The Xbox Game Pass strikes again with its July update, adding seven more games to the steadily growing catalog. In a previous article I discussed the pros and cons of paying for the Game Pass subscription. This time I will dive deeper into what it’s like to be a Game Pass owner and what the newest update means for the future of the “Netflix for games.” Let’s get this started.
A June Hope
As I’ve mentioned previously, you can technically get your money’s worth by completing at least one of the games on the Xbox Game Pass. If we throw out the MSRPs for a second and actually look at cost versus enjoyment, is it still worth it? Yes, it is. Why?
When the Xbox Game Pass was first announced I was excited to finally play Payday 2, which resulted in countless hours of heisting fun. While I was expecting to play Payday, I wasn’t expecting a friend to ask me to play Saints Row IV; he didn’t have a Game Pass subscription, he simply owned it. Now I would never pay for Saints Row IV, but as it turns out it was included in the catalog. 20 hours of pain and misery quickly followed his invitation but it was ultimately a good time.
With that, a collective 50 hours between Payday 2 and Saints Row IV cost me only $10. Not to mention the endless games I can test out without buying. For example there’s Mad Max; a game I’ve been wanting to play since its first ever E3 reveal.
I played ten minutes of this game before rage quitting due to massive input lag that made the game feel unplayable. I would have wasted $10 buying that game alone. Even worse, if I had purchased it I would have subjected myself to an excruciatingly painful experience just to complete the game and get my money’s worth.
The point I’m trying to get across is that the Xbox Game Pass is incredibly convenient. Whenever one of your friends asks to play a game you know you don’t own, you can check the Game Pass for a second shot. You might just get lucky. It also brings a whole slew of new games for you to try out without actually buying anything. If you don’t like the game just uninstall it and move on to another; there’s no repercussion.
At the end of the day it’s about the subscribers as a whole. I understand that my experience may not be like everyone else’s. Most games are old and have already been played through more than once. I also understand the frustration that comes from a number of games in the catalog were also Games With Gold in the past. This ultimately brings us to the abysmal July update.
July Strikes Back
Before we even look at this new catalog let’s start from the top: seven games total. Microsoft, you only have a little over a hundred games in your catalog. Most we’ve played and some we own due to Games With Gold. An update like this should have included a minimum of ten games in order to keep enough variety for subscribers.
Now some may think “how are you going to get through seven games in a month?” That’s not the issue. The problem is that not everyone enjoys the same kind of games, and more likely than not, only one or two games will be even remotely interesting to certain players. Which brings me to the games themselves.
From left to right: Bard’s Gold, The Flame in the Flood, Resident Evil 6, Dead Island Definitive Edition, F1 2015, Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition, and Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine.
Look closely at that list. Do you see anything bothersome? Like maybe the fact that three of those games were on Games With Gold? That’s right; Dead Island, Guacamelee, and Monaco were all free for us in the past. That means Microsoft really only gave us four new games this month. Of those four only The Flame in the Flood stands out to me.
You couldn’t give us one relatively new title? I mean Gears of War 4 level of new – actually, speaking of that, where is the newest Gears? Every single Gears of War game is on the Game Pass except Gears 4. Was that just some ploy in order to sell Gears 4?
Instead of worrying about a game that’s come and gone, put it to use. I’m sure no one would complain. You could have sold an epic Game Pass if Gears 4 or a game with a similar status was in the update. But you settled for this lackluster lineup. If this continues and only one game stands out in an apparent list of seven, then ultimately the Game Pass isn’t worth keeping for more than a few months.
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