Xbox Game Pass is reportedly looking into new ways to expand its subscription service’s lineup and features, with a lot of possibilities on the horizon. Xbox Game Pass already offers its subscribers access to hundreds of different games, and if the recent reports are true, that catalog could be expanding in new ways across future years.
There have been several shake-ups with Xbox Game Pass over the last several months that have seen the service expand in multiple ways while also becoming more expensive. These decisions have seen mixed reactions from fans and customers, such as the nearly 50 percent price hike of the Ultimate tier more than four months back, but more recent reports of upcoming features like a free ad-supported cloud tier for Xbox gamers could open up the service to an entirely new and larger group of gaming enthusiasts.
Best Multiplayer Games On Xbox Game Pass
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Xbox Game Pass Could Be Getting Even Bigger
Now, a new report suggests that Microsoft’s gaming subscription service is looking forward to even more expansions in the future. According to The Verge, Microsoft is “in the early stages” of investigating different avenues for broadening the Xbox Game Pass library and customer experience. Due to the recency of these ideas being tossed around, no major changes are expected to hit the platform during the course of this year, but the brief list of ideas that has been shared could result in Xbox Game Pass subscribers getting a lot more options for gaming further into the future.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
One of the methods Warren’s sources state Microsoft is currently considering includes a potential merger between Xbox Game Pass’ Premium tier and PC Game Pass, the company’s gaming service that focuses its efforts on PCs instead of consoles. Considering Microsoft’s recent softening of its stance on console exclusives and reports of Xbox getting into the handheld gaming market, a uniting of its PC and console-based gaming services doesn’t seem that far-fetched. Another possibility his report indicates as being up for consideration revolves around the potential bundling of Xbox Game Pass with other third-party gaming services. Such a business move would create a much wider net of playable games under the Game Pass banner, though no specific third-party services have been singled out at this point in time.
Microsoft was hit with backlash back in October after its decision to increase the monthly subscription fee for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $19.99 to $29.99, a move so unpopular with fans that the wave of cancellation requests crashed Game Pass’ website. Warren made note of this incident in his recent report, and while he didn’t directly establish causation between the price hike and the concept of expanding services, he noted that Microsoft officials began tossing around expansion ideas following the subscription fee increases. Still, the fallout from last October’s business move wasn’t all bad, as it also saw the addition of multiple new games coming to Xbox Game Pass through a new partnership with Ubisoft+, including 16 different titles in the Assassin’s Creed series.
In the meantime, there are plenty of other new games recently confirmed for inclusion on Xbox Game Pass. These include day-one additions like Squanch Games’ FPS High on Life 2, which hits the Ultimate tier on February 13, and roguelite action game Blazblue Entropy Effect X, which is set to hit the same tier on February 12. Other higher-profile Xbox Game Pass additions coming in the near future inlcude the arrival of heist game Relooted on February 10, cozy life sim Starsand Island on February 12, medieval action-RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance on February 13, action-adventure title Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora on February 17, and puzzle-platformer Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf on March 5.
