Xbox Game Pass Gets Pre-Loading, Starting With Crackdown 3

The incentive to simply use Game Pass instead of actually buying games on Xbox is increasing. One of the big issues with Game Pass until now, at least for new game releases, was that you couldn’t actually pre-load the games on your console. You had to wait till release day to download them, which meant you couldn’t play them right away if you wanted to.

That changes soon, since Xbox Game Pass will be getting pre-loading starting with Crackdown 3, which is due out on February 15 2019, as Xbox’s Mark Ybarra confirmed in a tweet today. In fact, technically it is available now, in that Game pass subscribers can pre-load Crackdown 3 for Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs alike right now.

Hopefully, this is a feature that will be expanded to further games in the future. Ybarra’s tweet certainly seems to imply that Crackdown 3 is the first of many, and as more and more games launch day and date on Game Pass, it’s a feature that makes more and more sense.

In other Game Pass related news, the service crossed the 200 games mark recently, so if you’re not subscribed already, now’s a great time to jump in.

One of the biggest asks we’ve had for @XboxGamePass was to allow pre-load (pre-install) so you can download and be ready the second launch happens. It’s available now – and starts with Crackdown 3 on Xbox and Windows. 💪👍👌👊

— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) November 13, 2018