Talking Point: As A Game Pass Subscriber, Do You Still Spend Money In Xbox Sales?

I ONLY buy games when they're on sale. When MS and Steam and Playstation all have Spring sales, Summer sales, Winter sales, Chinese New Year sales, Labor Day weekend sales, sales during Summer Games Fest, sales during Gamescom, weekly publisher sales, etc. etc. etc., it would be absolutely silly to pay full price for anything.

That being said, I will buy games if the price is to my liking, even if it is currently available in Game Pass.

I have more than 900 Xbox games, so yeah, I buy games.

In fact, I'm trying not to buy too much anymore. 😅

Have gp but won't buy another game on xbox. Ps5 if I'm buying, at least I know it'll be around for a bit

Regarding sales, yeah it's either stuff I know won't hit GP ever, multiplayer stuff my pals are playing, DLC or such a good deal it shouldn't be ignored.

Stuff like AC and WWE are classic sale fodder for me as the series I'm super into ill buy at launch (eg yakuza).

I buy games on sale because I don't plan to always have GamePass since I got the 3 year stack deal.

I just buy the games that look fun to me.

Sometimes that lines up with sales & sometimes I buy them after finding them on gamepass.

However if I am really excited for something I am not waiting on a sale or gamepass. Life is too short.

It hasn't really altered my game spending, as I hardly buy games anyway. Mostly, when I do, I get them when they're on sale

I buy xbox games that have the play anywhere functionality and are on sale. I'm not interested in games that are locked to the single console device. If all games were play anywhere, xbox would be my preferred store.

Otherwise pc is currently the preferred platform, i spend plenty of money on steam/epic and GOG. That's where I buy all playstations games too.

Gamepass doesn't prevent me from spending way more than I should on "owning" games

Depends on if I want a game and it on sale. I typically buy on steam to play on pc and my rog ally

Short answer, yes! Slightly longer answer, I should reign in my gaming buying habits 😅.

I just quit spending money in Xbox in general.

Gamepass ends November. So I'll be done with that. Go me be weird seeing my 19 year badge go away

After which the only time I buy something Microsoft related it will have to be heavily discounted and on Steam

Some things are too good to pass up. Like when robocop was 90% off. Had to pull the trigger for that! Glad people get to enjoy it on Game Pass. It's a beautiful game.

I quite often buy games on sale that are really good deals, since I try not to let gamepass dictate what I play.

My gamepass is good through May next year, but may let it lapse cause my backlog way too full at the moment. Feel I mostly keep gamepass for my kids who game jump way too much

I haven’t bought a single game on Xbox this gen. Only use GP.

Xbox has some of the best sales, hands down. I used to buy games on release in my 20s but now, I'm content with waiting for a sale to occur. Far Cry 6 was a game I wanted at launch, I waited and got the ultimate edition for $30. Watch Dogs 1 ultimate edition I got for $5, Assassin's Creed Mirage Digital Deluxe Edition I got for $11 so yeah, I am more content with waiting for sales nowadays. Assassin's Creed Shadows is a game I really want to play but I'm waiting until I can get it at a bigger discount possibly with DLC included. That's what I did with AC Origins, AC Odyssey, and Valhalla, I waited and ended up buying all of them in the collectors edition that included a bunch of other AC games for $40 when the regular price was like $120 or $150 or something like that. I am a fan of owning games (digital never really own anything) but it allows me to build up a nice library of excellent games that I fully enjoy playing. AC Odyssey is still the best in the series for me and I will probably die on that hill lol 😆

@Sol4ris haha I feel that my friend! 😂

I buy games and turn game pass on for short periods of time when something I want is on there. I wouldn't use GP for something like Metaphor coz that would take me too long to finish, but I subbed for 3 months to play SoM and E33 with no regrets as I'll "beat the banker" with those being shorter games

I will try a game on gamepass and if I like it I will buy a physical copy. I don't limit my gaming to just gamepass though. I'm not waiting several years for GTA6 to come to gamepass.

I Buy Games on sale with gift cards earned with Microsoft regards, like I just bought MK1 and The expanse telltale game only spending 2$ the rest was paid with gift cards.

I buy all my games on sale but because of Gamepass I never get to them … I think at some point I will discontinue GP just to work on my backlog as how will I ever chip away at it?

I don’t buy anything on my Xbox so no

Buy all first and third party games i want and play, only use gamepass for cloud when i am away from home on holidays/vactation. I sometimes demo 3rd party games on it too, to see if i wanna buy em.

