As we have said many times on iGamesNews, Xbox Game Pass is definitely the most valuable video game. But… it could be better.
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One of the most important elements of Xbox Game Pass is that, broadly speaking, first-party games will continue to exist. They appear suddenly on the release day and will always be there. Third-party games come and go, but you always know those Xbox Game Studios games will be there. This adds a lot of value to the subscription. If you want a popular new first-party game, from a monetary point of view, purchasing or expanding the Game Pass Ultimate subgame may make more sense than actually purchasing a copy of the game. Will people actually buy Halo Infinite? I bet there are not many answers.
However, despite such great value, there is a strange gap in the Xbox Game Pass product: a bunch of classic Xbox games.
I have been thinking about this issue, but with the addition of Conker: Live & Reloaded to Xbox Games With Gold, and the news that Blinx and Crimson Skies are about to join Game Pass, this idea has become a little firm. The Xbox Conker is a classic of the original game console and looks particularly good in terms of backward compatibility-but confusingly, it is not available in Game Pass.
Yes, the original N64 version of Conker is available in Xbox Game Pass through Rare Replay. Yes, the Live & Reloaded version is available for free in Games with Gold-but this is not the point. If you do not claim it during its availability window, you will have to purchase it. And I just…I don’t understand.
Conk is not alone. Two of my personal favorites are the two Japanese RPGs at the helm of Final Fantasy creator Nobuo Uematsu, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Both are backward compatible and look great on new hardware. Both are distributed by Microsoft, do not have any annoying licensed music, and can still be sold digitally. So why are they not in Game Pass?
The same goes for a large number of Xbox Live Arcade games released by Microsoft and a large number of mini games from the 360 and original Xbox generations. In some cases, these games are developed by external developers and released only by Microsoft-so maybe I lack a license. But in other cases, such as Conker, I don’t quite understand why they can’t appear in Game Pass-especially when these games often enter Games with Gold and give away for free without causing similar problems?
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge is a good start (to be honest, I don’t care much about Blinx, but it’s good to put it there), but come on, Microsoft-when your competitors are often the highest professional When knowledge enters nostalgia, you’ve got to use what you have.
Or is Microsoft afraid of the current niche market “making a lost Odyssey sequel, you coward” if others play it and realize how great it is, they will get new members? I mean, maybe so. They should be afraid.
But really…I don’t understand.
As I said, Xbox Game Pass is great. There is no doubt that this is the greatest value in the game. So I don’t want to be ungrateful to say this, but please Microsoft put your entire directory there!
