Those early days of PC Game Pass and its Xbox sibling were never going to last, and the gradual price creep has come as no surprise. Fortunately, under the guidance of new CEO Asha Sharma, Microsoft seems to have realized that its last hike overstepped the mark, dragging it back from the brink with a recent reduction in fees. I had been seriously considering pulling the plug until then, and might have done so were it not for the reversal, but it would have been a reluctant goodbye. On the eve of the most important Xbox conference in years, I want to take a moment to recognize what Microsoft is getting right, and why Game Pass still works for me as a PC player.
I grew up making regular visits to my local library, and it forged my love of discovering new books. As things stand, Game Pass is still delivering on that same idea, but it’s not really thanks to Microsoft’s in-house offerings. Forza Horizon 6 is a shiny new showpiece, and in fact it was the ability to jump into its predecessor without pulling my wallet out (again) that finally made the series click for me. I still use the Xbox app as my primary way of playing Fallout 76, but that’s largely a concession: my friends are on console, and because the streaming edition is the Xbox version, it lets me circumnavigate the lack of crossplay.
Beyond that, however, the freedom to pick up and play new things on Game Pass continues to be more important to me as a gateway to stumbling upon many of my favorite experiences in recent times. In just the last few years I can count all-timers like Blue Prince, Tunic, Sea of Stars, and Monster Train 1 and 2 (both Silksong and Hades 2 are equally picks, although I did buy those separately). The list keeps going: Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, Ball x Pit, Death Howl, Evil West, Pacific Drive – all recent games that might have sat on my Steam wishlist collecting dust, but instead I picked up and experienced right out of the gate.
That freedom opens doors for co-op games as well. I don’t think my gaming trio that bought and completed Aliens: Fireteam Elite or Remnant: From the Ashes would have all agreed on playing them had they not been a click away, but we did end up buying DLC for them after having such a blast with the base games. I opened Roboquest completely on a whim one lazy afternoon, only for it to completely sweep me away with its high-octane gunplay. At the start of this year, I finally pulled up EA’s short-lived Monster Hunter rival Wild Hearts, and promptly poured 51 hours into it.
In 2026, my Game Pass list is as full and fresh as ever. I recently rolled credits on MIO: Memories in Orbit, and am now bashing my head against its toughest optional challenge areas. It didn’t make the best first impression on me, but with no thought of price or refund windows, I kept creeping forward until it unraveled into one of the best Metroidvanias I’ve played in years. Stunning art and audio, tight and satisfying boss battles, and a traversal ability so fun it makes grappling hooks feel outdated (though it has one of those as well).
Once that’s over, I’ve got a backlog that fills faster than I can clear it. I could run a corner shop in ’90s Japan in in Konbini, or a cozy Tiny Bookshop. I could blast undead hordes in Vampire Crawlers, lead fantastical armies in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, battle space horrors in Menace, or gamble my way through hell in Black Jacket. They even recently added every Final Fantasy up to FF6, giving me an excuse to revisit the classics (in rather timely fashion, given Kefka’s interjection into FF14) without having to justify the cost of buying largely untouched older games I already own on other platforms. There’s not even a limit beyond my hard drive size, so I can jump between them like a delicious digital buffet.
It’s not that Microsoft doesn’t have offerings of its own. Obsidian’s Outer Worlds and especially Grounded (see my co-op discussion above) both fall into the category of likely ‘wishlist games’ that I instead played and fell in love with. I was uncertain about Gears Tactics, but it was a big winner. My friends and I even finally played through forgotten sibling Gears of War: Judgment (it’s not as good, but I’m glad we saw it through). Ninja Gaiden 4, published by Xbox Game Studios, sits high on my virtual ‘to play’ shelf.
Instead, it’s that Game Pass to me was never about getting the big name triple-As without dropping full price. Sure, we won’t get this year’s Call of Duty included in the package; that one was sacrificed to make the new price point. I won’t miss it; it’s a known quantity. What we will get, and what will keep me coming back, is a list of new (and old) releases that I might have hovered warily over with a standalone price tag, but will pluck out of the ‘game library’ on a whim. Some I will bounce off; others will stick with me for the rest of my life. Keep delivering on that feeling, Microsoft, and you’ve got a deal.
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