I hope that lasts and that gwg doesn’t end up crippled as a result.
Ala carte rentals have been gone for a long time on PS Now. It’s just the subscription service with on demand access to the 400+ PS3 games.
Anyway, this service from MS sounds impressive, but the games included look a lot like the games they’ve been giving out with GwG for a while now. Anyone who has Gold could be looking at a significant overlap between what they already pay to access and what this new subscription will include. You can probably forget EA games ever coming to this, too.
As a long time PS Plus subscriber my library of games I pay $60 a year for includes around 300 titles. For anyone with a long history of being with GwG or Plus you’ve likely racked up a big library already and don’t have to worry about what will rotate out every month before you get a chance to play. Ultimately this feels like an expansion of Sony’s “Instant Game Collection” concept when there were always a dozen Plus games available to new subscribers as soon as they join, but in the long run you end up with fewer games at twice the price (which still doesn’t include multiplayer on its own)…
The list of games currently in test are in no way representative of the final list of games they’ll have at launch. The list there currently is only intended to enable testing, and you really shouldn’t draw conclusions from it and try to extrapolate.
But the new user experience on this new service makes PS+ freebies look like even more of a joke than they already have been for the last year and a half.
How many of those 300 PS+ games are things anyone would actually want to play? Of those, how many were added before the PS4 came out and Sony no longer needed a reason beyond “you like online play, right?” to get people to subscribe?
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing this morning about the new user experience. A week or two ago I was talking to a co-worker about waiting until Project Scorpio was out before getting an Xbox, and I stopped myself from telling him about Games With Gold, because he hasn’t been an Xbox Live member, so he doesn’t have a large gaming library waiting for him when he first buys the console. But now that option will become available. I think that’s pretty damn cool.
Not sure if this is more appropriate for discussion here or Nick’s article comments, but what the heck let’s keep things centralized:
I checked last night and I am in the alpha for the game pass - any of you in the Insider program might want to check through the app. There’s nothing to install, just join it and seems like you have access to the initial group of games whether you own them or not. I installed Halo: Spartan Assault and I haven’t bought that. Didn’t get a chance to play yet though.
I’m in Preview Tier 3 and I didn’t see anything.
Also, that’s not a good test game. Halo: Spartan Assault is owned through Games With Gold, so maybe you’re not in the preview for the game pass either?
I’m in the preview - in the Insider app there’s an option to sign up for this, which you have to do to activate the program. You can then go to a list of games, looks just like the weekly sales list that shows up on the front page. Many of the games I already own, but Spartan Assault was showing up as $4.99 for me, not “Owned” like the others, but it allowed me to download anyway. I may have missed when it was offered as GwG, especially if it was offered before I bought my Xbone.
Ah ok. Sounds good!
You must be higher tier than Tier 3 in the Insider program. I can choose between Tier 4 and Tier 3. I’m currently at 3, but I’ve been thinking about switching to Tier 4 since I still regularly use Snap mode, and want to be able to use it for as long as possible. But the Game Pass is not an option for me even at Tier 3.
I’m not sure what tier I’m at. I’ll try to find out tonight.
Huh, this is interesting -
So I guess it’s a new XBLIG for the Xbone? Maybe they’ll give us access to the 360 games since they’re doing all this back compat work. Some of them were pretty great. Oh and also original Xbox games on the Xbox One please, kthxbye.
No concept approval and a “simplified” cert process. So, yeah, this sounds like the old indie game program on the 360.
Bring on the cheapo survival crafters!
No doubt about it, the XBLIG service lived by Sturgeon’s Law hard - there were tons of T&A match-3 games and twin stick zombie shooters. But there were some gems in there too, if you put in the time and effort, and they usually only cost a buck or two.
I Made a Game with Zombies in It was well worth the $1 I paid, just for the song.
And most all of those were better than 90% of what’s on Steam Greenlight.
I mean, who can forget the instant classic Try Not To Fart?
Yep, me too. Ah well.
Hey, Flotilla and One Finger Death Punch were both on the 360 indie service, and they made the whole thing worth it just between the two of them.
Oh man, Flotilla was awesome. Also that one game that was like a 2D portal, and the portals could shrink or grow you, I forgot the name. But that was awesome. Also some really great scrolling shooters, what others might call “shmups”, on XBLIG. It was great.
Only thing Flotilla was missing was online multiplayer. So much fun.
That’s a major “please make UWP games!” play.