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Xbox Game Pass service origins and evolution

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Xbox Game Pass – a paid Xbox Live subscription service that provides access to a digital library of over 100 Xbox games has gained an increased amount of attention recently. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when we take into account the upcoming transition between 8th and 9th console generations. Everyone’s looking forward to what the next console generation will bring, and it seems that Microsoft is willing to explore the full potential of their very own “Netflix of gaming”.

Of course, Xbox Game Pass has been around for a number of years but since its initial release, it had more than a few iterations. As a side note – each of them can be acquired cheaper on Eneba online marketplace in a form of digital product codes. We’re talking about such options as Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and even their conceptual predecessor Xbox EA Access Pass. By taking a look at the past evolution of the Game Pass we might see the outlines of possible routes it may take in the foreseeable future.

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Xbox EA Access Pass

The very first subscription service that allowed Xbox console owners to download games from a digital library of video game titles was the Xbox EA Access Pass. Currently, the service is known by the name of EA Play and it extends beyond the Microsoft platform. Its origins, however, reach back to August 11th, 2014 when the original Xbox EA Access Pass was launched for the Xbox One. To this day, users with the subscription have access to an ever-growing library of EA games released on Microsoft’s console and that’s far from everything this membership has to offer.

EA Access Pass games include multiple triple-A titles from acclaimed Electronic Arts series like FIFA, Battlefield, Mirror’s Edge, Need for Speed, Dead Space, Titanfall, and Star Wars: Battlefront. All of the games included in the collection are available for download for the duration of the service and even after the service ends, the player progress is saved on cloud storage to be accessible after the subscription is renewed. Major benefits of EA Access Pass also include the exclusive Play First 10-hour trials of the latest EA games, days before their release as well as a 10% discount for all EA products available on the Xbox Live network.

Xbox EA Access Pass 1 month offer (Trial)

Xbox EA Access Pass 12 months offer

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Xbox Game Pass

Naturally, Xbox EA Access Pass was a very attractive choice for the new owners of Xbox One. It was a great way to test out the limits of new hardware and explore the full potential of Xbox gaming without the necessity to purchase each game from EA’s Vault individually. However, while EA Access Pass still has a lot of great games to offer, the selection is limited to Electronic Arts titles and these don’t include games of third-party publishers. This remained the case until February 28th of 2017, when Microsoft announced their very own Xbox Game Pass service.

In its initial stages, the new membership was available only to the Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Not long after the successful testing, Xbox Game Pass was released for the general public. Functionality and features of the Xbox Game Pass were quite similar to EA Access Pass, with the main difference lying in the selection of games. The collection included over 100 Xbox titles, among which were games from exclusive Microsoft series like Halo, Gears of War, Forza Horizon, or Crackdown. Just like EA Access Pass, Microsoft’s subscription gave users exclusive discounts – 20% for games on Xbox Live and 10% for downloadable content.

Xbox Game Pass 1 month offer (Trial)

Xbox Game Pass 3 months offer

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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

On April 18th of 2019 Microsoft company revealed their plans for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate package. The name of the service is very appropriate as it encompasses both the Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold subscription. This means that users with the subscription will not only gain all the aforementioned benefits of Xbox Game Pass but they will also enjoy popular Gold features such as multiplayer access, up to 4 free games each month, and even more exclusive Xbox Live discounts that can go up to 50% or even 75%.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate was released for the general public on June 9th, 2019, and on the same day, Microsoft announced that the subscription will eventually include an open beta version of Game Pass for PC. Initially, Xbox Game Pass titles were available only for Xbox One but currently, there are numerous titles available for personal computers with Windows 10 operating system. This way the functionality of Xbox Game Pass extended beyond console gaming and there’s no reason to assume these tendencies will not continue into the future.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 1 month offer

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 3 months offer

What’s on the horizon?

On September 15th of 2020, Microsoft is planning to launch Project xCloud service that will become yet another component of the total Xbox Game Pass Ultimate package. This latest iteration of Xbox Game Pass will focus on cloud gaming and allow players to enjoy games from Microsoft’s digital catalog on mobile devices. During the initial stages of xCloud, the service will be limited to a select number of Android products but Microsoft revealed that iOS devices will be added to the list further down the line.

Services like Xbox Game Pass mark a turning point in gaming. It’s highly likely that more and more video game enthusiasts will turn to paid subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass or EA Play as the benefits are obvious – instead of purchasing each game individually and risking to waste money on a game one might not enjoy, gamers now have the option of trying out an entire catalog of games with an outstanding variety of options. Freedom of choice extends beyond the selection of games since subscribers will no longer be limited by the hardware as well. Xbox Game Pass has extended far beyond Xbox console gaming and from what we’ve seen so far – this trend is bound to continue.

All Xbox Live Membership offers

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