Xbox Game Pass Will Now Feature First-Party Xbox One Exclusives At Launch

@otterbee: You still have the option to buy them. Physical or digital. This is taking nothing away from people who don't want to support it.

@risingdawn: Rest easy, Major Nelson confirmed that all Microsoft Studio games from now going forward will be in the Game Pass lineup PERMANENTLY.

@risingdawn: They have given us warning whenever a game leaves (except when NBA 2k got pulled by Take 2 randomly). They are upfront about how long you have on other games, and after almost half a year.. only like 3 games are getting rotated out. If the game is selling and being played, pretty sure the publisher and MS have no reason to cycle it out.

@risingdawn: By the time they leave the service they're likely to be reduced in price and having sales anyway, and you can buy them cheaper for being a member of the service.

@sellingthings: not 15/mo?

@wretch1d: You say "the end goal is to shut down places like EB" as if that is a bad thing. That's some funny stuff there.

@wretch1d:

You conspiracy theorist arr terrible always trying to find a negative angle it's hilarious lol.

@wretch1d: You absolutely still have the option to buy a physical copy.

@KingKalo: 120$ is what you pay to own 2 games that you may either keep playing for a whole year or play for a week, finish and never touch again...

Gamepass is good to try games, complete games you may half-like...

But people like me will still buy titles I keep playing, like Forza.

@sellingthings: 1. Price is fine. 2. Dlc is still purchasable and at a 10% discount. 3.gamestop offered you 7.99 for new releases. Nuff said. 4.because they are downloaded they will work offline. You also have the option to buy and own them forever even if u no longer continue the pass ata 20% discount. Obviously you will buy games u own the dlc for. Lol

@sellingthings: All great points!

I think like every thing else it's going to come down to one's own personal opinion as they weigh the cost to benefit ratio of a service like this.

Pros:

1: New releases (first party.) Day 1: This is a huge incentive, even to those who had no reason to partake in a service such as this. The fact that someone who is already getting a steady stream of rotating games on a monthly basis is now receiving the same big name AAA Microsoft first party title day 1 that another person is putting a pre-order on is almost enough incentive to make even the most skeptical gamer give this program a second look.

2: Price: A year's worth of the program will set gamers back a cool $120 but when you factor in what you're getting it doesn't seem bad at all. In fact, 2 brand new games (as you alluded to.) will pretty much cover the cost for a whole year's membership.

3: A rotating catalog of games: Obviously this is a good thing as it keeps new titles rolling in and the reason for having such a pass feeling fresh. This is also great for those who continuously find themselves renting/borrowing/buying older games from places like Gamestop or Redbox (although I think Redbox just has newer titles? Don't know, never used one.).

Clearly there are more good reasons to get in on this pass but for the average gamer those will be some of the main factors weighing in on their decision.

Cons:

1: You don't OWN the games: While this may not be a big deal for some the fact that you are essentially using this service as a glorified rental service may leave a few gamers feeling like they have nothing to show at the end of the day.

2: Can't sell/trade in games: This point kind of goes with the one above. I personally know a ton of people who thrive on the idea of selling and buying used games so a service like this would effectively eliminate that. Also I'm not sure how things like just borrowing games would work using this service. I imagine it wouldn't but I haven't looked into that so...

3: Most of the games will be old: While this point may not be an issue for casual/newer gamers for the more hardcore veteran gamers (like those that frequent forums like this.) a catalog of games that they have already played (or are years old.) may not have them running out to purchase this service right away. The good news is that theoretically for the cost of 2 new games one would essentially be getting their moneys worth out of this program (not taking into account trade ins/used sales.).

4: Rotating catalog of games: It's funny but this was also a pro. How is it a negative as well you may ask? (-We didn't, Ninja. But anyway.-). Suppose you absolutely love one of the new games being offered (Sea of Thieves.) and play through it over and over and over. Well, guess what? It's in rotation. So you know what that means. you could literally be playing it one day then the next it could be gone. Sorry!

Just like for the pros there are a litany of other cons that one could bring up, yourself having done a good job of stating what a few of them may entail (DLC, internet, etc...).

A service like this NOW has a huge incentive even for those reluctant to give it a shot but I think it goes without saying that something like this will definitely cater to and benefit newbies. I'll even go a step further and say that I think the 2 categories of gamers who will benefit the most from this program will be the newbies/casual gamer (obviously.) and those more geared to the multiplayer aspect of gaming.

In regards to the 2nd group I feel something like this will be more than enough to warrant a purchase as they can play single player games/first party titles that may be more story driven or have a more linear single player focus while not having to worry about shelling out their cash for something they will "beat in only 20 hours."

While I love and actually find the best gaming experiences I have ever had coming from games such as these I would be in denial to point out that everyone shares this view. In fact, whenever there is an article about the supposed length of a new game it's not uncommon to hear the sighs and groaning from certain people on forums such as these as to how they are getting "cheated" out of $60 and upwards for a "short" 20 hour length adventure. Once again, I clearly don't fit in this camp but Microsoft can really capitalize on this demographic if they play their hand right.

Will this program take off? Only time will tell. But if Microsoft keeps pulling out more tactics like this I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the year a large portion of X box adopters take the plunge.

-DECISIONS, DECISIONS... NINJA APPROVED-

@sellingthings: To speak to your 4th question, you download what you want from gamepass. There is no option (at least for now) to stream, and yes you have access to those downloads offline (as far as I know, I've had no problem with playing offline)