Xbox Live's Major Nelson held a final 2020 interview with Xbox boss Phil Spencer yesterday as part of his regular podcast, and during it, Spencer was asked a bit about the success of Xbox Game Pass over the year.
Spencer began by highlighting the success of Game Pass in terms of "the numbers that we're hitting", as well as pointing out that some developers are actually now targeting the service with their games prior to building them.
"We look at Game Pass today and it's, what, three years old? And the numbers that we're hitting, the engagement, the way that creators are now targeting Game Pass - we get people from their original idea of a game coming to us and saying 'hey, we'd like this to be a Game Pass game and can you work with us on that?', which is just fantastic."
The Xbox boss also went on to talk about the different kinds of games that people have discovered across console, PC and Android on Xbox Game Pass in 2020, and teased that 2021 will be an "incredible year" as well.
"2020 was an important year for the Game Pass team, the portfolio, getting EA Play inside [the library], but I think 2021 is just going to be an incredible year when I look at the lineup of games coming, and the continued work to bring it to more and more people."
What do you think Xbox Game Pass has in store for us in 2021? Give us your thoughts below.
[source majornelson.com]
Comments 25
Well, that's great news for all the other people, Phil. But how about the stuff that I actually AM interested in?
We might get some new first party games for one!
I'd prefer it being new 1st party games that are good for a change. Much more important than Gamepass additions which aren't automatically implied as new 1st party games.
It would be AMAZING if you got Final Fantasy 7 Remake on Game Pass day 1. of course, they still haven't announced that it's even COMING to Xbox at all, but that would be nice.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is the only game I'm sure is coming to Game Pass in 2021. Possibly Starfield at the end of the year, if it is demoed in March or July. A Forza game, probably.
But there will be plenty of cool surprises. Planet Coaster, Undermine, and several other games were complete surprises to me in 2020. I would have missed Abzu, Jurassic World: Evolution, and Rocket League if not for Game Pass.
Games published by Xbox Games Studios in 2020
That's a game every month and a half from Xbox to Gamepass. I think anyone arguing that Xbox isn't making games just doesn't like what Xbox is making. There's a big difference.
Should be a great year for game pass with all the studios they now own.
Additionally I’m sure we will be getting Halo Infinite and a hoping Forza Horizon 5 and maybe a few more first party exclusives.
It would be good if they included a covid 19 vaccine as a game pass perk
I'm not interested in most games in Game Pass, and that's alright. Nobody would expect you to enjoy most or even half the content on Netflix or Amazon Prime. These services offer a wide variety of games as much to please a variety of customers as to introduce customers to new genres and new creations.
There are many games that seem well made but are not for me. Some are worth playing but don't fit my interests enough to buy in lieu of other games.
At least with Game Pass, games I wouldn't buy to try I will try and consider buying if I love them. And even if I don't buy a mildly enjoyable game, some contracts with Microsoft including payment for downloads and play time. Or I might recommend a game to a friend who would enjoy it more than I do.
@armondo36 Yeah, we don't know if it's still coming to Xbox.
Gamepass in 2021 and 2022 is gonna be insane..
In theory every Bethesda game ever should come to game pass as soon as the purchase is complete, I think in Q1. That'll be dozens of games coming in a tidal wave, so yeah, 2021 should be pretty huge
@RadioHedgeFund S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is going to be a huge day one Game Pass game, and I'm excited about it.
I’m curious about that game The Gunk from the steam world people.
Also, really interested to see what other gems I can discover. And I would LOVE to see more simple games like Battletoads. That was some of the most fun I had this year. Felt like a Saturday Morning Cartoon.
@armondo36 Yes, and don't forget about FF16 as well, even if that's like 2 years away
I'm enjoying Control on GamePass. I never buy games new anymore so GP seems to work well for me. I'd love Xbox to have their own Uncharted style single player action adventures this gen. And a haptic feedback controller.
@armondo36 Final Fantasy is now a Sony exclusive so any new ff games will not be on Xbox
@DannyHolland911 last I new FFVII was only a timed exclusive, as with kingdom hearts before it, so I imagine we'll see it as some point, but probably not until a year after initial release
Looked it up just to check myself, not overly worried as my findings seem to jive with what I was expecting
"Piers Harding-Rolls stated on Twitter he had been told by Sony the game was "six months full exclusive and 12 months console exclusive", suggesting it would arrive on PC half a year after PS5, and be free to launch elsewhere after a full year."
@DannyHolland911 this is patently false information.
@DannyHolland911
I think you're getting your wires crossed pal.
FF7 Remake was 12 months paid exclusive by Sony. That means Square-Enix are free to launch it on whatever they want after April 10 2021.
FF16 is 12 months paid console exclusive by Sony, and 6 months exclusive to console. That means a PC version could be released 6 months after the PS5 release of the game.
@RedShirtRod out of all the games you named only 2 are actually good, 1 isnt published by Microsoft. The rest are 50-70 rated trash so yeah, nobody really likes the games MS makes.
@12TerribleFLOPS Not sure which game you think isn't published by Microsoft. The only one not specifically listed on Metacritic as such is Wasteland 3, but it's listed as inXile (which of course is an Xbox Games Studio developer). Just in case you don't know where to look I've included links.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/ori-and-the-will-of-the-wisps
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/bleeding-edge
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-series-x/gears-tactics
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/battletoads
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/microsoft-flight-simulator
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/tell-me-why
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/grounded
https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-one/wasteland-3
https://www.inxile-entertainment.com/
The ratings tend to disagree with your opinion. Granted the user one is lower but they also gave TLOU2 a 5.7 so not sure it's such a reliable source. You're of course entitled to your opinion but it makes it harder to take it serious when you include it with false claims and lies.
wow you tried so hard to prove how many of those games trash
@armondo36 Even if FF7R came to game pass day one. I'll still buy it hopefully to encourage more FF games to come to Xbox at the same time as the PS version.
GamePass was the deciding factor in my Xbox versus PlayStation decision. And it made the choice so easy.
Awesome service
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