I buy at launch too, don't wait for sales, but when sales are on i do pick up bargains i like the look of.

I recently purchased Lies of P: Overture so yeah I still buy games. Why would I let a bunch of corporate lackeys at a soulless trillion dollar company dictate and micromanage my gaming habits? Eww no. Game Pass is an accessory to my gaming life, not the centrepiece.

I do all the time, normally I wait for sales for all single player games, for example the resident evil remakes I waited to each one went down to about 15 bucks, I have gamepass and a huge backlog so need to pay day 1 prices. I just finished RE3, I still have 4 and 8 to play, but will finish Alan Wake 2 first. Also picked Robocop up in one of the previous sales.

@Lup I probably have close to that, I have over 400 digital xbox games and boxes and boxes of 360 and Og xbox games. But yeah I probably have slowed down due to gamepas, but I still pick a tonne of games up during sales, and the very occasional day 1 purchase. But those are few and far between

@AlwaysPlaying well with all the moves MS are making I think it might take miracle for me to get a next gen xbox, so it would give me a ***** tonne of games in my backlog to focus on

I only buy my absolute favorites digitally to replay them. Game Pass or physical (so I can get rid of them) for everything else.

@Lup Me too. I've got over 900 games but it pains me how few of them I'll ever actually play. 😥

I buy more than ever. Usually same stuff. But did order helldivers 2 pre order. Just picked up space marine 2. But a lot of sale stuff

I only buy games as I don't subscribe any more. As for this sale, I'm not sure which I should get - Forza Motorsport or Horizon 5.

Outside of the GP sub (and im not sure how much longer i'll be bothering with that now) and the series X itself, not paid a single thing on the xbox store, whats the point?
Honestly outside of the rare GP Release that I want to play, the system is barely turned on these days. I generally stick to the PS5 Pro for majority of releases.

I’m an odd duck because I like to buy third party games, but it depends on what it is. I like the trophy system more than I do the achievement system, so if it’s a game I know I won’t get all the trophies for via PS, I’ll pick it up on Xbox. I prefer the Batman Arkham Collection on the Xbox and Far Cry, and even Metal Gear Solid.

@SMJ

It's a real struggle. I feel the same. 😅

I still buy a ton of games on Xbox, Steam, and other PC stores; new & old. Probably, too many games. Yesterday, it was a few Castlevania games on Xbox. If a game is Play Anywhere and not on Game Pass, then I will buy it from the Xbox store.

Titles like SoM and STALKER 2 were purchased, regardless. Hell, I bought STALKER 2 Ultimate Edition on Steam and Xbox, despite being a member of GP Ultimate.

@Kraven What is it you like about Trophies? Or Achievements, for that matter?

@Lup I bought 2 more games since I last commented. 😂

Uhh no. I buy games off of steam but not Xbox. I only play XGP games on xbox.

I have specific franchises that I'll buy at launch like GTA, Dead or Alive, and Death Stranding, but for the most part I won't buy a game unless it's on sale for $10 or less and not likely to come to GamePass. Games published by Microsoft I will never purchase because they most likely will never leave GamePass.

@theduckofdeath I sometimes like having a goal to strive for in my games. Not all the time, but sometimes I do. It also gives me an incentive to see 100% of a game that I may not have otherwise. When I was a kid in the 90s there were some games that I would play, particularly RPGs, where there were a lot of secrets that I never uncovered because I didn’t know about them, but now trophies/achievements show me I may be missing something like that, so it’s gives me motivation to get the most out of the games I play. That’s just a personal preference; I know I’m in the minority.

I still prefer to own my games, even if my games are digital. I only use GP to play games id never buy, or play new releases on day 1 that i want but not paying full price for.

I am finding that it better to wait until games are available at a steep discount then it's time to buy the game. Game pass is ok, but there just aren't enough games I want to play that I don't own.

Bought the ascent on a previous sale. Got alan wake 2 awhile back, dlc at a different sale. Picked up marvel ultimate alliance on ebay for $8.

Even though my backlog is 200+ games(across the gens) on xbox alone.😭

I still get Gamepass games whenever they are on a steep sale because I want to have as many of them in my library as possible so that I don't need Gamepass every month; only when a new game drops.

Very rarely will I buy a game. Game Pass feeds me too well.

@Master_Cthulhu70 Odyssey is not only the best AC game in the series, it is the best game of it's type, and seriously, one of the best games that I have ever played.

