The Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service provided by Microsoft Gaming as part of the Xbox platform. It was launched on June 1, 2017, and allows users to download and play video games on various devices, including video game consoles, Microsoft Windows computers, Android and iOS mobile devices, iPadOS tablets, web browsers, smart televisions, and through cloud technology. The service includes a collection of games that changes over time. As long as a user has an active subscription, they can access these games. Subscribers also receive discounts on purchases of games and their downloadable content (DLC) from the service’s library.
The service includes two products: Xbox Game Pass, which is available for Xbox One and Series X/S consoles, and PC Game Pass, which is available for computers running Windows 10 or Windows 11. These are separate subscription options. A premium tier called Game Pass Ultimate provides access to both services, along with Xbox Cloud Gaming, which allows on-demand cloud gaming on consoles, PCs, and mobile devices, and the benefits of an Xbox Game Pass Essential subscription.
The service includes games from Microsoft Gaming’s subsidiaries, such as Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, and Activision Blizzard, as well as other companies. Since January 2018, all new games released by Xbox Game Studios have been available to Game Pass subscribers immediately upon their release. Microsoft also provides access to services like Electronic Arts’ EA Play, Ubisoft’s Ubisoft+, and special bonus rewards from Riot Games for PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.
Xbox Live Gold was discontinued on September 14, 2023. It was merged into Xbox Game Pass as a new, lower-cost tier called Xbox Game Pass Core, which offers a limited selection of free games to subscribers.
History
The idea for Xbox Game Pass came from two main sources. First, Phil Spencer became the head of the Xbox brand at Microsoft in 2013 after Don Mattrick left. Mattrick had focused on making the Xbox One more of an entertainment hub than a gaming console, but this approach faced criticism from customers and the media. Spencer wanted to improve the Xbox brand for the next generation of consoles and brought new ideas to the team, even if some were risky. One idea was a game rental service, which started as a project called Arches. As online services like Netflix and Spotify showed success with subscriptions, Microsoft changed Arches to use a subscription model, leading to the creation of Game Pass. This idea fit with Microsoft’s larger plan under CEO Satya Nadella to promote cloud-based services.
The second source was Rare, a game studio Microsoft bought in 2002. During Mattrick’s time, Rare was asked to create Kinect Sports, a game for the Kinect motion-sensing device. This experience inspired Rare to develop a multiplayer game called Sea of Thieves. Spencer wanted to test Game Pass’s popularity, so he planned to launch it with older games first and later added Sea of Thieves. He told Rare’s director that even if no one bought the game outside of Game Pass, it would still be considered a success.
On February 28, 2017, Microsoft announced Xbox Game Pass and tested it with a small group of Xbox Insider members. Later that year, the service became available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers and then to all users. While an Xbox Live Gold subscription is not required for Game Pass, it is needed for online multiplayer features in some games.
At Microsoft’s E3 2017 event, the company announced that older Xbox games could be played on newer consoles through a backwards-compatibility feature. Some of these games were later added to Game Pass.
On January 23, 2018, Microsoft expanded Game Pass to include first-party games released on the same day as their retail versions. Sea of Thieves launched on March 20, 2018, along with other titles like Crackdown 3 and Forza Horizon 4. Future games from Microsoft franchises, such as Halo and Gears of War, also joined the service. Some independent games from ID@Xbox were added, starting with Robocraft Infinity.
Spencer stated that Microsoft’s goal was to make Game Pass available on many devices, including those from competitors. He said, “We want to bring Game Pass to any device someone wants to play on…because the business model allows people to find games they wouldn’t have played elsewhere.”
On April 18, 2019, Microsoft introduced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which combined Game Pass with Xbox Live Gold into one subscription. It became available for testing in May 2019 and launched fully in June 2019. Game Pass for PC, which included over 100 games, was also announced and entered open beta in June 2019.
In October 2020, Spencer said the pricing for Game Pass was “completely sustainable” and no price increases were planned. Xbox Cloud Gaming, a service that lets players stream games on Android devices, launched for Game Pass Ultimate users in September 2020. It later expanded to include all Game Pass tiers in August 2025.
In June 2021, Microsoft announced plans for a Game Pass app for smart TVs and a standalone streaming device. In December 2021, the PC version of Game Pass was rebranded as “PC Game Pass” to avoid confusion.
On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced that Game Pass had over 25 million subscribers. That same day, the company announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard and add its games to Game Pass.
In June 2022, Riot Games, which usually offers its own games, added free-to-play titles like League of Legends to Game Pass. Subscribers would get full access to champions in League of Legends and in-game rewards in other titles.
In September 2022, Microsoft introduced a Friends and Family tier, allowing account holders to share their subscription with up to four others in the same country. This tier cost about $25 per month.
Microsoft had offered a $1/month introductory rate for Game Pass Ultimate, but stopped this promotion in March 2023. In September 2023, Microsoft replaced Xbox Live Gold with a new tier called Xbox Game Pass Core, which includes the same features as Xbox Live Gold, such as online multiplayer for non-free-to-play games.
Structure
Xbox Game Pass is similar to EA Play, a subscription service for Xbox One, and to PlayStation Now, a service from Sony. At launch, the subscription included more than 100 games. Over time, new games are added to the collection, and some games may be removed. Xbox Game Pass allows players to download full games to their console. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, explained that this helps players enjoy uninterrupted gameplay without worrying about streaming or internet problems. Unlike EA Play, Xbox Game Pass includes games from many different companies, such as Bandai Namco, Capcom, WB Games, 2K Games, and first-party games from Xbox Game Studios. According to Spencer, Microsoft views Game Pass as a platform to offer games that may not be popular but still deserve to be played. This model encourages developers to create new and experimental games. The service also lets players try games they might not normally buy.
