Reminder: 10 Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass To Finish Off March

As is so often the case as of late, more big third-party games leaving than joining. The Service seems to be getting smaller with each passing month, albeit that we are seeing some decent games joining, they are being outpaced by those deserting Game Pass...

Surely with so many games leaving we are going to get more activision games dropping on the service sometime soon 🤷

@Fiendish-Beaver - I would love to see some actual facts on this, ie the actual cumulative number of Gamepass games available month by month. As to whether the quality is better or worse I guess that’s all down to a matter of opinion- for me personally, I consider the service has improved in the last six months but totally understand if some might disagree.

Maybe there’s also a move to make a larger proportion of the games on Gamepass First Party, thereby reducing down the expenditure going forward. I’ve no evidence that might be happening, but if you look through the titles available on Gamepass it is quite striking how many of them are now from Microsoft’s own studios.

@Feffster it was provided several times on this site in the comments and yes its a fact.

another thing is the value is in the new big games and not in older games that are often on discounts, with every game being 10-20% off in GP at all times.

I think the move towards first-party only is where Microsoft are heading, @Feffster, which is why I specifically said third-party. One of our members has previously produced some statistics showing that there are fewer games entering the Service year on year, but to be honest, if you follow these things, it is pretty evident really.

The question is, why is this happening? There was a report last year that said that 'Golden Era' for deals for developers was over, and the money being offered to them is less enticing than it once was, which therefore may explain why we are seeing fewer new third-party titles enter the Service.

That then begs a second question, which is why is that? We all know that there was an internal target of reaching 100 million subscribers by 2030, but that at the point when Gold was folded into Game Pass to create Core there were only about 30 million subscribers, and then last year Nadella removed (or had removed) the target of 100 million from his bonus structure. Basically, the 100 million target has no chance of being reached, and indeed, sustaining the 30 million is likely the target that Microsoft have now.

It is still puzzling as to why despite the increase in costs of subscribing that took place last year, and the inclusion of CoD day one on the Service, that there was only a 2% increase in revenue for Game Pass, but maybe that explains why we have not seen a corresponding increase in the number of big third-party titles entering the Service. Basically, it seems the money isn't there to entice developers into putting their games on Game Pass.

I continue to think that Microsoft will morph the Service into a first-party only entity, which will in turn enable them to put it on to the PlayStation, which I believe is now Microsoft's long-term aim, and by long-term, I mean within the next 5 to 10 years. Ultimately though, I don't think this is where Microsoft saw their future. I think this is something they have had to choose to do based on their market share and the direction they are now taking (which is also something that they have had to adapt to, rather than would have chosen to do)...

Seems like more stuff is leaving than coming - which is not necessarily bad.
I think the GP shines with new day 1 releases for $50-70 games. The backlog of older games is more of cherry on top as any older game can be bought at massive discount 70-90%.
I think GP should be viewed as a purely MS 1st party + partners sub with occasional random 3rd party stuff. Who knows maybe eventually it will go the UBI+ way. Its even removes this overchoice anxiety problem as well now i just look at 1-2 games coming every month.
I do agree for someone who wants more choice regardless of how old is a game and if he/she missed last gen for example - thats not ideal.

That said I am looking forward for Doom and expedition 33 and not sad that yakuza is leaving thats been on service for many years.

@Fiendish-Beaver mostly agree.
also lunching on PS/N will fully eliminate the need in your own xbox console. We are just lucky it did not happen already as PS/N did not allow GP in any form (reportedly).

I think its becoming mostly first party + partners service and I personally believe its better. The biggest value is day 1 games for $50-70 AA and AAA games.
Also all their own games stay in service forever.
Why spend 1B a year for 3rd party stuff when you have so many studios?

Market sentiment is people dont play that many games and seems like having big games like Starfield, COD, etc is what actually attracts the audience (little bit based by the numbers but anyways small positive impact).

Pretty sure if they continue acquisition spree (which rumored to continue) and acquire lets say some AA/indie stdio and maybe some UBIsoft IP, then for sure I think they can position GP as first party only service but they own so much they can pump a new game every month.
Based on this year, it seems almost doable for them so sure down the road seems like a good way out for them.

