Sea of Thieves
Today is a big day for Microsoft, as they’re launching Rare’s Sea of Thieves, its seafaring, multiplayer adventure title that has already been tearing up Twitch in all its early tests. But it’s important for another reason as well. This is the first time Microsoft has heavily promoted its Xbox Game Pass service by putting a brand new exclusive release as part of its line-up.
I’ve barely started playing Sea of Thieves itself yet, but I can say this, I am fully on board with a service like Xbox Game Pass being the future of how games are launched and played going forward. It genuinely feels like the first time a viable alternative has been proposed to the eternal $60 box copy, and I hope it’s a system that can become more widely adopted in future by console makers and publishers.
Why? Well, this morning I turned on my Xbox, found Sea of Thieves already pre-downloaded on Xbox One X, and I started it up immediately. All it cost me in theory was the $10 a month for Game Pass (disclosure: Microsoft has given me a temporary subscription to Game Pass to test it out), compared to what would have been $60 for the game by itself. It can even be free if you’re doing the Game Pass free trial for two weeks. If you’re planning on buying even just two Microsoft exclusives like Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3 this year, your Game Pass subscription has already paid for itself, plus you have access to all the other dozens of games on the service.
The key leap here has been not only cost, the Netflix-like $10 is easy to stomach, but also the fact that you can download these games directly to your console, rather than trying mess around with streaming, tech that simply isn’t all the way there yet for gaming. And added onto all of this, even past the Game Pass itself, is that Sea of Thieves, and all other MS exclusives, is also cross-launching on PC, meaning you can play there as well. Simply put, I’ve never seen a game launch quite like this before, available immediately to play across two platforms thanks to a relatively cheap service I’d already been subscribed to. It's also great for a game like Sea of Thieves specifically where $60 up front may seem rather steep, given that it's not an established series or even genre. Being able to test it out cheaply via Game Pass is fantastic.
Sea of Thieves
Whether this is the future or not is a different story. I think Microsoft’s system itself is great, but I’m not sure we can have a perfect world where all games launch like this. I’d love for Microsoft to get EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Take Two and more on board for these kinds of launches, but those companies rely too much on big $60 up front sales, and if they ever did do a service like Game Pass, it would probably be their own thing, the way we’re already starting to see with EA Access. Then you get into a situation where you’re paying five different people a monthly fee, and it’s suddenly not as worthwhile. And yet, that’s where we are with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon etc, and I suppose that market is doing just fine.
But as a selling point for the Xbox One, Game Pass really is fantastic. Sony’s PS Now is just not in the same league at the moment, and the idea that all Xbox exclusives will launch this way going forward is incredibly attractive. Yes, you can insert your “but Xbox exclusives are almost nonexistent!” jokes here, which is a problem Microsoft needs to continue to address, but between Game Pass and PC cross-play launches, it really does feel better to pick up these games on day one through Game Pass than it does shelling out for a box copy. Another issue will be when games are removed from the service in time, but I'm guessing Microsoft's own will stay there indefinitely. That could be a potential problem depending on how it's handled, but I suppose we'll deal with that when it comes up.
I’m a frequent Xbox critic, but I have been singing the praises of Game Pass from day one, and today’s Sea of Thieves launch has convinced me that yes, everything should probably be released like this. Whether that happens or not past a few Xbox titles is anyone’s guess, but this does feel like a way to someday move through that eternal $60 wall.
Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Pick up my sci-fi novel series, The Earthborn Trilogy, which is now in print, online and on audiobook.
">Sea of Thieves
Today is a big day for Microsoft, as they’re launching Rare’s Sea of Thieves, its seafaring, multiplayer adventure title that has already been tearing up Twitch in all its early tests. But it’s important for another reason as well. This is the first time Microsoft has heavily promoted its Xbox Game Pass service by putting a brand new exclusive release as part of its line-up.
I’ve barely started playing Sea of Thieves itself yet, but I can say this, I am fully on board with a service like Xbox Game Pass being the future of how games are launched and played going forward. It genuinely feels like the first time a viable alternative has been proposed to the eternal $60 box copy, and I hope it’s a system that can become more widely adopted in future by console makers and publishers.
Why? Well, this morning I turned on my Xbox, found Sea of Thieves already pre-downloaded on Xbox One X, and I started it up immediately. All it cost me in theory was the $10 a month for Game Pass (disclosure: Microsoft has given me a temporary subscription to Game Pass to test it out), compared to what would have been $60 for the game by itself. It can even be free if you’re doing the Game Pass free trial for two weeks. If you’re planning on buying even just two Microsoft exclusives like Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3 this year, your Game Pass subscription has already paid for itself, plus you have access to all the other dozens of games on the service.
The key leap here has been not only cost, the Netflix-like $10 is easy to stomach, but also the fact that you can download these games directly to your console, rather than trying mess around with streaming, tech that simply isn’t all the way there yet for gaming. And added onto all of this, even past the Game Pass itself, is that Sea of Thieves, and all other MS exclusives, is also cross-launching on PC, meaning you can play there as well. Simply put, I’ve never seen a game launch quite like this before, available immediately to play across two platforms thanks to a relatively cheap service I’d already been subscribed to. It's also great for a game like Sea of Thieves specifically where $60 up front may seem rather steep, given that it's not an established series or even genre. Being able to test it out cheaply via Game Pass is fantastic.
Sea of Thieves
Whether this is the future or not is a different story. I think Microsoft’s system itself is great, but I’m not sure we can have a perfect world where all games launch like this. I’d love for Microsoft to get EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Take Two and more on board for these kinds of launches, but those companies rely too much on big $60 up front sales, and if they ever did do a service like Game Pass, it would probably be their own thing, the way we’re already starting to see with EA Access. Then you get into a situation where you’re paying five different people a monthly fee, and it’s suddenly not as worthwhile. And yet, that’s where we are with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon etc, and I suppose that market is doing just fine.
But as a selling point for the Xbox One, Game Pass really is fantastic. Sony’s PS Now is just not in the same league at the moment, and the idea that all Xbox exclusives will launch this way going forward is incredibly attractive. Yes, you can insert your “but Xbox exclusives are almost nonexistent!” jokes here, which is a problem Microsoft needs to continue to address, but between Game Pass and PC cross-play launches, it really does feel better to pick up these games on day one through Game Pass than it does shelling out for a box copy. Another issue will be when games are removed from the service in time, but I'm guessing Microsoft's own will stay there indefinitely. That could be a potential problem depending on how it's handled, but I suppose we'll deal with that when it comes up.
I’m a frequent Xbox critic, but I have been singing the praises of Game Pass from day one, and today’s Sea of Thieves launch has convinced me that yes, everything should probably be released like this. Whether that happens or not past a few Xbox titles is anyone’s guess, but this does feel like a way to someday move through that eternal $60 wall.
Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Pick up my sci-fi novel series, The Earthborn Trilogy, which is now in print, online and on audiobook.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2018/03/20/the-sea-of-thieves-launch-has-convinced-me-xbox-game-pass-is-the-future/Bagikan Berita Ini
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