Earlier today, Head of Gaming at Xbox Phil Spencer announced via a Major Nelson blog post that every new and upcoming Microsoft Studios exclusive game will now be available through Xbox Game Pass on the same day and date as the global release. A short trailer is embedded above while a few key quotes from Phil are included below to further illustrate Microsoft’s goal with this initiative.
Moving forward, we plan to release all new Xbox One exclusive games from Microsoft Studios into Xbox Game Pass on the same date as their global release. This means that when Sea of Thieves launches on March 20, it will be included in Xbox Game Pass to all members.
This plan to bring new games timed with their global release into Xbox Game Pass not only includes announced titles like Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2, and Crackdown 3 but future unannounced games from Microsoft Studios including new iterations of our biggest Xbox One exclusive franchises such as Halo, Forza and Gears of War, on the same day they launch.
Xbox Game Pass has proven to be a huge success for Microsoft ever since it was revealed back in June of 2017. Today’s announcement along with the news that there will be an Xbox Game Pass 6-month subscription card option for $59.99 starting on March 20th goes a long way towards showing Microsoft’s commitment to both their Netflix-like service and gamers alike. It will be very interesting to see if this strategy increases the long-term sales of all these titles and gets more consumers a reason to pick up an Xbox One console.
Do any of you think this was a smart move by Microsoft? Has this convinced any of you to try out Sea of Thieves, Crackdown 3 or State of Decay 2 when they launch later this year? Please feel free to let us know your thoughts on these topics and more in the comments section below.
Source: Major Nelson Website