@XxEvilAshxX The whole sales cycle is most likely the sole reason we all have backlogs. Got to get those games at 50% off while they are in the sale, even though we don't want to immediately play them. The devs know it, the store fronts know it, and we know it.

Truth is, if you get those games and don't play them for a year or so, when you do finally get to start them, they are fully patched and working properly.

Win/win in my book ( or in the words of Markos ... "everybody benefits" )

I've learned a little trick in the last few years. Get a year ahead of the sales, enjoy the backlog, stock up for the next 12 months when the sales hit, and enjoy the fully cooked games at leisure. Apart from MS arbitrarily putting up the cost of GPU, that's why I quit it last year. I'm done renting games. I know we never actually OWN games, but I only buy the license for games that are value for money.

Well, I try....

@Titntin @Kraven I’m also heavily invested in the trophy system! Even the Mrs gets the odd platinum in games she really likes. But I’m hooked, line and sinker! to the point where I’m playing games just for the platinum and rhen move onto the next one. Dont get me wrong I’m not one of the the ratalaika gamers, I only do games I actually want to play. Currently doing Hogwarts which is a big task trophy wise. But it makes you do pretty much everything the game has to offer which is the point you guys make 👍. Away the THunters

To play every game I want to play, I have to buy some games as well but I'd say the BIGGEST impact to me as far as buying games is concerned are the rising costs. As the price has gone up and up for Day 1 purchases, I have bought less and less 'new' games - opting for games on Sale or playing games in my Backlog, inc those 'free' games with Gold/PS+ until I can buy in Sales. The fact I now have Game Pass Ultimate hasn't changed anything. I doubt I'd have bought or played Doom, Starfield etc until they were 'bargain bin' pricing in a Sale so those Companies haven't 'lost' a sale just because I played Day 1 via Game Pass and gained some 'revenue' and a LOT of engagement stats.

All Game Pass does is let me play a Handful of Games without waiting for a Sale (or not bothering if it doesn't drop low enough in price) - Games the Publisher would likely get minimal to zero revenue from me towards. But if I enjoy the Game, I'm much more likely to buy in a Sale and/or pay a bit more than I would have.

I still buy games when they go cheap enough. The problem I have now-a-days is games are so expensive. In the 360 era I was buying games on Day One at Best Buy for $49. Now, it is impossible to get a AAA game on day one for less than $69. My wages have not kept pace with inflation therefore the optional spends such as on gaming have decreased accordingly.

We seem to be in a vicious cycle right now. People demand more wages to pay for inflation, Companies charge more because they are having to pay more. The cycle seems endless now-a-days. I don't know when people are going to learn that if companies have to pay more they won't eat it, they charge consumers more to maintain their profits that shareholders demand.

@M20B25 Yep, same here 👍

I cancel my game-pass no more giving Microsoft 240 dollars a year but I do buy games when there is a big discount but it has to be a big discount anyway I have a big game library that will keep me going for a long time both digital and hardcopies

I buy games still, yes.
On sale, never fully price.
Same for Gamepass and PS Premium, discounted every time it comes around.

Gamepass often weeded out games that I might want to beat vs add to the collection but I pretty much no longer buy games full price/day 1 on PS5 or series x at this point (with two exceptions this year). Easier to play other games or wait for sales (especially if I am going to buy the game on another system anyway). Since Black Friday physical sales have been middling the past few years it also means I’m dropping physical as well.

I buy most of the games I am interested in when they are released. I don't wait for discounts or gamepass to include them. I do buy keys tho to save some money.

I never buy games. Got the Series S to be a gamepass machine and its more than paid for itself.

Metaphor
Expedition 33
Persona 3 Reload
THPS 3+4

Soon i get Wuchang, Gears Reloaded and the inevitable COD.

No need to buy games

I've lost faith in Xbox's long-term viability. All 'purchases' are now on Playstation. My Xbox only gets used now where there's a GP game I want to play and I'll sub for a month.

I rarely buy games and when I do, it's for my PS5 pro. I don't even have GP anymore. I just come to this site to see what's new in the world of Xbox. Lately, it's been kinda bad but whatever. I cannot see buying another Xbox based on how I feel Microsoft runs their gaming division. Just my opinion.

