Talking Point: Xbox's Final Games With Gold Titles Were Announced Three Years Ago

Honestly, it helped me stop paying every month.

I was subscribed for ages and collected the games religiously (as I did with PlayStation Plus).

Now I just get Game Pass one or two months per year and binge the games I want to play.

The games were so bad the last few years, I don’t miss it at all.
In its heyday it had some good ones though…

I liked it lots of great games on the service and the best was it helped me beef out my owned digital 360 titles and good ones for Xbox one I can still access like sunset overdrive and Forza games!
Best game I played from it by a country mile was the original dark souls!
Got me into the series I never played the games before that one I bought dark souls 2 soon after completing it!
They are my favorite type of games now another dark souls or elden ring everyday over a new GTA for me!

The specific games on offer weren’t always spectacular, but the Games with Gold principle of being given ‘permanent ownership’ (or as close as that term applies with reference to digital media, anyways…) was vastly superior to the ‘pay us monthly and own nothing’ gamepass subscription model.

When all is said and done and you’ve shelled out thousands of dollars across multiple generations and you take a step back and realize you own nothing, something went very horribly wrong.

@Fiendish-Beaver Thanks dude 😀 I'll check it out see if I'm into it.

@Bobarino One could say they deliberately made the service worse so that the transition to Game Pass Core would feel like an upgrade.

I only cared for the Xbox 360 titles that we could « keep » « for ever » and just for that, it was much better than that gamepass core/essential selection I don’t care about. I canceled Xbox’s online membership anyway. It’s too expensive just to casually play online… while it’s free on PC and much cheaper on Switch 2.

I think for the last few years of its existence I only ever saw people complaining about what games were being included each month, so I doubt there are many people grieving its end.

Yeah, I'd gladly have that back.

In it's heyday it was great, but over the years became redundant, same games, no DLC, good or bad over and over and over and over................

After seeing the UK console price increase, it would be good to have a basic tier like this again.

World is absolutely wild at the minute.

@Weebleman to think a series S is the same price as a ps5 is wild.

I'd just be happy if they introduced a cheap Gold tier, just online facilities, maybe with access to the old Gold games library (if you previously claimed them) and that's it.

I sub to the most basic Gamepass tier, but don't want that library at all, I just want online features.
It would be even nicer if online was free and then I wouldn't have a subscription at all, but I guess they know that and that's what it isn't offered free. 💁🏻🤣

It got worse when they did the Gold thing before when it was Xbox 360 it was okay especially when you could buy a year's subscription and not worry for a flat fee.

Then Gamepass came and they never did the yearly sub cards or anything just 3 months because they got more from you. Which like PS+ once PS5 came out I wasn't paying £80+ or whatever it is now when I started to barely game. In the end I went fully PC for my online gaming and that's just Helldivers 2 that's it.

Shame how it's all gone downhill after the 360/PS3/PS4 gen because we don't own F all unless you have the disc

They need to bring back the transformers games turning point fall of liberty pgr4 virtua tennis 3

I got Dragon Age 1 and 2 for free. Not too shabby considering I didn't have my copy of 1 anymore and still need to play 2.

Stopping Games with Gold was one of the worst mistakes they ever made.

Got to collect them all bug i liked the program and they are all in my library to play still.

I don't really miss it as I never really played the games and felt like they were just trying to give 'something' to make up for the very anti-consumer way they lock Social gaming and a large portion of content behind that paywall. Stop paying for Gold (or Game Pass Core as it now is) and you'll lose access to games you bought because they are behind that 'paywall'

Without paying for these Sub services, you don't really get the hardware they advertise, the 'social' experience they showcase and promise and certainly don't get access to the 'full' Library of content/modes. Even if you paid full price for games like CoD or Battlefield for example, you still have to pay an additional fee just to play it every month...

Personally I think they ought to remove the reason I was forced into buying Gold or Game Pass, and it certainly wasn't for the games. I wonder all those who 'miss' Gold would have bothered paying to get those games if the Online aspect was 'free' like it is on PC, subbing purely for some random games every month? I know from my perspective, I would never have subscribed to get the games they offered and owned any of the games I would play anyway. In the last years, I had even given up 'claiming' any because I knew I'd never play them because the backlog of games I had bought in over the years and numerous sales meant that I'd never play these games even though they were 'free' .

