Are you actually excited about Xbox exclusive or just the quantity of games on Gamepass?

Very interesting article I read over at UK's Metro Reader's Feature regarding quality of xbox games vs quantity on Gamepass service. Below some excerpt I find quite interesting:

What worries me more is just how predictable and unimaginative all their games are so far. Halo and Forza Horizon are very well-known entities and everything else seems to be primarily first person Western role-players and multiplayer games. I don’t know what Microsoft meant by this being their most ‘diverse’ first party line-up ever but in terms of genres and country of origin it could hardly be less diverse.

So we have a pretty clear pair of alternatives: Microsoft’s much less interesting first party game and Game Pass versus Sony and their critically acclaimed exclusives that cost £70. The problem here is that the only sense choice, for someone that isn’t some kind of video obsessive, is Microsoft. As good as most (but not all) Sony first party games are, as soon as you buy three or four you begin to realise how much better value Game Pass is.

.....It reduces gaming to a question of quantity versus quality, and most people are always going to choose quantity. There’s not a single argument for Xbox over Sony that doesn’t involve it being better value. The number of people choosing an Xbox Series X over PlayStation 5 because of the quality of the exclusives is infinitesimally small and with good reason.

I do agree with the article regarding some points especially on "value for money". Doesnt matter if xbox exclusive is unimaginative and only consist of Halo, Gears, Forza and all the western RPG in the making as long as they can provide more value for money for consumer, Xbox can win over Sony or Nintendo. Xbox could always add great 3rd party titles to shore up any weakness and consumer wins cause they pay less but gets more content.

I of course thinks Xbox exclusive just straight garbage, why people even buy this pile of shit and no way subbing to play Xbox exclusives but the temptation of quantity is definitely there. There loads of titles that makes the service very interesting like Bleeding Edge, Crackdown 3, Fallout 76, Recore, MLB21, Forza Horizon, DQ XIS and Yakuza 7.... hmm actually that's it. I see no other title that I am actually interested to play when I browsed gamepass list lol.

What you guys think on this? Quantity >>>> Quality?

What Xbox exclusive?

Crackdown 4 babyyy

Both for me. I’ve always enjoyed Halo/Gears/Forza. Some may find those “uninteresting” or “unimaginative” but I love those franchises. Plus with all the acquisitions they’ve been making they now have a lot of IPs to make great quality games with. There’s also quite a bit of quality third party games on Game Pass right now. The service has me covered on both those fronts.

Indiana Jones is all they have that interests me this gen thus far.

I completely agree with this. GP is a great deal, but I would rather splurge for the highest quality that is available to me. I understand not everyone is as privileged/blessed/lucky enough or whatever you want to label it, and for those people, especially the younger crowd, GP is an amazing deal.

Which is why I can't help but laugh at Lemmings who argue that their non-existent exclusives are somehow superior. That's not the argument you should be making if you're a Lemming.

Exclusives create scarcity while quantity just means, well....more games.

Generally I prefer quality, but I will of course take sheer quantity and choice over artificial, unneeded scarcity.

I played Ratchet and Clank on launch, finished it by the next day. That game costs $80 because it is the deluxe edition. I am most likely, not going back that game in a hurry or ever. Not that I wasn't satisfied with the experience. Prior to day, I was playing a variety of games on GamePass for less than the cost of the retail price of one Sony game that entertains me for a couple days at best.

Saying Xbox games are unimaginative is rather odd. Ratchet and Clank is on what now? The sixteenth version. It plays like a Ratchet and Clank game. Folks are looking forward Gran Turismo 7, God of War 6 and Horizon Forbidden West (a worthy sequel). And then there is rumor of Last of Us remake. 🥱

Forza, Halo and Gears may get most of the attention but that is ignoring the other games that MS has financed whether they are good of bad. Despite the hate Sea of Thieves received, the game is successful and there isn't an alternative on the market. Ori series was great. Ryse was fun while it lasted. Recore was a solid indie game and Quantum Break, while it flopped was a good game at its core that transformed to Control. So, I can't agree with Xbox sponsored games being unimaginative.

Back to GamePass, there are many games that I can try and play to completion if I like versus one game that I may enjoy over the weekend for the cost of 4.5 months of GamePass games. Triple A games has become way too formulaic, so the indie and AA games that GamePass offers outside of Xbox games, works for me.

Maybe your taste is gaming is limited or shit?

