Microsoft’s Game Pass service will get all future Xbox exclusives the day they launch, PC players will also get access

Update (24/01/18): Yesterday, Microsoft dropped a major piece of news, announcing that all future Xbox exclusive games would be added to the Xbox Game Pass library on the day of release. At the time, we didn't know whether or not this would tie into Xbox's ‘Play Anywhere' scheme but as it turns out, PC gamers will also get access.

Ever since 2016, Microsoft has been working to ensure that all Xbox exclusive games also work on Windows 10 PCs. The idea is you buy the game once, and can play on both console and PC. With the Game Pass subscription, Play Anywhere games will continue to work. As long as you are a subscriber, any ‘Play Anywhere' title available on Game Pass will also be downloadable on Windows 10 via the Windows Store, so you'll still get the best of both worlds without having to spend full price.

This was confirmed by Xbox exec Aaron Greenberg on Twitter:

Yes if the title is Xbox Play Anywhere you can play the PC version too if you are a Game Pass member.

— Aaron Greenberg ????‍♂️ (@aarongreenberg) January 23, 2018

Original Story (23/01/18): Microsoft has been making some big changes over the last couple of years, one of the biggest being the introduction of the Xbox Game Pass. A subscription based service that lets Xbox owners download and play any game they want from a rather extensive library. Now this year, the Game Pass is getting a major upgrade, with Phil Spencer announcing that all future exclusive games will launch on the Game Pass the same day they go on sale.

This means that if you want to play a newer game like Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2 or even the next Halo of Gears title, you can just pay the $9.99 subscription fee and have access. In the long run, this will make playing Xbox exclusives cheaper, as you can just avoid the $60 buy-out fee entirely, and just subscribe month to month instead.

Currently, the Xbox Game Pass is available in 40 countries around the world, with the library remaining consistent across all of them. Every so often, older games are swapped out for newer ones, but Microsoft has been good at messaging subscribers beforehand to let them know about changes in advance.

Going forward, any game published under the ‘Microsoft Studios' banner will remain in the Game Pass library. Aside from that, Phil Spencer also confirmed that soon different subscription tiers will also be made available. Currently you can only sign up to Game Pass on a monthly basis, so soon, you should expect to see a six month option begin popping up.

Unfortunately, we don't know if this new system will tie in with Microsoft's ‘Play Anywhere' scheme. If you want to own a game on both Xbox and PC.

KitGuru Says: This is pretty huge news, though I imagine this will have some impact on the overall sales of Xbox exclusives. If they can implement this with the ‘Play Anywhere' system for us PC owners, then I'll be quite happy.

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