Games With Gold was a really nice bonus to Xbox Live Gold and I think Xbox should've stuck with that model instead of creating Game Pass.

I sorta miss those grab and get for free games back with Xbox live; I think some games weren’t so awesome but I have to bow and say I totally remember grabbing stuff like crisis 3 and even crazy taxi all through that now dead feature
Good Times good times ~~

@Fiendish-Beaver we have each other on this PUREXBOX threads so don’t ever say we have nothing 😂

Getting to own the 360 and OG titles where great. and still play many of them titles across my Xbox consoles.

They should have kept the program instead of whatever the hell they just experimented on with us 🥲 I moved to Core anyway with all the price hikes which I'm sure they did not want

@Fiendish-Beaver maybe over @ Sony but not here at XBOX 😭

@KITG_Group_BrunoB right?! Doesn’t everyone enjoy those classic titles a bit more than some new games tbh? like I think anyone who’d ever claimed one of those free titles is lying if they say they don’t miss it

Xbox Live, for its experience, value, and overall benefit was vastly superior to Game Pass and with hard Microsoft ramming the failed business model Game Pass down our throats.

@Fiendish-Beaver Is Mortal Shell 2 a Souls like game in being ridiculously hard for no reason at all, and taking 12 hours of try and die only to advance just 10 mins into the story?

That's main reason I'll never play ANY Souls like game. To me it's the masochistic video game equivalent of black leather mask with zipper for mouth.

@JetmanUK Xbox Live could pick up on sale, one year, for $10. That was incredible value. Soon as Indie Pas...I mean Game Pass became a major thing and bumped Xbox Live, I was like, people have no idea how much they will miss and belatedly appreciate Xbox Live.

I thought it was fair, there was fair Indies at the end of it people ignored because they'd never heard of them which says a lot more about audiences then the game's offered. XD

I didn't sub, had no reason to, but knew a few of the Indies and they were good offerings. It was an audience preferences situation more then a company one.

Now it's Gamepass Core and many of them either cycle out, are worth nothing or played before games. Good for newcomers, people pay for online anyway, not as much a cloud saves storage situation as other platforms are.

I mean what is there to say, other tiers are what people are after, the business model is what it is now and has it's moments. Still don't care for it. I barely uise my Xbox other then a few apps not on PS/Switch and otherwise back compat. I haven't used my Xbox One in a year, I have no touched a Series X and have it in the building. XD Even since Gamepass got unsubbed by others around me, barely used the console, no need for cloud either since not subbed.

I'm still using my 360 for OG Xbox back compat and 360 games. Games that actually interest me I'm collecting. Says a lot doesn't it how boring modern gameplay is in modern games, business models are fair but I've got plenty to research and play then care what modern is doing

It's not nostalgia, I'm researching modern and old all the time, every genre. I'm not emotional about games. I'm researching and having fun for my own reasons with games I've never heard of or played, it's not oh the old platform. I know their game design, their differences and go between both modern and old like it's nothing it isn't a challenge for me to go between them at all. I'm not seeking modern controls or controller layouts and complaining how old games feel to play at all, I play to what they were and get around them and love their more creative gameplay ideas that are gone now or very very rare in modern games.

Not a 'time to come back to'. But have fun with game design I know doesn't happen as much on modern platforms. On and off but more rarely.

I'm not the target audience on modern platforms and most devs would hate me and my opinions anyway, so like it matters. XD

I can look at platformer Indies (aka audiences that are too nostalgic and stupid to see what's different or care about characters and worlds not the platforming gameplay/movesets, what the genre is good for yet never happens anymore, says a lot about audiences and devs then anything really) and people will go what, while I look at a game inside and out, others have their views/preferences and can't look deeper, that's on players, not me who looks at all sides and doesn't care what people say of their narrow view they focus on with games and I care about my preferences but also look at all sides, praise what I respect/praise and trash the parts I don't. I'm not going to praise to appeal to people. Some people can't handle it or understand.

I miss the novelty of random drops every month. Most were awful, but there were a few gems along the way. Retrospectively I wish people hadn't been so toxic about it, as now we have nothing at all as the alternative.