If you don’t buy a lot of games and want to try some games before buying them than Gamespass is great deal. Anyone trying to argue that is a dumb Fanboy.

The vast majority of gamepass enthusiasts are paid shills, specially in resetera and most users don't even play the majority of games in the library. So whatever. I have it on PC and I barely play anything on it. I'm probably letting it expire and maybe will renew it only when starfield hits the service if it's good, which I expect it will be.

There's only one real reason people get Game Pass: day one Xbox Studios games. Before Microsoft announced that, Game Pass was a nice curiosity, but it was largely ignored because it's the most expensive console subscription. People were already complaining about Xbox Live Gold costing $60 a year, and then to have this new subscription that cost $15 a month? Nah son, nah. When Microsoft announced all first-party titles would come to Game Pass day one, that's when people started taking notice.

Microsoft first-party exclusives are what get you in the door. And once you're in, and you see the selection and you start playing some of those games, it becomes very hard to give it up, and almost as hard to justify paying $60/70 for just one game.

It's weird how many people here claim to be hardcore gamers, but can be so ignorant of certain companies and games at the same time.

The biggest games I want to hear or see more about are obviously the furthest out because two of them weren't even at E3. Halo and Forza both look great, but that's funny in a meme kind of way.. lol.

Neither.

Wow, really? That sucks.

If you are at s loss for games on ps,and feel the need to make Xbox threads,what with R&C taking about an hour to complete,fire up them 3090 pc's you all have and play some pirates of the carabian on the sea of thieves

Also from the article.

'Microsoft is going to win because of the volume of content it can provide for a reasonable price and I think it’s naïve to think that Sony can compete simply on the quality of its games. God Of War and war co. is good, but it’s not THAT good.

This saddens me and yet I can see no way out except Sony creating their own Game Pass, which I’m sure they can’t afford to do. I just don’t see a long-term future for them. Nintendo do their own thing and always have but Sony’s product is very similar to Microsoft’s and I think they’re doomed because of it.'

lol Sony fans have nothing to play so they spend their lives searching for anti Xbox articles.

Great you have the the 500th version of Ratchet and Clank that cost $70 and can be finished in a day. You can brag about a $70 remaster of Dark Souls. Or you get another Horizon game that is also $70.

Halo

Fable

Avowed

Forza Horizon 5

Starfield

Hellblade

Flight Simulator

Medium - Already out

Psychonauts 2

Scorn

The Ascent

Everwild

State of Decay 3

Stalker

Elder Scrolls

Perfect Dark

Plus more and they are all on game pass day one, plus a ton of other games. Microsoft has the most studios now and it is showing. They also have the most money and are getting games from studios they do not own.

It's silly article written by a fanboy.

Gamepass offers a wide variety of games many of them highly rated.

Desperados 3 85MC, Doom Eternal 88MC, MSFS2020 91MC, Ori 2 91MC, Yakuza Like a Dragon 84MC, Gears Tactics 82MC, Streets of Rage 4 82MC.

This is just a short list of 7 highly rated and recent games that you can play on Game Pass. All from different genres, all critically acclaimed. Add to that all the cool indie stuff, the surprise hits, the back catalogue from EA, Bethesda and Microsoft. And all the future first party releases and the occasional 3rd party like Stalker 2.

There might be several reasons why someone doesn't want to subscribe to the service, not having the quality or diversity clearly isn't one.

If you are a gamer that enjoys a variety of genres and plays more than 3 games a year Game Pass is for you. Want to play a cool strategy game? Try Frostpunk. Maybe a horror cult classic? Go for Alien Isolation. What about one of the best racing games ever made? Forza Horizon 4. Are you into JRPGs? Try Dragon Quest XI or Octopath Traveler. Maybe you are more into sports? Well there's FIFA, NBA, MLB, Madden, NHL, UFC and PES. You are not into any of the biggest sports franchises, more of an online shooter person? There's Destiny and Rainbow Six Siege. Or maybe try that cool Indie darling like Outer Wilds (not Outer Worlds but by the way is there too).

Outside of that you have around 30 new games confirmed to come to the service in the next 18 months plus more unannounced stuff. And you have hundreds of titles I haven't mentioned.

So honestly that article is silly and so are many of the arguments people use against the service.