Way back when Microsoft pulled out those charts to show Xbox Game Pass subs spending more time AND money on Xbox I'm pretty sure that was just me. Game Pass and the Xbox Play Anywhere sparked my interest in gaming at a time when I nearly stopped the hobby entirely. The PS4 and Xbox One's initial library nuke nearly murdered my interest and gaming, and I was getting fed up with how anticonsumer all three were especially Nintendo. I can't even imagine buying a game on PS or Nintendo ever again and nearly Xbox too (and with that I'd have stopped gaming because I wasn't into PC at the time). Now, I don't even want to think about how much I spend on Xbox yearly at this point. If it's a play anywhere title it's become like second nature to buy at this point. The way I see game pass when it comes to buying game is it just deprioritizes buying certain games for a certain time, and as such the money I would've spent on that game is freed up to go to another game. So Xbox is eating big off of me. I'm paying for game pass and using monkey logic to excuse paying for more new games on top of that. And then I'll also convince myself to buy games that are leaving for the GP discount (especially if it's a $20 or cheaper game).

Yeah, I buy plenty of full-price and sale games on Xbox. I buy a lot more games here than I do on my PS5. Now that the Switch 2 is out, I get most of the non-Xbox Japanese games there, so my PS5 has become pretty redundant.

Xbox has the best long-term viability as I can play most of these games on a PC(without buying again), while my PS and Switch games are stuck to that hardware. PC gaming is the future, and console gaming has become expensive for the mass market, and it's on its last legs.

@themightyant this is exactly where I’m at. I have a PS5 Pro and Switch 2 now, I really don’t buy games on Xbox anymore. I still like many of the games from their multiple studios, but I’m not investing in a platform with an uncertain and constantly changing future. That rubs quite a few people the wrong way, but it’s just my personal view. I just don’t want to keep building a game library on a platform with so much uncertainty. Most anything I want to play from Xbox will be on PlayStation.

@Kraven OK. I get that the "pop" or however you would describe it could feel like an extra reward for finding something, clearing a puzzle, or beating a boss. The in-game and post-game acknowledgements and weapons unlocks in CoD and Battlefield, for example.

In my case, I don't take much stock in achievements/trophies beyond the natural encounters with them. I play every game on the hardest difficulty level (except for permadeath most times) and play through once, with rare exceptions. Some achievements are predictable (10 headshots, 10 stealth kills), and besides, I naturally will search around a map for secret items or encounters.

I don't ever use guides, google solutions, or look up the achievement list. My approach is to just play and whatever happens, happens.

Looking up where to find each item and then taking the time to collect them is just not something I'm going to do. Discovering stuff on my own is fun and more fulfilling. The achievement side of it holds like relevance for me.

I guess that's why I've only found about 5-6 skulls in the entire Halo series.

@Isca I actually agree 💯 percent with your sentiment. Odyssey isn't just the best AC game, it's also the best game of its type. I personally had such a hard time going from Odyssey to Valhalla because Odyssey truly felt bigger and better, mainly because the era it's set upon is that of peak Greek supremacy and civilization is at an all time high. Valhalla is completely opposite, it's set in the beginning of what would be called the "Dark Ages" where warring brought civilization down a few pegs, no longer was there great communities in sprawling city states like Athens, Thebes, Sparta, Corinth and Delphi.

Valhalla was post collapse of the Roman Empire where kingdoms rose & violence followed which saw humanity suffering through fragmentation, survival, and conquest. We witness the Vikings expansion into Europe which wasn't to build empires themselves but to escape scarcity and seek opportunities. Valhalla exposes a very dark period of life during the Dark Ages while Odyssey does an excellent job of recreating the brilliance that was Ancient Greece, not only in its buildings & civilization but also in its philosophy, the birth of democracy and daily life assurances that came with being a Greek citizen at the time.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey will forever be my favorite AC game of all time but for all intents and purposes it's also my favorite historical game of all time. When walking around Athens or Delphi, you get a true sense of scale of what life was like back then and just how advanced Ancient Greece was for its time period.

Thanks for your response, I enjoy the discussion.

@Master_Cthulhu70

So sorry for the super-late response. You have nailed it, completely, so I've nothing to add.

As at 20/08/25, I'm currently 197 hours into my latest Odyssey .. finishing LOTFB and soon to go onto Atlantis. I've never been this deep, and always given up to play something else previously.

It is a beast of a game, but I am damned determined to finish it completely this time.

Valhalla awaits (again). Going to finish that and the DLC as well, finally...

Mirage after ... and then Shadows ... perhaps in the Xmas sales....

Best to you