P.S. Overall regarding GP strategy: clearly they wanted more numbers but that meant promoting your console and Xbox PC store (as opposed to steam) and thats too much work LOL. So easier to become a publisher. Hence now they dont really care about GP as they will be getting most revenues from sales and dlc on steam/PSN/Nintnedo eshop.
I think they are just too far with GP to back down + I think long term in cloud GP could actually make a comeback. Pretty sure many want to use GP but they dont wanna buy xbox or pc for that

@Fiendish-Beaver the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

I really like how they do their presentations and we have dates (or release windows) for games. I enjoy the coming soon section.

I think its very convenient for consumer that they can sub and have literally a calendar of future releases of new games vs random number of some older games (thats how the service started in 2017). Sure we like the exploration and big library but that makes a lot of clutter in the service and too much choice anxiety.
Ideally both but seems like they are leaning into the first.

I agree, @Millionski, I think that Microsoft will be taking Game Pass to entirely first-party so that they can take it to PlayStation. There is much more money to be made that way than there is with the current model on the Xbox.

I also agree that Microsoft buying up a few more franchises (not Publishers) is on the cards, as that way they can put high profile games on the Service to make it even more attractive, but also ensure the regular cadence of releases that they will require to keep the Service fresh and attractive.

Ultimately, let's not kid ourselves that this is where Microsoft saw themselves right now, or within the next decade. Sure, long-term, Microsoft will have assumed that we will end up either console agnostic, or all on PC, but they were probably thinking 15 to 25 years. It is highly unlikely that they foresaw the need to aggressively push into this territory within the next 5 to 10 years. This path was not chosen by them, but for them.

As a Publisher, Microsoft will see tremendous success. I don't see the same for their consoles, and believe that the Prime will be the last under the TV one that they make. Whether Game Pass can survive, and thrive, under just first-party content, I'm 50/50 on. I think undoubtedly, Microsoft will need more studios and games that they currently have because I think for it to be truly successful, they will need to be bringing out at least one big hitter each month, and that is not where they are at just yet...

I purchased Lamplighters after trying it on gamepass. That is a solid game.

And of course mlb the show is legendary. I am sad that this year's isn't in gamepass.

@Fiendish-Beaver

1) GP does not cancel out game purchases (definitely hurts sales but not eliminates them). This is evidenced by only 30-40% of xboxers using any form of GP (and part of them is GP core only).
Most people dont want another sub, want to stick to individual games they "own".
That said, one form or another of GP will stick long-term but my prediction is day 1 stays. I agree that there will be less and less 3rd party content, maybe just some partners like Ninja Gaiden or expedition 33.

2) Dont agree at all that "path was chosen for them". Its too coincidental that we had this notorious "february update with just 4 games" 3 months after the ABK deal was closed.
I see it that Phil strategy was to grow its own platform. When they were buying Bethesda, he was saying to have exclusives in GP (i kept my receipts). The goal was to grow on PC and xbox consoles, secure more customers with a lot of exclusive content and GP.
However, when ABK deal closed Satya and CFO started to demand higher margins NOW. That led to the whole strategy shift and you see it in Phil rhetoric changing drammaticaly in a year. Again I dont think he is that innocent, but at least he is a gamer and xbox was always a cornerstone which he said multiple times. Lately if you noticed he never mentions that and suddenly its about xbox games everywhere.
a 1000% exclusive Doom, Gears, etc would bring more people to xbox and GP. But they did not give xbox a chance! Its a long way and probably they wont catch with PS5 anyways but I amsure they could bridge the gap and be a big player on console. Satya did not want this and doesnt care.
notice that 2025 is the biggest year in terms of games output and NOW they are all multiplat. We went thru years with no games like 2022-2023 with exclusives like redfall but NOW guess what - all these cool games are everywhere.

3) Prime wont be last. I think they merge with PC and abandon traditional consoles, so we will have this xbox-pc hybrids, possible from 3rd party but coming all the years until we are all ready to fully go into cloud (10-20 years easily)

Got more games leaving than coming these days with the sega exodus. It’s going to be sad not having Atlus games come to game pass anymore, but I guess P3R was the last one anyway. Had to buy SMT and metaphor!

If Game Pass becomes first party only, I’ll be done. I like a few of their first party games, but I mostly liked the indie stuff and others, which has been less lately.