I buy games I enjoy. It's not really about how many games I can play. I don't have time to rent and play 'hundreds of games'. I just buy and play what I want. So far PS5 seems to be very successful so I feel like all of these GamePass articles are just MS propaganda 😄 I remember last gen they got caught trying to pay streamers to write positive content about the Xbox One.

"I don't have time to rent and play 'hundreds of games'"

Of course you don't since your life is either being on here hating on Xbox or searching the internet to find articles that hate on the Xbox. Seriously look at how much you post and how much you are on here, hating on Xbox is your hobby.

Don't you buy 3 or 4 games a month. How do you find time to play all of those?

Like I said, I buy and play what I want. I buy physical games (in most cases) and can play at my own pace.

@CanYouDiglt: Nice lineup of 2026 games that will all look better on my PC than they will on your XSX.

Looking forward to Forza Horizon 5, but I've never actually finished a Forza game, can you even? Of course I'm interested to see what the 22 (or are there more?) teams are working on. Right now I'm pretty satisfied with my PS5, I've played more than I have in years this year alone, of course not all games have been exclusives though.

Edit: Forgot Stalker 2, eager to try it out.

I think they're moving in the right direction by identifying gamer habits.

There will always be a percentage of gamers who deep dive the hobby... Buy lots of exclusive games, stay current and enjoy the front end of gaming.

There's also many millions of folks who just want to turn on their device and have access to plenty of content to browse and play.

I think Microsoft, by announcing Xbox "exclusives" in plenty is setting up an ecosystem that caters well to both kinds of gamers.

Will their exclusives be great? I dunno.... Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony don't hit the mark on every game either, but it shows a connection to the desires of gamers to provide options for all.

Us Xbox/PC mobile device gamers with GP get the very best of both worlds...

:P

@NathanDrakeSwag said:

@CanYouDiglt: Nice lineup of 2026 games that will all look better on my PC than they will on your XSX.

Sony fanboys are so weird. You try to bash the Xbox by saying the game will be on the PC. Ok and? See it is Sony fanboys that have to have games only on playstation for it to be good but actual gamers just want to play games. All I know is the day Starfield launches I will be able to sit back on my sofa and play it day one on my Xbox or I can play it on my desk on PC.

As far as you being a Sony fanboy and bragging you will buy Xbox studio games on the PC, how is that a burn on anyone but you? You're a Sony fanboy that spends your life basically attacking Xbox and are still giving money to Microsoft for their games.

Also the entire point of what Microsoft is doing now is to make it so people can buy their games on the system they choose, which you just admitted you are doing.

to downplay the impressive showings of Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 as not representing "quality" versus Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart basically shows how much this argument is being waged in bad faith.. especially when you're trying to criticize sequels and A Rift Apart is the latest entry in an extremely long running series..

Beyond that, if you watched that showing of 27 out of 30 games in Game Pass and didn't see "diversity", you really need to get your eyes checked..

Game Pass represents quality, quantity, diversity, value, and more.. Sony charging $70 for their games only serves to make that even more evident and it'll be crystal clear now that Xbox Game Studios is (finally) going to be releasing their titles in addition to games like The Ascent, Back 4 Blood, Stalker 2, and A Plague's Tale 2 launching directly into the service..

@gym_lion: "Sony creating their own Game Pass, which I’m sure they can’t afford to do."

🤭🤣

The lems are always delusional.

If Sony ever go the gamepass route, it'll be just like Disney+, it'll destroy gamepass. Same for Nintendo if they ever did that. Funny thing is: both PS5 and Switch are still selling more than Xbox.

Bottom line: the Xbox brand is not attractive for the vast majority of people.🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm typically a quality guy over quantity, but I only get to game 2 nights a week for a couple of hours (Full time job, wife, dog, family, home improvement take up a lot of time) I can spend weeks or even a couple of months on a single game. Days Gone took me like 4 months to complete, and I'm still playing Returnal. So I don't really need thousands of games at my finger tips ready to play. ESPECIALLY when you factor in a lot of modern games are these huge open world adventures that can last 30 to 100 hours. I'm sorry but unless your dedicated to gaming all the time 24/7 you aren't finishing most games in a week. I know some people do but you guys are the exception not the rule.

There's also a lot of psychology behind choice, and too many choices can be overwhelming and Devalue content. There's the joke "you spend more time browsing what to watch on netflix than actually watching shows" And there's a lot of truth to that, and it's something I dont want to happen with video games, just endless browsing because of an over abundance of choice of near valueless games. I already kinda do this with my PS Plus subscription, I've subscribed for years and have over like 100 games I think available to download for free.......it's already overwhelming.

