It was on July 1, 2013 when Microsoft launched the Games with Gold program, when Xbox 360 still reigned supreme , and they have continued to this day. In all this time, ten years, the market has changed radically, so much so that few can explain why it is still active having Xbox Game Pass available to everyone.
Gift sets that nobody wants
Originally, those Games with [the subscription] Gold made perfect sense because it served to build a library month by month, taking advantage of the fact that we already paid for Xbox Live and the associated online services. Even in those times, Microsoft came to give away extraordinary titles, its own and those of third parties, which made many jump on the bandwagon and join this payment model every 30 days (or annually).
Games With Gold paraded names like Fable II , Assassin’s Creed II , Halo 3 , Gears of War, Dead Island, Dark Souls, The Witcher 2 Assassin of Kings, Tomb Raider, Mafia II, Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, Bioshock Infinite and a long etcetera of wonders that helped many to add releases to their private libraries. But the Redmonds should stop, reflect and see what they have turned into something that was so beneficial to so many players.
To give you an idea, the two games that are now arriving in the transition from March to April 2023 are neither more nor less than Out of Space and Peaky Blinders Mastermind . Two games of a very inferior level if we compare them with some of the examples that we have given you previously. As someone would say, “don’t look into the teeth of a gift horse”, but are Phil Spencer’s people aware of the level that this means offering players?
Gifts in times of Xbox Game Pass
The main problem with Games With Gold is that Xbox Game Pass exists and they have practically passed away, media. News continues to be published about gift games with Xbox Live (or whatever they call it now) but nobody really cares, just – and rightly so – what Xbox Game Pass launches every month, which is where it really happens. The good is cooked and the great successes arrive without increasing the price of what we pay month after month.
Microsoft should leave these games behind with the Gold subscription and focus on linking it definitively with Xbox Game Pass , or lower it by removing the little that it takes financially to get these gift spoils that are a third or fourth tier, and that surely no one will miss if they are left to their fate. At least, as long as he doesn’t go back to the old habit of putting contrasted and established AAAs like those of the early days.
Xbox Game Pass, necessarily, has caused an earthquake in the market . We do not know if it will help Microsoft to earn a lot or little money, increase its relevance in the market or not by attracting users to Xbox, but of course what does not seem to fit or make sense in 2023 is to keep those Games with Gold that are a nuisance more than anything else. Is any of you going to waste time paying attention to when you put them on or take them off to redeem them? They don’t even deserve that effort.