Either way, just because sega is leaving all at once doesn’t mean GP is suddenly going to be first party only.

@jesse_dylan indies could be bought as are not expensive. they are also platforms that are more suitable for those like switch.

other stuff can be bough on sales.

I think the whole point is to have these AAA like COD day 1 as sub is pricey now and its all about the $ value.

@Millionski well they’d lose a lot of subscribers then, like me. I have less than zero interest in cod. Gpu has gotten worse for me since the activision buyout instead of better.

@jesse_dylan with your needs I think its easier to unsub and buy indies and old 3rd party games on sales.

@Millionski @Fiendish-Beaver - interesting debate, and I agree with many of the points raised/discussed. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out. Personally, I do think that Microsoft brought much of this upon themselves (as @Millionski suggests) - but as to whether Gamepass becomes just First Party or ‘Gamepass Light’ I’m still unsure.

And I guess we have to be careful what we wish for. My simplistic brain told me that if Microsoft closed the ABK deal we would see all CoD and all the ABK back catalogue arrive quickly onto Gamepass (still hasn’t happened and yet we are paying more every month). If Microsoft does eventually go fully third party and gets Gamepass onto PlayStation then we might think we only need one console going forward, but would the cost of Gamepass just rise by 30%+ overnight? (if it did then it would effectively wipe out any ‘saving’ over the lifetime of the console).

@Millionski I dno. Between GPU and Rewards, I haven't had to buy much/anything in a long time We don't know GPU is going first party anyway. This is all just wild speculation. Just because Sega wants to do their own service and is pulling everything somewhat rapidly doesn't mean it's going first party only.

I think you went on to agree with me, after saying you didn't, @Millionski! 😂 My point about pivoting to putting games on the PlayStation was that Nadella wanted their money back now, not in a few years time if the strategy of exclusive content worked, plus the weak sales of the Series consoles, and then stalling Game Pass numbers. None of these were things that Xbox chose. One was Nadella, and the other two were market conditions. That is what I meant by this was chosen for them, rather than a course they chose. As you say, Spencer must have had whiplash with the amount of sudden changes in direction.

I think Prime will be the last full-on, Microsoft developed Xbox. After that, Microsoft will lease out their operating system to other companies to enable them to release an Xbox orientated Xbox that was no built by Microsoft. Whether that will be successful, I have my doubts because if you can play every game on a PlayStation, where is the need for an Xbox developed by a third-party? However, that is the rumour right now. I just don't agree with it...

I'm cool with this. They've been in for ages and what we've had lately, and yet to come, the service still pays itself off (and then some).

Small third-party indies will not be bought for the Service if Microsoft are looking to take Game Pass to the PlayStation (which I think they are), @jesse_dylan & @Millionski. Sony won't allow any service on their platform that directly competes with their own...

If anything, @Feffster, I think the Service will become cheaper than it currently is if it goes fully first-party. Much of the costs of running the Service are derived from having to make agreements with third-part companies. Remove that, and you are left with Microsoft having to work out how much people will be prepared to spend for a first-party only service versus making a profit. However, you also need to factor in putting the Service on to the PlayStation, which will see an influx of new subscribers. What Microsoft won't ant to do though is hurt the revenue that they can make from selling their own games on whichever platform, which is why they will be having their accountants comb through every detail regarding people playing first-party content on the Service, and pitting that against how many sales they lose as a consequence of people playing on Game Pass instead of buying the game.

As you say, interesting times ahead...

@Fiendish-Beaver I have said for a long time they are steering GP towards 1st party. They will still get some 3rd party stuff but long term it will just become like EA Play, Ubisofts sub etc. Its how they get it onto other platforms, and even then i bet it still has some extra perks on the Prime.

I disagree that it will get cheaper however, people are used to paying and if they slowly phase out 3rd party then people will just continue to pay. Best outcome would be it remaining the same price so people could claim will be its better value as its not rising at the same rate as inflation. But as I say I can't see that happening.

I agree, @Ilyn. Microsoft reducing the price of GP once it goes fully first-party was a moment of optimism. My apologies. It won't happen again...! 🤣

@Fiendish-Beaver always be a pessimist because at least then you can only be pleasantly surprised 😂