Microsoft’s Developer Direct Proved Game Pass Is Xbox’s New Norm

Xbox’s Developer Direct on Jan. 23 made one thing clear: The company is betting big on Game Pass.

During the presentation, the company showed behind-the-scenes looks at some highly anticipated games coming to the service in the next few months. We learned that Doom: The Dark Ages is a return to classic Doom playstyle, and we saw how Southern Gothic folklore plays into South of Midnight. We also got a look at the RPG mechanics in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and learned that Ninja Gaiden 4 is coming to the platform this fall. 

With the exception of Ninja Gaiden 4, these games will arrive on the service in April or May. And they will all arrive on Xbox Game Pass on day 1. There was even a surprise announcement that Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, a remastered version of the 2008 game, is available now on the service. 

This presentation comes a few months after Microsoft launched its This Is an Xbox campaign, which places more emphasis on giving gamers the option to play games on more devices that aren’t an Xbox, like a smart TV, as long as they had a Game Pass Ultimate subscription. That same month Microsoft made it possible for subscribers to play some of their owned games on any compatible device via Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is still in beta.

This all indicates that Microsoft sees its gaming future in Xbox in games and services, not just hardware. And some people might already see Xbox primarily as a gaming service provider because the Series X/S isn’t as popular as rival consoles or even past Xbox consoles.

According to unofficial sales numbers from VGChartz, lifetime sales of the Xbox Series X/S are about 32.17 million units. While that might sound like a lot, it lags behind sales of the PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch. According to Sony, the PlayStation 5 has sold more than 56 million units as of April, and Nintendo wrote online that the Switch has sold over 146 million units as of September.

Even compared with earlier Xbox consoles, Xbox Series X/S sales are unremarkable. According to Mat Piscatella, executive director and video game industry analyst at Circana, sales for the Xbox Series X/S are behind those of the Xbox One by 18% at this same point in that console’s release cycle. 

Game Pass, meanwhile, is going strong. Sarah Bond, the president of Xbox, said in February 2024 on the Official Xbox podcast that there were 34 million Game Pass subscribers. And since there is a whole Game Pass tier dedicated to PC games — PC Game Pass — and another tier that includes cloud based gaming — Game Pass Ultimate — there are likely plenty of Game Pass subscribers who don’t own an Xbox console. 

Bond also said in February 2024 that Xbox hardware wasn’t going anywhere, and the company is still working on ensuring the next console is a huge technical leap forward. And Microsoft’s president of gaming, Phil Spencer, said in September that an Xbox handheld was in the early stages of development. 

It’s unclear where in the development process these devices are now, but we know that there is a stacked list of games coming to Game Pass in 2025. Atomfall, The Outer Worlds 2 and Fable are a few of the other games Microsoft said will join the service’s catalog this year, and a new Call of Duty entry will likely be added later this year thanks to Black Ops 6’s success last year.

This is good news for all gamers. If Microsoft continues to treat Game Pass as important to its business, that ensures people can play some of the biggest and newest games via the service. And the company made clear with its This Is an Xbox campaign that it’s fine letting players play games how and where they want, because that’s money in Microsoft’s pocket. 

“It’s not about one device,” Spencer said in the February podcast. “It’s not about games in service of a device but rather the devices that people want to play on should be in service of making the games as big and popular as they possibly could be.”

Yeah, Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass Ultimate in 2024 to $20 a month, but you can cancel these payments at any time. And new AAA games are about $70, so three months of the service is still less than the cost of those games. So if you want to play through a game like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — but plan to race through it in a month or two — you can experience the game for a fraction of the cost of buying it outright. 

Microsoft has made it clear it still views console hardware as integral to its business. But it’s also signaling that Game Pass is vital to the company’s success, so we should expect more games to arrive on the service on day 1 in the future. Personally, I’m so excited to play Doom: The Dark Ages when it launches on the service in May that I’m considering calling off from work that day.

For more on Xbox, check out some games available on Game Pass Ultimate now, read our hands-on review of the gaming service and learn which Game Pass plan is right for you.