I don't think it's about criticizing a sequel. It's about Halo has been downhill for a while. If you look at Sony and Nintendo, they try to keep things fresh. God of War 2018 was a mega hit and a reboot at that. Zelda Breath of the Wild was also a reboot and has been massively successful. But when you watch Halo, it's basically more of the same just with "ooo, 120fps!" lol. It could also be that FPS is such a saturated genre that no matter what MS tries to do it just won't be very innovative.

Also, you keep trying to equate renting with ownership. It's just not the same thing. And all of those third party games will most likely come to other systems.

I'm super excited about Microsoft pushing new genres and IPs. For over a decade, I haven't considered Xbox exclusives in my gaming purchases. The fact is, if you're not into racing or multiplayer games, they don't have alot to offer 1st party. While the whole Halo/Forza/Gears trifecta has an audience, it's not enough seeing as X1 did the worst sales wise compared to it's competition.

Now, I actually have Avowed, Starfield, and Indiana Jones games I'm interested in via Microsoft, so they effectively have my interest when before they where ignored. Gamepass I Don't give a shit about, but New games will definitely entice me.

People wanted a return to a classic Halo CE feel and Halo Infinite has delivered that..

I'm not equating renting and ownership.. I'm simply stating the fact that you have the option of Game Pass for day-one titles on one platform and you have to pay full price (up to $70 per game) for day-one titles on another platform.. that's just a reality based fact..

@Antwan3K: hard to see the diversity when Avowed, Fable 4, Everwild and whatever else in medieval fantasy. Starfield, Outer Worlds 2, Halo, perfect dark in sci fi. Seems like a lack of diversity in genres AND settings to me.

I am personally fine with PlayStation just rinse and repeating the same old unimaginative Uncharted/GodofWar/GranTurismo formula. With Xbox, I am glad they are releasing unique, spanning many genres, high quality AAA, fun and exciting new games and IPs, and a good quantity as well.

While we are not happy with the direction PlayStation has gone with their tired old IPs, I think competition is a good thing and they will try to match Xbox at some point this gen, though it might be too late for PlayStation.

@x_hedon: I disagree with that assessment. Sony publishes many new IP last gen with Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima, Dreams, Concrete Genie and others alongside many VR games. I do am not comfortable with Sony's reported new obsession with "blockbuster IP" releases. Though I will shut up if they ever releases Bloodborne 2 👀

What genres and setting would you like to see them diversify into?

as i said, you should get your eyes checked if you watched that showcase and didn't see a diverse slate of games and genres..

and if you think Starfield, Outer Worlds 2, Halo Infinite, and Perfect Dark are an indication of lack of diversity, what's your take on Horizon: Forbidden West, Ghost of Tsushima, and God of War 2?.. How about Uncharted, TLOU, and Days Gone?.. all seem like 3rd person action/adventure games, mostly story-driven with some stealth elements..

Leaving with nothing? When you go to the movies, you leave with nothing? The games You buy and complete, do you replay all of them? What percentage of your purchased games do you replay?

You first argue question the worth of the service, then deviate to it being too good at the current cost and the worth of the service cannot be evaluated until some arbitrary change with profit in mind. You all try to hard to whine about things.

I think lovecraft is an interesting setting that is hard to get right. Xbox has many talented dev can do this justice. Maybe they could poach some staff from FromSoft for the gameplay mechanics. I think they could get "inspired" by stories from this game FromSoft previously made called Bloodborne, maybe make a spiritual sequel.

..that aside. I am sure Xbox various teams can make more interesting settings and communicate with eachother on what they doing. I read somewhere that Sony does this with its studio they communicate what setting their games would be so that there is less consumer fatigue.

As said, lack of diversity. And I am not denying on Sony's part either.

@sakaixx: But you are objectionably wrong.

@Pedro: halo, gears, outer worlds, starfield, perfect dark all 1st person/3rd person shooter, some with rpg mechanic. Redfall, CrossfireX and probably Contraband joining that list.

Whatever MS lacks in diversity from their own first party offerings, Game Pass and the deals they make with third parties to add content on the service, that definitely helps add a great degree of diversity to Game Pass.

Yes I agree. I pointed this out as well that Xbox could always leverage 3rd party to plug holes. In term of value over money gamepass does have its benefits.