Bethesda AAA hit Starfield has been moved to 2023, along with the interesting but unlikely Redfall. While the latter doesn’t have a date, it’s expected to be released this year, sometime before Starfield. Since those two games are no longer in the release schedule for this year, what other games will Game Pass have, and does Xbox have hiccups that need to be addressed?
To be fair, for a lot of people game pass It’s the platform – the Xbox console/PC/mobile is how they access it. Losing two big games can seem a bit problematic, especially when you look back at the past year, what’s coming next and what happened last year.
By the end of 2021, Xbox had some big hits of its own. Both Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite are AAA rated. The kind of game that those who don’t read this site will get excited about — the kind of games you might see advertised before the big movie of the moment. Microsoft seems keen to make sure it has something worth noting for all the big end-of-year months, managing to get Back 4 Blood on the day Game Pass released. You might have ideas about how good Back 4 Blood is, but it’s a great service. Large third-party games that you have to buy on other platforms.
2021 also sees the likes of Flight Simulator, Psychonauts 2, Outriders, Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, and The Ascent hit Game Pass on day one, among many others. It’s been a great year to be a Game Pass subscriber.
Fast forward to today, and things don’t look all that impressive; not bad, so Game Pass still keeps dropping great games (and a lot of day one indie games), but it’s just missing the big draw – this game Will entice people to subscribe you go online and buy a console in the same way that games might push. service provider.
Tops, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction, Total War: Warhammer III are all good Day 1 Game Pass games, Sniper Elite 5 is coming soon, but as far as AAA is concerned, we’ve got Tumbleweed. Xbox might announce something at its showcase event next month, but it seems unlikely that there will be a blockbuster game we don’t know about waiting to be released this year. So, what games can it turn to, like Back 4 Blood, to fill the void?
Saints Row at the end of August fits the bill as well as Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Gotham Knights in October will be the most intriguing game, but it feels unlikely (and it’s also a game I wouldn’t be surprised to see delayed – no inside info, just general pessimism about a release date). I’m not too hopeful for either of Game Pass, and then the rest of the release schedule is pretty barren. Sure, it will fill up, but Microsoft is unlikely to join the Game Pass fold.
I’m a card game pass fan, and for me, there are going to be a lot of games coming to make this sub worth it. But with subscription services like Netflix and Disney+, most people are always looking for new big things. Hopefully in a month or so, behind the slew of announcements that Xbox and Bethesda have shown, I’ll look back at this article and say “what a fool you are”, but for now, the year ahead doesn’t look like much. So spectacular and not a service like Game Pass.