If you post anything about Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service that gives you access to hundreds of games, it will turn into a controversy within an hour. Depending on how popular you are on the internet, your tweet regarding Game Pass might even get scrutinized by some very well-known journalists or gaming media members. Go ahead and mock Game Pass on Twitter and see if Destin Legarie, Parris Lilly, or Colt Eastwood retweet your tweet and have you look like a clown in front of 50000 people. They are cool people but sometimes Destin and Colt Eastwood kind of go overboard with ridiculing your negative take on Game Pass. However, most of the time, they are spot on.
If you just flat-out state that Game Pass is the best deal in gaming, you will get a lot of fanboys, and some journalists basically spit on you and your love for Game Pass. How could you like a rental service where you don't even own your games? Game Pass is full of fillers or mid-games. Only cheap gamers subscribe to Game Pass. Subscribing to Game Pass means that you are not supporting the developers who worked tirelessly to make these awesome video games. These are some of the comments you will see on Twitter if you express your love and support for Game Pass.
Fanboys are obnoxious but in my opinion, journalists who are making good money and working at well-known companies and who are always arguing with fanboys to support their favorite consoles are the worst. Easily, they are the worst as they add fuel to the fire of console wars. There is Tae Kim who is a senior writer at Barron's and who doesn't waste a single second criticizing Game Pass or Xbox in general. By the way, when he posts anything cool, funny, or positive, his tweets don't get any attention. Sometimes, they don't even crack double-digit likes. When he posts anything about Game Pass and Xbox, he gets a hundred likes within minutes. That tells you that his followers follow him mainly because they wanna support him when he has something negative to say about Xbox.
Tae Kim on March 26th posted a cryptic tweet. He tweeted "That didn't take long" in regards to an article stating that Xbox is ending their $1 promotional value of Game Pass to new subscribers. First of all, his tweet makes no sense. Xbox started running this $1 Game Pass promotion years ago. I'm not exactly sure if they started this promotion in 2017 or 2018, but I was introduced to this offer myself in June 2019. So even if they started this promotion in 2019, they are ending this promotion after four years. But according to Tae, it is ending in a month or so. Secondly, what is the point of this tweet? Is he stating that the promotion ended quickly because Game Pass as a service has been a failure and not generating profits? No one knows what he means exactly by this comment but those of us who have seen his tweets from the past are aware that he is not praising Xbox and/or Game Pass. One of our fellow gamers 'MrboomstickXL' responded to Tae Kim's tweet by pointing out why PlayStation never ran a promotional deal for their subscription services such as PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus. Of course, Tae wouldn't respond to that since he just wanted to start an argument among gamers (mainly fanboys) and then carry on with his day.
Alright, let's move on to another journalist. I'm not sure if this person is really a journalist but that's what it says under his Twitter profile. He is also verified on Twitter. I have seen his thoughts regarding Game Pass, PlayStation, and Xbox a lot. His name is Ben and his Twitter name is 'video tech.' This guy might not act childish like Tae Kim, but he takes subtle shots at Game Pass and Xbox every now and then. At first, I thought he was a big fan of Rockstar games and just preferred playing on PlayStation. Obviously, that was cool until I saw this tweet from him: "I'm gonna say it… Sony's new PS Plus service is better value than Game Pass. Really impressive lineup of game titles to play with PlayStation Plus Extra. Heck, even Demon's Souls and Assassin's Creed Valhalla joins the service. It's nuts!" This was tweeted on May 16, 2022, just a month before the new PS Plus service actually launched.
So let's break down Ben's tweet. I never understand in general why people have to make one thing look worse than the other when talking about what they like. Ben could have easily said that he is just blown away by the new PS Plus lineup and not mention Game Pass. However, on Twitter when you are talking about Game Pass, you know you are going to get eyes.
