Recently, my friend asked me if I wanted to play “The Ascent” on Xbox. I had asked him if he wanted to play “Back 4 Blood.” In both cases, he had to buy the game first, and was unwilling to do so since he didn’t have Xbox Game Pass, like I do. After all, without a subscription service, times are tough. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that.
Luckily, Xbox and PlayStation both provide relatively similar–and relatively affordable–services: Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now.
Similarly priced, you have access to hundreds of free games on your Xbox, PlaySation, or PC. At only $9.99 a month, either service is a great way for gamers to continue to play many of the games they may otherwise be unable to afford. And whereas Xbox’s Game Pass was, for a time, the less expensive service as compared to PS Now, the price change on Sony’s part seemed to iron out their differences.
However, as of March 31, 2021, PlayStation Now had 3.2 million members, compared to Game Pass’s 18 million, which had been reported in January of 2021. So what is giving Microsoft such a lead?
One front Microsoft still holds over Sony in the war of subscription services is its cloud feature, which allows you to play these free games on any Series X, Xbox One, or PC you have a Microsoft account tied to. That’s a pretty hefty advancement in the evolving world of cross-platform gaming, but even that isn’t the leading difference, in this writer’s mind.
You may recall that back in the early days of Xbox One, achievements were attainable for apps like Netflix or Hulu, despite not having any gamerscore value. Watch ten new shows? Achievement. Binge a season in one day? Achievement. They were small, meaningless incentives to further the use of a subscription service, and consumers had mixed reactions to their significance or meaning.
Similarly, Microsoft provides its users with “Microsoft Points” for a variety of actions over the last few years. Whether it’s buying or selling a game or merchandise, or even Microsoft gifting anniversary points, they can stack up without a player even noticing. Now, with Xbox Game Pass, they may be noticing the same sort of pop-ups, but have no idea just how useful they can be.
This was the case with me just the other night. As an Xbox Game Pass holder, I have access to a huge collection of some of my favorite games. Within the last month, I’ve been grinding out “Hades” runs back and forth with “Back 4 Blood” missions, and constantly jumping into “Halo: MCC” in my off time. These are some of the most talked about and well-played games in the industry at the moment, and although some may be multi-platformers, there’s only one place you can snag all of them with the click of an “Install” button. But that’s not even the best part.
Every time I would open up MCC, or Hades, or B4B, I would get a notification saying “Game Pass Daily Quest Completed.” Like most other notifications, I would flick my eyes down to it, ignore it, and look back at the main screen. But on the rare occasion I held down my Xbox button and followed it, I found that there was a whole list of completed quests I could redeem for Microsoft points. So much so, in fact, that I was able to purchase a $150 gift card to buy two new triple-A games– “Far Cry 6” and “Guardians of the Galaxy”–with.
To their credit, PlayStation does have its own point system, “Sony Rewards Points” which is used in the very same way: to find and purchase rewards ranging between games, console sweepstakes, and merch. Players cannot, however, earn points simply by playing games. This is what sets Game Pass and PS Now apart.
Xbox Game Pass incentivizes the player to play on, especially through their Game Pass games. Whereas PlayStation advertises “the more services you subscribe to, the more you earn,” on its site, Xbox suggests you “play the games you love and earn rewards.”
“For the first couple of decades, the only way you can play the game was to buy the game outright. And for many players, this can be an investment that limits their ability to play,” Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said in a briefing with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft this past June–scribed by Will Tuttle, Xbox Wire Editor in Chief. “That’s why we created Game Pass, to open up the ways that players can play more games with their friends, ultimately bringing in more players, making games more accessible to everyone.”
By no means is this a quick process, or cheating the system. My points have been accrued for the last decade at least, and buying those gift cards used up the majority all at once. Nevertheless, I’ve been able to earn hundreds if not thousands of points by simply playing games–games which are in a constantly expanding, cross-platform library for only $10 a month. So when the incentive is simply to play games, and the reward is the opportunity for more, high-quality games from triple-A publishers? Seems to me like a clear victory on the part of Xbox.
Regardless, times may be tough, but the world of gaming has never had more accessibility than now, and it’s only getting better. So be it PlayStation Now or Xbox Game Pass, may console players play on, and reap the rewards.
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