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As a veteran A PC gamer with a preference for Sony’s PlayStation consoles, I’m a late convert to the joys of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription service. I often play the same games for weeks, but my Steam library is full of unplayed titles, and my kids have an insatiable thirst for new games. I was skeptical about the quality and depth of Game Pass (and game subscription services in general). But buying a steady stream of games for me, my wife and my two kids was expensive.
Paying $60 for a game they simply had to have only to find they were bored with it after a week was not sustainable. My wife and I tend to only buy games we know we’ll like, which is a foreign concept to kids. What finally persuaded me to sign up was my upset daughter who found herself unable to join her game-hopping Xbox friends who all seem to have Game Pass. Hearing screams of laughter as she piles in hours with friends Sea of Thieves and Human Fall Flat goes a long way to justifying the cost, but what has made Game Pass Ultimate an essential part of our household is the PC games.
An unexpected benefit is that my kids and I are willing to try more games now, playing titles that may have passed us by. Game Pass not only helps us discover games we like, but also lets us drop titles we don’t like. It’s less risky to take a chance on something, and not feeling like you have to stick with a game because you bought it is liberating. We play more than ever.
Games galore
Long regarded as the best deal in gaming, Game Pass Ultimate is a subscription service that invites you to an all-you-can-eat buffet at a table loaded with hundreds of games for $15 a month. You can install and play games on Xbox or PC, with almost 500 games included for both platforms respectively. You can also stream console games (no installation required) to play on a MacBook, tablet or smartphone. If you don’t have an Xbox but have a PC or vice versa, you can also get a PC or Console plan for $10 a month, although you’ll miss out on some benefits.
You can find a game in every genre in the current Game Pass lineup, with a solid mix of classics, popular series, indies, and fresh AAA titles. But it wasn’t always like that. When it launched five years ago, Game Pass was Xbox only and offered around 100 games. Game Pass for PC and the Ultimate installment that combined them arrived just two years later, and cloud gaming was only thrown into the mix in 2020.
By making close deals with major publishers and acquiring a steady stream of talented game developers, Microsoft has simultaneously strengthened the Game Pass catalog and lined up an impressive list of launch day titles. I sunk in for weeks Hall Infinite, Total War: Warhammer 3and Guardians of the Galaxy. I enjoyed games I was interested in but didn’t buy on release, like The Outer Worlds, Hades, preyand Frostpunk. And I had the odd nostalgic burst of old favorites that I wouldn’t buy again, like Spore, Dungeon Keeper 2and Fallout: New Vegas.
When they are not playing with friends, my children are engaged in games like Two Point Campus, Sims 4and Subnautical. All of this is a long way of saying that there is a great selection of games to play, which is what makes Game Pass Ultimate so irresistible. Even better is the cloud gaming option (currently available for nearly 400 games), which lets you play these titles on almost any device—you can fire up a game and try it out without having to wait for a download or free up space for installation. .
Notices and Competition
Photo: Microsoft
There are a few caveats to note about the service. We all love the ability to try multiple games with Game Pass Ultimate, but both cloud gaming and my willingness to download more game bank on high-speed internet. Before fiber came to my area, this casual game hopping would have been impossible. (We used to have to plan and download overnight.)
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