and then wait to renew until there is another deal on which there seems to be most of the time (£1 for 1 month, £2 for 1 month with a second month free and most recently £1 for 3 months. No one can argue with the library they offer for 33p per month).

I've had Game Pass since September and never paid full price.

*Hope Microsoft don't read this and change the way it works*

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

I've had Game Pass since September and never paid full price.

I’m currently working through a deal where I got 12 months for £43.99, so that’s £3.66 a month.

As you say, there are deals from Microsoft themselves or the likes of Amazon popping up all over the place all the time, so really you should never be paying the full £7.99 (although I’d happily pay that personally for what you get).

[Flabyo]

At some point I’ll be switching to the combined gold account with gamepass, I assume I can’t do that until my next gold renewal though which is in, erm, Feb 2020 I think.

[Scrustle]

More rumours to suggest that a Fable 4 is on the way. This one seems pretty solid, since it comes from Microsoft's own streaming platform, Mixer. Apparently the game showed up in auto-fill search results, presumably because they already have the game in their database.

https://screenrant.com/fable-4-mixer-e3 ... ouncement/

[countstex]

Surprised to see so many people not interested in GamePass. For me, it's an essential part of owning an XBOX. No the XBOX is my primary system, as I've stated many places, but even if it wasn't paying the relatively small fee for all the MS first party games is value enough, and then I've been able to try out some excellent games like Mutant Year Zero, Avon Colony, Surviving Mars, and then replay some remasters of games I've already paid for once such as the Batman games. I find it hard to imagine not seeing the value in it, without having some very specific tastes or having spent an amazing amount of money on getting games day one.
Maybe that's the thing. I fell off riding the tide of new releases a good 5 years ago, and now just pick up game others recommend or I catch wind of. Never been happier.

[dezm0nd]

Gamepass is definitely improving but the problem we have, generally, is that we want to play all the new hot games out week per week rather than scrolling through a bunch of "old stuff" in a similar fashion to netflix.

As a collective, we need to stop acting like a game isn't worth playing because it's been out for more than a month. We've been pulled into the rat race of new releases for a while now and it's time to buck that trend.

I suspect gamepass is about to become bigger at e3, though. The fact that not all of Microsoft games are available on the service is a bit strange. (for example, Rare Replay)

[KSubzero1000]

the problem we have, generally, is that we want to play all the new hot games out week per week rather than scrolling through a bunch of "old stuff" in a similar fashion to netflix.

As a collective, we need to stop acting like a game isn't worth playing because it's been out for more than a month. We've been pulled into the rat race of new releases for a while now and it's time to buck that trend.

Very well said. But good luck seeing any meaningful progress on that front since so much of the video game culture / industry / overarching conversation is so thoroughly drenched in recency bias. Even around here, although to a lesser degree than in most other places.