Xbox Game Pass has been a pretty big hit for Microsoft. I am a subscriber to the Ultimate version, my wife plays the Sims on our Xbox One and I play games on PC as well as the X-cloud streaming Beta. I am pretty stoked that MLB: The Show 21 was released on Xbox and is part of the Xbox Game Pass service. The service has been pretty user friendly and flexible for us. This morning the team over at Xbox via their Xbox Wire gave us a little roadmap for the future of Xbox and Game Pass.
They start off by explaining their mission of bringing the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet and to achieve this goal, they aspire to empower everyone to play the games you want, with the people you want, anywhere you want. This Sunday Xbox is set to unveil their best and biggest game lineup ever at E3 (stay tuned to Culture Splat for coverage). Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, said “We believe that games, that interactive entertainment, aren’t really about hardware and software. It’s not about pixels. It’s about people. Games bring people together.” I could not agree more, for the last however many years (more than I wish to count) my friends and I have been gaming together from different parts of the country. Games and online services have helped us keep that going.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said “As a company, Microsoft is all-in on gaming. Gaming is the most dynamic category in the entertainment industry. three billion consumers look to gaming for entertainment, community, creating, as well as a real sense of achievement, and our ambition is to empower each of them, wherever they play.” He continued “We believe that Microsoft can play a leading role in democratizing gaming and defining the future of interactive entertainment.”
They hit on three areas where they believe they have a competitive advantage:
- Their leadership in cloud computing
- Their resources to build the subscription service of Game Pass
- Their focus on empowering creators
They also shared some key information on how Game Pass is changing how we discover, connect and play games. They said that Game Pass members play 30% more genres and 40% more games and 90% of members have played a game they would not have tried without the service. EA Play has seen significantly higher usage since being added to Game Pass with an increase of 200%, Outriders which is available on Game Pass was also the #1 selling digital game on Xbox during its launch week and the game I mentioned earlier, MLB: The Show 21 was the #1 selling game on Xbox for the month of April in addition to being on the service. So where does this lead to in the future…
Microsoft and the team at Xbox want to get Xbox Game Pass on more screens and provide more access and here is how they are working on that.
- Working with TV manufacturers to embed the Xbox experience directly into internet-connected TVs with nothing extra besides a controller require
- New subscription offerings so more players can experience it around the world
- They are building their own streaming devices for cloud gaming to reach games on any TV or monitor without need of a console
- Expanding cloud gaming to Australia, Brazil, Mexico and Japan this year
- Cloud gaming will open to all Game Pass Ultimate members soon with support for Edge, Chrome and Safari
- They are updating their datacenters around the world with the Xbox Series X which will allow faster load times, improved frame rates and optimized games
- Slated for later this year, cloud gaming will be added directly into the Xbox app on PC
This all sounds very promising and while Xbox does have very powerful hardware in the Series X, it seems like they are trying to tap into all markets for their service and give access to everyone. What do you all think of Xbox Game Pass expanding in these ways? Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on our Twitter account. We love to interact with our readers. As always stay tuned to Culture Splat for the latest in gaming and coverage of E3 which begins this weekend!