Microsoft’s subscription service gets more games, as Phil Spencer calls it the ‘antidote to everything needing to be a live service game’.
They might not have said anything new about Project Scarlett at the X019 event but Microsoft is clearly gearing up for the next generation and they’re not taking any prisoners when it comes to either Project xCloud or Xbox Game Pass.
Over 50 new games were announced for Game Pass, including The Witcher 3, Yakuza, Tekken 7, Rage 2, and 10 – count ‘em – Final Fantasy games.
You can see the entire list below, but the most interesting announcements were made by Phil Spencer at a brief press event we attended on Thursday morning, where he announced that plans were also underway to bring MMO Final Fantasy XIV to Xbox One.
New Xbox Game Pass titles
New Xbox Game Pass games avaialble now:
Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition (PC)
Age Of Wonders: Planetfall (Console, coming soon to PC)
Hearts Of Iron IV: Cadet Edition (PC)
The Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame (Console)
Rage 2 (Console & PC)
Remnant: From The Ashes (Console)
The Talos Principle (Console & PC)
Tracks: The Train Set Game (Console & PC)
Coming soon:
Carrion (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Cris Tales (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Cyber Shadow (Console & PC)
Darksiders III (Console & PC)
Double Kick Heroes (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Drake Hollow (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Edge Of Eternity (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Final Fantasy VII (Console & PC)
Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (Console & PC)
Final Fantasy IX (Console & PC)
Final Fantasy X HD Remastered (Console & PC)
Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remastered (Console & PC)
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Console & PC)
Final Fantasy XIII (Console & PC)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Console & PC)
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (Console & PC)
Final Fantasy XV (Console & PC)
Forager (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Haven (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
It Lurks Below (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Levelhead (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Life Is Strange 2: Episodes 4 & 5 (Console)
My Friend Pedro (Console/PC)
Pandemic (PC)
PHOGS (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
She Dreams Elsewhere (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
SkateBird (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Streets Of Rage 4 (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Scourge Bringer (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
Supraland (Console) – ID@Xbox
Tekken 7 (Console)
Touhou Luna Nights (Console & PC) – ID@Xbox
The Escapists 2 (Console)
The Red Lantern (Console) – ID@Xbox
The Red Strings Club (PC)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Console)
Vambrace: Cold Soul (Console & PC)
West Of Dead (Console & PC)
Yakuza 0 (Console & PC)
Yakuza Kiwami (Console & PC)
Yakuza Kiwami 2 (Console & PC)
Coming automatically because they’re Microsoft-published titles:
Bleeding Edge (Console & PC)
Grounded (Console & PC)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (PC)
Minecraft Dungeons (Console & PC)
Ori And The Will Of The Wisps (Console & PC)
Tell Me Why (Console & PC)
Wasteland 3 (Console & PC)
Why that wasn’t mentioned publicly we’re not sure, but he also said something very interesting about Game Pass’ ability to encourage a greater range and variety of games, which people might otherwise not have risked spending money on.
‘We see Game Pass as a really critical way to bring new games to new players with a business model that has more approachability to more players,’ said Spencer. ‘We see players ready to take risks on new games and genres because when you’re already in the subscription it’s as easy as clicking on something, downloading and starting to play.’
That all makes perfect sense and is the sort of thing he’s said before about Game Pass, but he then made an unexpected reference to games as a service (GAAS) titles such as Destiny and The Division, which many worry are beginning to make more traditional games, particularly single-player titles, less financially viable.
‘One of the things I was watching over the last few years is you saw many games and studios chasing service-based games that felt perpetual and felt like they had to last forever to recoup the investment big publishers and studios were making’, said Spencer.
‘The nice thing about Game Pass is that it wraps a game inside of a service itself. So a game can just be a game, and it’s nice to play games with a beginning, middle and end.
‘And as a subscription we can support those kinds of games, and in fact a lot of the games our first and third-party partners are working on take advantage of the fact they don’t have to carry the service themselves. They can just live within it.’
That’s a very encouraging thing to hear the head of Xbox say and only adds to the appeal of Game Pass, especially given how cheap it is.
If you watched the X019 livestream you would’ve seen Microsoft announce a $1 deal for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for three months, but that’s already available in the UK (despite being based in London, X019 was clearly still aimed at an American audience).
That membership also now includes one month of EA Access, three months of Discord Nitro, and six months of Spotify Premium. Which is almost beginning to seem too good to be true.
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