Microsoft recently made the massive announcement that all future first party games by all their studios will receive simultaneous launches in physical and digital stores, as well as their subscriptions based Xbox Game Pass service. So if you have Game Pass, then big releases such as Sea of Thieves, Halo 6, Gears of War 5, Crackdown, and Forza will all be available to you without you having to purchase them.
According to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, the new model for Xbox Game Pass will actually pave the way for more single player focused games in the future, especially from their first parties. In one tweet, Spencer mentioned that Xbox Game Pass will not only be great value for money, but will also lead to more creativity in upcoming games, especially those with a single player focus. In a subsequent tweet, he mentioned that though Microsoft are currently leading the line with first party studios, they plan to bring more developers into the mix in the future, depending on how the service performs.
In slightly unrelated news, Spencer was asked if there would be increased support for backwards compatibility for games for the original Xbox. He replied by saying that while there are a number of those titles in the pipeline, making them backwards compatible will remain more complicated than Xbox 360 games due to things such as age of rights.
The first game to hit Xbox Game Pass as a simultaneous launch will be Sea of Thieves, which currently has an ongoing closed beta. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.
I see XGP as both. The value is pretty obvious for some. And the idea of a new model that could open up opportunities for creativity is where I think we'll end up. Especially for SP games. That's what the model has done in TV but it's not an exact analogy.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 27, 2018
We have a lot of interest from studios who want to see how our recent announcement plays out. We'll lead with our 1P but having XGP turn into a model for more studios is our a goal. And @iocat is a travelling machine…
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 27, 2018
There are a number of OG games in BC pipeline, they won't drop as often as the 360 games but team is working to validate and get permissions. More complicated with some just due to the age of the rights etc.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 27, 2018
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