KitGuru Games: Is Xbox Game Pass worth £150 a year?

Just as 2022 saw Sony revamp its PlayStation Plus game subscription service, Microsoft’s 2023 included a refresh of its own Game Pass platform, eschewing the rarely-used and antiquated Xbox Live Gold with Game Pass Core, while keeping its regular Game Pass service as is – aside from a slight price hike. As I did last year, we will be looking at the past 12 months of Xbox Game Pass to determine whether the service is worth its ever-increasing asking price.

Unlike last year’s retrospective, I have opted to do things a bit different this time. Instead of breaking down the Game Pass releases by month, I’ve collated the biggest and most notable titles from across the year and have categorised them into first-party releases; 3rd-party offerings; added indies and day-one drops. Before going into all that however, I want to talk about the changes Microsoft made to the service in 2023. 

As mentioned, after years of substandard game offerings in a barely justifiable service, Microsoft sunset their long-running Xbox Live Gold service. So, now instead of getting online multiplayer access and two free games a month (somewhat similarly to PlayStation Plus Essential), the renewed price of £6.99 for Game Pass Core includes online access alongside a catalogue of “over 25 high-quality games” – or 36 titles to be exact.

While I won’t be discussing every included game, the line-up is surprisingly varied, featuring a mix of first-party, 3rd-party and indie titles. On the first-party front you’ve got games like Forza Horizon 4; Gears 5; Grounded; Halo 5: Guardians; Ori & the Will of the Wisps; Psychonauts 2 and State of Decay 2. Game Pass Core also features a bunch of titles from Microsoft’s more recent acquisitions including Dishonored 2; DOOM Eternal; Fallout 4; Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and The Elder Scrolls Online.

On the independent front, subscribers can find a strong selection of well-known indies, including but not limited to Among Us; Celeste; Dead Cells; Firewatch; Gang Beasts; Golf with your Friends; INSIDE and LIMBO; Overcooked! 2; Slay the Spire; Spiritfarer; Stardew Valley and Vampire Survivors.

All in all, Xbox Game Pass Core does include a decent amount of pretty high quality titles, but the selection of first party games in particular is peculiar – with many sequels missing their earlier entries. For now, Game Pass Core offers an adequate – though highly limited – selection of games which would satisfy most new Game Pass owners for at least a period of  time. Unfortunately, with no promise of games being added to the library in the future, long term subscribers will likely feel as though they are pretty much paying £6.99 a month just for the online aspect of Core.

Okay, so Game Pass Core might not be the best value for your money, but that’s okay because Microsoft has its Game Pass proper to upgrade to. Just shy of doubling your monthly payment to £12.99 will give you access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, letting you play hundreds of games across Xbox, PC and cloud.

As expected, titles are added and removed on a monthly basis, meaning not all additions are permanent fixtures. Still, with Game Pass being Xbox’s primary focus this generation, the list of additions throughout 2023 was quite impressive.

In terms of first-party additions, 2023 saw half a dozen titles added to the service, those being the surprise hit Hi-Fi RUSH; Minecraft Legends; the ill-fated Redfall; the somewhat controversial though much-anticipated Bethesda RPG Starfield; 2023’s Forza Motorsport and last but not least, Ghostwire: Tokyo.

The addition of Ghostwire is interesting as the game was originally a PlayStation exclusive as part of an agreement between Sony and Zenimax. Between the game’s announcement and release, Microsoft bought Zenimax – making for a rather unique situation. Finally however, the title came to Xbox in 2023; and as a result also arrived on Game Pass.

While a number of these first-party releases are nothing to write home about, there is no denying that the promise of first-party titles joining the service day-one is an enticing one.

So, while Game Pass’s first-party offerings in 2023 were mostly passable, the service’s relationship with 3rd party developers allowed for a strong line-up of AAA additions over the past 12 months.

Just some of the more notable games included Monster Hunter Rise; JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R; Soul Hackers 2; Guilty Gear -Strive-; FIFA 23; F1 22; Need for Speed: Unbound; Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy; Gotham Knights; Like a Dragon: Ishin!; Dead Space (2023); Remnant: From the Ashes and its sequel; Far Cry 6; Rune Factory 4 and Hotwheels Unleashed.

Unlike with PlayStation Plus Extra, Microsoft clearly focuses on bringing more modern and recent releases to their service, with many of the previously-listed titles having been released in 2023.

On the indie front, Microsoft similarly brought a strong selection of popular titles from across multiple years to their service, including the rogue-like Darkest Dungeon; Goat Simulator and its amusingly-named follow up Goat Simulator 3; Chicory: A Colorful Tale; the vibe-filled retro throwback Arcade Paradise; TOEM; The Wandering Village; GRIS; Solar Ash and Rollerdrome.

So far, I have been pretty positive on all of the additions across the categories, but there is one aspect to Game Pass which I have yet to mention and is inarguably the single best aspect to the service – the Day-One additions.

In 2023 alone, Xbox Game Pass saw a total of 48 titles added to the service day-and-date with their retail release. For context, last year Sony added just 6 games to its PS Plus service and while Microsoft specifically makes a point about bringing day-one additions, the sheer number of inclusions is highly impressive to say the least.

Of course, all of the first-party releases in 2023 went straight to Game Pass, but even beyond those, we saw dozens of big day-one additions, including: Atomic Heart; Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty; the Sony-developed MLB The Show 23; The Last Case of Benedict Fox; PLANET OF LANA; Amnesia: The Bunker; Exoprimal; the award-winning Venba; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; indie game of the year winner Sea of Stars; the excellent souls-like Lies of P; PAYDAY 3; indie darling Cocoon; Cities: Skylines II; the UE5-powered ray tracing showpiece Jusant; Football Manager 2024; Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name; SteamWorld Build and Persona 5: Tactica.

Adding the day-one inclusions alongside all of the aforementioned titles helps to elevate Game Pass from a more cautionary purchase to becoming a genuinely excellent way to keep up with new releases. Taking last year’s total additions alone would make for a good service, but the pre-existing list of hundreds of other titles makes the rather high price of £12.99 a significantly more palatable ask.

In looking at both PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass’ output in 2023, it is clear that the two services are focusing on different things. PlayStation Plus is slightly cheaper (especially at the recommended ‘Extra’ tier) and brings with it a strong mix of older titles from across the industry. Additionally, while Sony does not add its first-party games day-and-date to the service, their strong back catalogue of exclusives is slowly but surely making its way to the service.

Microsoft meanwhile has gone all-out on day-one additions, and while their 2023 line-up of first-party titles is not the strongest in the world, the sheer abundance of day-one inclusions from across all tiers of the industry more than makes up for it.

So, did Xbox Game Pass subscribers get their money’s worth in 2023? Well, on an objective level, for the combined annual price of £155 you are certainly getting much more than £150 worth of high quality titles. That said, paying that much money a year for any service is not a small ask, and so unless you are the type of person who plays A LOT of games throughout any given year, Microsoft might still struggle to keep subscribers over the long term.

All that said, for my liking, Xbox Game Pass in 2023 was a banger.

KitGuru says: What did you think of Game Pass throughout 2023? Was it worth the asking price? How did it compare to PlayStation Plus in your opinion? Let us know down below.

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