The undisputed success of Xbox in the time that Phil Spencer has been at the helm has undoubtedly been the video game subscription service, which has had a force far greater than anyone might have imagined, so much so that it adds up millions of players in just a few years of life. And it is that the quality of its games, together with a robust mix with Xbox Live Gold, has made the service a benchmark in terms of the gaming industry, further enhanced by another edge that will be the future of everything. : Xbox CloudGaming.
So far with the service, we have been able to see how it has been getting stronger as the months go by, with top-level games included in the catalog, like others being part of it from day one of launch. With these two launch models, Xbox Game Pass It has risen up and joined giants like EA in its game library, with more and more names to keep growing for the future, but… Will it be enough? What surprises does the service await us? Everything indicates that 2023 will be the best and biggest year of the service, and then I’ll explain why.
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Solid foundations for a promising future
If a few years ago they had asked us… Do you think a video game streaming service will be successful? The answer was most likely in the negative, however, Microsoft with Xbox proved that a good idea, executed in the right way, can be a success despite what the industry itself says.
When Microsoft was preparing Xbox Game Pass, most people, analysts, journalists and direct competition like Sony, showed in some way the weaknesses of this system, criticizing all the steps that Xbox took in a direction that, admittedly, raised doubts for the simple fact of being an unknown terrain. I still remember the wave of negative comments expressed by the most “experts” in the industry, for the simple fact of not understanding the business, projection and future of the same service, something that Xbox had already studied and analyzed very well.
Months following the official launch, you might already see where Game Pass was headed, with millions of subscribers enjoying a very extensive catalog at an excellent price, with releases announced on day one. The foregoing despite taking a long time to be assimilated by the players, was finally reflected in the resounding success of the service, to the point of being followed by direct competition, doing exactly what they criticized at some point. This was proof of how visionary Xbox had been, and continues to be, adding more and more features to the service to make it the future of gaming.
Since the launch of the new generation of consoles, we have had turbulent months and low stock, due to the pandemic that has hit the world. This has resulted in delayed games, troubled developments, and big IPs postponed for a long time. Nevertheless, most of the great xbox games are planned for your launch in 2023, where a large number of factors will be mixed that will make the service its best year, its most solid period, which will see and develop its maximum potential, definitively catapulting itself into the lord and master of streaming gamer.
2023: The definitive year of Game Pass
The year 2023 is fast approaching, at a time when time seems to slip away in just a few minutes, move faster than normal, or so we feel. With the next year imminent, multiple foundations are coming that will build a most solid service, with top-tier content where gamers will realize that, Xbox Game Pass is the only and definitive option.
First of all, we have the great and exclusive games that will arrive on Xbox in 2023, one of the most anticipated being Starfield for example. If we add to this, in case of going all smooth sailing, the next Fable for the end of the year, plus the games from the catalog of Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, EA and the rumored Ubisoft +, Xbox Game Pass will become a gaming beast. The above, in the best of cases, but if one were to fail, it is most likely that Starfield, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard will be there, especially Call Of Duty, a franchise of millions of dollars.
Phil Spencer has already said repeatedly that it will not make Call Of Duty an exclusive franchise, it would not be beneficial as it would lose money, but if he will take advantage of this purchase, putting all his new day one releases on Game Pass… Can you imagine it? A tremendous score without a doubt. If we add to this all the releases made by Bethesda, Blizzard and EA, plus the future acquisitions that you are already seeing from Xbox, we will have a collection to not detach ourselves from the chair in a long time.
Likewise, Game Pass is preparing to give another blow to the table, one that will have its repercussions on giants like Netflix, for example, whose bad anti-user practices have earned millions of subscribers canceling their subscription in just a few months. Xbox will launch a family plan of his star service, emphasizing the idea of sharing and not dividing, another point that will be decisive in the near future. Furthermore, if we add to this the addition of Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is reaching more and more countries around the world, turning your smartphone into a portable Xbox console, the range of possibilities and features that players will have for a tremendously affordable price is overwhelming.
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2023 will have all this and much more, not to mention the numerous games from other developers that are constantly coming to the service, as well as promotions, Indie games and an extensive catalog of backwards compatibility. The future looks more than hopeful, where the anxiety to see all this eats away at us, but it also gives us tremendous joy, since we have witnessed the evolution of the whole process. That idea that was born and nobody had faith in it, became a giant empire, where much more remains to be discovered and integrated to see the true potential of Xbox, the true potential of Game Pass.