It is not new, but for some time now, two factions that seem irreconcilable have been facing each other within gamer gossip: on the one hand, those who see business models such as Xbox Game Pass as the future of the industry, and those who believe that it is a sacrilege to offer weight titles. Be that as it may, it seemed that the figures achieved since its commissioning in June 2017 were pleasing to Microsoft, but in recent times the trend is changing.
Chicha is missing in Game Pass
In recent days, users who are announcing that they are leaving Game Pass have become a trend of messages on social networks , and they are doing so in the heat of what they consider to be a compelling reason, such as the fact that the subscription service has been going on for months without offering truly important titles. Of those that are called AAA and that in the case of Sony usually make a difference compared to their competition by being exclusive to their consoles.
It is true that after Microsoft’s arreón last year with its Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite , nothing important has arrived except for that legion of minor works that are not bad, but they are not the ones that make us pay without hesitation the 12, 99 euros of the Ultimate mode (Xbox + PC). And worst of all, there is no good news on the horizon because just a week ago we learned that two of the main dishes, AAA and Xbox exclusives, such as Starfield and Redfall, were delayed and will not arrive this Christmas.
That downturn of seeing how two candidates to be part of Xbox Game Pass from the first day of launch leave for the (undetermined) first half of 2023, has surely made users think if it is not more worth paying for those titles than they play on the service by paying for it separately, rather than within a subscription that forces them to use it every month at a constant rate in order to make a profit. And it is that in many cases, successes like Carrion or Tunic or Trek to Yomi barely cost 20 euros, so if we invest a couple of months to finish them, why drop 26 euros of Game Pass for the same period of time?
Are there reasons to unsubscribe?
The comments that have been read in recent days clearly point to the lack of AAA games as the main reason for unsubscribing . Website managers, editors and specialized journalists have shared their reasons on networks, which range from “the service is excellent, but there are no AAA exclusives that force me to stay” to “I will return when the [important] titles begin to arrive”. So it seems clear where Microsoft has a problem.
It is not necessary to analyze the situation much to confirm that Microsoft’s problem, not in Game Pass itself, but in its own consoles, is in the exclusive franchises, that when we are two years away from the launch of Xbox Series X| S is as dry as ever, with just two appearances and always the same: a Forza , a Halo and little else.
With Bethesda delaying its releases (exclusives) and with Activision Blizzard not yet knowing how they will impact the Xbox ecosystem with their games in the near future, it is very possible that Game Pass will have a small desert crossing in 2022 that could last for a good part of 2023. At least until Starfield and Redfall show up . And it is that when you entrust everything to your monthly subscription service, these things happen if you are not clear about what is the main claim for which users hire you a service.