The catalog includes games for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and older Xbox 360 and Xbox titles that work on newer consoles. Players can download as many games as they want, limited only by the storage space on their console. As long as a game stays in the catalog, subscribers can download and play it unlimited times. Players can buy games in the catalog at a 20% discount and related add-ons at a 10% discount. These discounts are only available while the game is in the catalog. Games can be played offline for up to 30 days before reconnecting to the internet to confirm the subscription is active.
If a game is removed from the catalog or a player cancels their subscription, access to the game stops until the player buys the game or renews the subscription. Progress in the game is saved during this time. If the game is an Xbox 360 title, it can only be played on Xbox Series X/S or Xbox One, not on an Xbox 360 console unless the player purchases it separately.
Microsoft uses different ways to pay developers for games on Game Pass. These include fixed payments for exclusivity, covering full development costs, and models based on how many people play the games. Paradox Interactive’s Fredrik Wester said Microsoft pays a one-time fee for games based on their value, similar to how Netflix pays content creators. This approach helps developers plan future updates, like additional downloadable content for games such as Outer Worlds.
In a 2020 interview, Xbox’s marketing director, Aaron Greenberg, said Game Pass is not focused on making money for Microsoft right now. Instead, it aims to attract more players by offering a large selection of games at a low cost. This strategy helps reduce advertising expenses. A 2022 report by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority found that Game Pass reduced sales of games during their first year on the service. Spencer acknowledged this but noted that more players using the games can lead to increased overall sales.
Although there were rumors that Microsoft might bring Game Pass to other consoles like PlayStation or Nintendo Switch, Spencer said in 2021 that there are no current plans for these platforms. He explained that Microsoft focuses on open systems, such as personal computers and web applications, rather than closed platforms.
Subscribers
In April 2020, during a meeting about its financial results for the third quarter of 2020, Microsoft stated that there were more than 10 million people who had signed up for Xbox Game Pass. By September 2020, the number had grown to 15 million subscribers. By January 2021, it had reached 18 million, and by January 2022, it had passed 25 million subscribers.
Documents about Microsoft’s plan to acquire Activision Blizzard showed that Xbox Game Pass generated $2.9 billion in revenue during the financial year ending January 2021. This amount was about 30% of Microsoft’s total revenue from games and services, or 18% of its overall Xbox business revenue.
In February 2024, Microsoft announced that there were 34 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers.
Availability
Xbox Game Pass is available in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
On March 29, 2022, the PC Game Pass Preview began in five new Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Singapore was the first country in this region to offer the service. The official launch of PC Game Pass in these countries occurred on April 21, 2022.
The PC Game Pass service has also expanded to several countries in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East through a preview that started on February 28, 2023.
A portion of the PC Game Pass catalog will be available to the GeForce Now streaming service in 2023.
Reception
In the early 2020s, Game Pass received praise from several indie game developers for its financial support and broad reach. Davionne Gooden, the solo developer of She Dreams Elsewhere, accepted a deal to launch the game on Game Pass on its release day in exchange for money. He said the agreement "allowed [him] to fund the rest of the game, make it profitable, and still do everything [he] wanted to do with a publisher, without having to get a publisher." Josh Sawyer of Obsidian Entertainment said Game Pass was a key factor in the development of Pentiment, noting in an interview that he did not believe he could have found a publisher for the game. Gregorios Kythreotis, creative director of Sable, mentioned that the Game Pass deal provided his team with financial security to invest more time in the project and expand their team through additional hires. Cheesemaster Games, the developer of Spirittea, was able to spend another year on the development of the game due to the support from Game Pass. Mike Rose, founder of the publisher No More Robots, reported that the inclusion of Descenders in the Game Pass library led to a significant increase in sales.
By the mid-2020s, Game Pass began facing increased criticism from indie developers and journalists. Casey Yano, co-founder of Mega Crit (the studio behind Slay the Spire), stated that Game Pass deals "are no longer what they once were," noting that some indie developers had experienced funding cancellations. Chris Bourassa, director of Darkest Dungeon, agreed with this idea, drawing parallels with the evolution of Epic Store exclusivity deals. In a post on Twitter, Raphaël Colantonio, co-founder of Arkane Studios, described Game Pass as "an unsustainable model that has been increasingly damaging the industry for a decade, supported by Microsoft's large amount of money." He further suggested that Game Pass cannot "co-exist with other models, they'll either kill everyone else, or give up." Patricia Hernandez, writing for Polygon, compared Game Pass to technology companies such as Uber, Netflix, or Spotify, suggesting that it may rely on pricing strategies that might not be fair.
Game Pass has been criticized for harming traditional game sales, thus hurting revenue for developers. Microsoft estimated that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 being available on Game Pass at launch led to $300 million in lost sales compared to 2023's title, which was not available on Game Pass at launch. 82% of the Black Ops 6 full price sales came from PlayStation 5, which does not have Game Pass. Kotaku estimated that Microsoft would have needed 15 million new subscriptions to Game Pass Ultimate for one month in order to make up for reduced sales revenue. Journalist Christopher Dring of The Game Business estimated that "games that are in Game Pass can expect to lose around 80% of its expected premium sales on Xbox," including first-party titles such as Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Starfield.