It has been one year since the gaming subscription service Xbox Games Pass launched. In the latest Xbox Wire blog post, Ashley Speicher the Head of Engineering for Xbox Games Pass details some of the achievements.
The demand for the service has led Microsoft to expand to 40 markets across the globe. Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Saudi Arabia, to name a few of the countries to get the service. Back in January 2018, Phil Spencer announced that from that moment forward, all Xbox One exclusive titles would launch onto the Xbox Games Pass service after users wanted more AAA titles.
This saw titles such as Sea of Thieves, and State of Decay 2 arriving everywhere globally, but also onto the service. Sea of Thieves brought in over two-million players in the first week that it went live on the service, and outside of the service. State of Decay 2 was close behind in May where it saw over one million players in the first two days.
Ashley goes on to explain how the service has been creating opportunities for gamers and developers. Apparently, having the freedom to explore has had a positive impact on playing times, with gamers spending more time on titles in the Xbox Games Pass catalog, but also outside of it. Sales have also increased through the service.
According to Ashley, the service has been reviving gaming communities across a range of genres and franchises, with games in the service having “a longer tail of engagement”. Game developers are also able to connect with their audiences more than before.
Ashley says this about the communities,
those same community members often go on to then try the next major release from those franchises thanks to being introduced to new genres and content they may not have otherwise explored, simply by having unlimited access through the Xbox Game Pass catalog.
The blog post ends discussing that the service is planned to continue with a long-term commitment with more games lined up for the year ahead. However, one thing is obviously missing in the blog: numbers. Outside of those previously-known statistics, we don’t get a view into how quantifiably popular the service is.
The Xbox Games Pass service is billed monthly ($9.99 USD) and allows players access to a diverse range of video games. It allows players to install the full version of the game onto their system rather than play through the cloud. Or you can grab a six-month subscription via Amazon for $60. Additionally, subscribers to the service that play any games that support Xbox Play Anywhere can be played on Windows 10.
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