He is hundred percent right about the impressive lineup of PS Plus, and there is no denying having Demon's Souls and Assassin's Creed Valhalla being part of the service is nuts. The keyword in his tweet is VALUE. Are you getting good value by getting these awesome games as part of your monthly/yearly subscription? I think it is very good or great value if you haven't played some of those games. But is it as good as Game Pass? In my opinion and I think the majority of open-minded people would say no. Simply because you are not getting day-one first-party or day-one multiplatform games. PS Plus has added few day ones to their library, but that's like a handful so far. Xbox Game Pass on the other hand, up until the release date of the brand new PS Plus, had added Forza Horizon 5, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Halo Infinite, Back 4 Blood, Gears 5, Outriders, The Medium, The Outer Worlds, Psychonauts 2, The Artful Escape, Crackdown 3, Trek to Yomi, and so many more, all on day one. Do you know what else was added to Game Pass day one? PlayStation's own first-party games, MLB The Show 21 and 22 were added to Game Pass day one. As of today, those games are still not part of the PlayStation Plus.
Obviously, you get more than just day ones on Game Pass. Besides those games, Game Pass subscribers as of June 2022 also had access to Scarlet Nexus, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (three of the greatest games btw), Hitman Trilogy, Death's Door, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Life is Strange True Colors, Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection, Doom Eternal, Tunic, and just hundreds of good to great games. Some of these games were added to Game Pass within a year like Scarlet Nexus was added three months after its release.
So you get all those games and day ones on Game Pass and yet Ben thinks PS Plus provides better value. I think he needs to clarify what he means by value here because, to most of us, it means saving money. To us gamers, we get to save money by playing brand new games or the games we want to play for a good deal. If Ben thinks that value is having a good lineup of games for one low monthly price, no matter how old they are, then he is probably right as PS Plus does offer a lot more great games than Xbox Game Pass does. I just don't think gamers in general get good value for a good lineup of games if they have already played all or most of them.
To see more on Ben's takes regarding Game Pass and PS Plus, feel free to follow him on Twitter. You will see him promote old games added to PS Plus as he just recently celebrated Mafia Remake added to the service a month ago. You won't see him promote a brand new game like Hi-Fi Rush added to Game Pass out of nowhere (if you haven't played Hi-Fi Rush, please go play it) but you might find him stating how Game Pass library is just all mediocre games without actually going through the list. At least he is not Tae Kim.
I just don't get the trend of downplaying Game Pass on Twitter. I really don't. It gets attention for sure. Yes, there are some people who are sometimes overhyping Game Pass too. As excellent as that service is, it doesn't offer all great games. Some games are pretty average or not good, for example, Gungrave G.O.R.E, Madden NFL 22, and Shredders.
Overall, what the service offers is great. For $10 a month, you get hundreds of games including all Xbox Game Studio titles the same day as release, and sometimes day one multiplatform games. For $15 a month, you get the same benefits as you get with the $10 plan but you also get Xbox Live Gold subscription to play online with your friends, and you get EA Play subscription where you get access to a good chunk of excellent games published by EA. Also with the $15 a month, you get access to playing your Game Pass games on a console, PC, and on the cloud.
Game Pass has had some good and slow months when it comes to adding content, but since September 2022, they have added several great games. In that time span, they have added Deathloop, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Return to Monkey Island, Persona 5 Royal, and some big time day one games like Metal Hellsinger, Pentiment, High on Life (a massive hit on Game Pass), Hi-Fi Rush, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Atomic Heart, MLB The Show 23, and one of my favorites, A Plague Tale: Requiem.
Yes, those are some really good games but Game Pass is about to get even better as the year goes on. Some of the upcoming Game Pass games in 2023 are RedFall, Minecraft Legends, Ghostwire Tokyo, Lies of P, Forza Motorsport, Replaced, Stalker 2 (might get delayed to 2024), Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, and one of the most highly anticipated games of the year, Starfield. We still got eight more months to go this year, meaning there is enough time for team Xbox to surprise us with even more brand-new and classic titles added to Game Pass by the end of the year.
2023 is going to be massive for Xbox, Game Pass, and all of the gaming community. All the great stuff that is happening with Game Pass lately and yet you still see so much hate and negativity around it on Twitter. The crazier you get about Game Pass, the more views and likes you will get. Just look at some of these tweets.
.. Imagine paying triple of what you were paying before & you only get to rent the games. Phil will always be known as a snake oil salesman. Having full ownership is the only way. No rental service can beat that.
Don't be like these guys. Don't follow them. Don't support them. Play what you want and however you want it. Just please, enjoy gaming and be respectful to all.
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