As someone who's used game pass for about a year now I've got to say its sort of underwhelming. Of the games our household has played on it many have been cheap indie games that we could have just purchased and others have been games that were on it for a limited time that we then had to purchase. In that department the value has been not great.
On the other side of that is Microsofts exclusive games, we originally got game pass for Sea of Thieves which launched in a notoriously unfinished state. Between then and now there have been a couple of other games they've put out Gears 5 and State of decay, neither of which we were interested in. Then Grounded was announced, it sounded like an interesting idea but upon loading the game it was immediately apparent that it was basically an early access / alpha gameplay prototype of a game. Flight Simulator 2020 seems to have a similar trend with comments on updates indicating the bulk of 'the game' will be released in the future. And this is the thing that gives me concerns for the future of game pass.
Microsoft has been showing themselves more than willing to release unfinished games and finish them on our dime. I personally really dislike paying for the promise of a good game one day. I think early access is a blight on the games industry and is one of the worst things ever bestowed upon the games industry. Thanks Minecraft, Steam Early Access, and No Mans Sky for popularizing, normalizing, and making acceptable this practice. If gamepass is going to be a games as a service subscription those GAAS releases are going to have to be more than just a promise and a prototype or the value will quickly start evaporating.
On the other side of that is Microsofts exclusive games, we originally got game pass for Sea of Thieves which launched in a notoriously unfinished state. Between then and now there have been a couple of other games they've put out Gears 5 and State of decay, neither of which we were interested in. Then Grounded was announced, it sounded like an interesting idea but upon loading the game it was immediately apparent that it was basically an early access / alpha gameplay prototype of a game. Flight Simulator 2020 seems to have a similar trend with comments on updates indicating the bulk of 'the game' will be released in the future. And this is the thing that gives me concerns for the future of game pass.
Microsoft has been showing themselves more than willing to release unfinished games and finish them on our dime. I personally really dislike paying for the promise of a good game one day. I think early access is a blight on the games industry and is one of the worst things ever bestowed upon the games industry. Thanks Minecraft, Steam Early Access, and No Mans Sky for popularizing, normalizing, and making acceptable this practice. If gamepass is going to be a games as a service subscription those GAAS releases are going to have to be more than just a promise and a prototype or the value will quickly start evaporating.