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Having a giant game library can make quite a dent in your pocket. This is a dilemma I’ve often faced when buying new games. The Xbox Game Pass fixes that problem to a great extent, offering a huge game library, at a rather reasonable monthly fee.
It’s not perfect, but there’s more than one reason why it has become my permanent subscription.
1It’s Incredible Value for Money
We’ve already coveredeverything you need to know about Xbox Game Pass, but simply speaking, Xbox Game Pass is a game subscription that costs $1 for the first 14 days and then $9.99 afterward per month for regular and $13.99 for Game Pass Ultimate.
For that price, I get access to over 400 PC games. For context, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II costs $49.99 for PC or console, but with Game Pass, I can play it for $9.99, along with every other game in Microsoft’s library.
Most games usually sell around the $50 to $60 mark, with newer games often challenging the price tag on the upper end. It’s very easy to invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars into your game library if you’re not careful.
That’s not to say that Game Pass will help you cover every new game under the sun; you’ll still be spending hundreds to get several other games you’d want. However, Game Pass can easily keep that cost in check, especially with a growing library that often includes new games on launch day.
For example, the US pricing for Xbox Game Pass is $9.99, but in India where I use it, it only costs ₹349 a month, with Game Pass Ultimate coming in at ₹549—that translates to $4.18 and $6.58 respectively. That means that even if you’re using Xbox Game Pass outside the US, you don’t necessarily lose out with the currency conversion.
2I Get Early Access to Games
Now this isn’t the case with every new release, but Game Pass does cover enough major releases for the feature to be worthwhile. Note that this also applies to game previews, as demos and preview builds for games coming to Game Pass can often be found.
3It Helps Me Gauge My Playing Habits
Having hundreds of games ready to play without spending another cent is really helpful when you’re looking to gauge your playing habits. If you generally play a specific kind of game and want to try out a new genre, you don’t have to go out and purchase a separate game to try things out. Chances are, the game you want to try is already on Game Pass.
Even if it isn’t, you can try and download similar games to see if buying the game would be worth the effort. There’s no point in buying a $60 game only to find out an hour later that you’re not really into it. Sure, you can probably get it refunded if you’re playing on Steam, but Game Pass provides a much easier alternative to trying out different games and figuring out what you like.
4I Can Play With My Console Friends
While the PC gaming community is by far the largest in the world, chances are you also have that one friend that swears by their Xbox. Game Pass takes the mutual game-hunting process out of the way so you and your friend can download and play cross-platform titles.
Now you can get around this restriction if you’re playing on PC, but your console friends will have to get an Xbox Game Pass, just like PlayStation players have to get PlayStation Plus. The only difference is that the PlayStation subscription is locked to the console, while with Game Pass Ultimate you can play on PC, Xbox, your phone, and even the cloud.
5EA Play Saves the Day
With every game manufacturer now coming up with their own subscription services, the whole thing can get out of hand very quickly. Thankfully, if you play EA games, especially one of their recurring titles like FC, Madden, F1, or Cricket, you’re able to get access to these games with the bundled EA Play subscription.
Some EA titles have limited access or are demo-only in the beginning, such as FC24, which came to Game Pass a while after the game was released. But you still get access to discounts meaning you’re able to try the game out and if you want to buy it, you can do it for cheaper.
6It’s Easy to Transfer Games Between PCs
Now this feature isn’t exactly unique to Xbox Game Pass, and if you use something like Steam or Epic, transferring games between PCs is equally easy. But the ability to move to another computer, log into the Xbox app, and click the download button to get back all your games and progress is a nice thing to have.
Xbox Game Pass does have the advantage here over game launchers like Steam or Epic as it doesn’t require any external applications to be installed. If you’re moving to a new computer, chances are it already has an Xbox app ready to go. You also don’t have to navigate through complex directory structures to find out where your games are saved, so moving local files over a USB drive is also easy.
Game Pass is very well integrated into Windows, and that’s one of the main reasons why it just performs better than the competition. Xbox Game Pass is the one subscription that has become a must-have for my gaming experience.
