85-576: Game Pass may refer to: Xbox Game Pass NFL Game Pass GamePass, a subscription service from GameHouse Game Pass (Colorado) , a mountain pass in Larimer County , Colorado , United States . Game Pass (Montana) , a mountain pass in Granite County , Montana , United States . See also [ edit ] Season pass (video gaming) Battle pass Topics referred to by
170-561: A Windows 10 PC (running Windows 10 Anniversary Update or later) through Microsoft Store using the same Microsoft account at no additional charge, and vice versa. The scheme also promotes the ability to synchronize save data, achievements, and downloadable content between Windows 10 and Xbox One versions of a game. Microsoft announced in March 2019 that it would be providing Xbox Live SDKs for iOS and Android mobile devices, allowing developers on those platforms to integrate most services of
255-644: A denial-of-service attack . Functionality was restored on December 28, with some users experiencing difficulties in the days that followed. A group called, "The Phantom Squad" has threatened to disrupt the Xbox Live network through a denial-of-service attack on December 25, 2015. In 2019, the Official Xbox Magazine revealed that Xbox Live would be made cross platform, and will serve Android , iOS and Nintendo Switch . Microsoft added Xbox Live Gold to its Xbox Game Pass program as part of
340-588: A dial-up modem while a later-released broadband adapter was neither widely supported nor widely available. Downloadable content was available, though limited in size due to the narrowband connection and the size limitations of a memory card . The PlayStation 2 did not initially ship with built-in networking capabilities. Microsoft, however, hoped that the Xbox would succeed where the Dreamcast had failed. The company determined that intense online gaming required
425-422: A mathematical model of uncertainty to address weaknesses in existing ranking systems such as Elo . For example, a new player joining million-player leagues can be ranked correctly in fewer than 20 games. It can predict the probability of each game outcome, which enhances competitive matchmaking, making it possible to assemble skill-balanced teams from a group of players with different abilities. When matchmaking,
510-400: A July 2020 interview, Xbox's marketing director Aaron Greenberg said that Xbox Game Pass is not necessarily meant to be profitable for Microsoft at the current time but is designed to help draw more players to use it through word-of-mouth by offering a large set of features as a seemingly under priced value, and in the long-term become valuable. This allows them to avoid high costs of advertising
595-536: A flat rate approach as to assure exclusivity on the Microsoft platform, to completely covering the costs of development, and includes various models based on usage and monetization approaches. Paradox Interactive 's Fredrik Wester stated the terms they have had followed the Netflix model where the developer or publisher was paid a lump sum by Microsoft for their game on the service for a fixed period of time based on
680-428: A free Xbox Live Arcade game to all Xbox Live users as compensation, in an open letter to all Xbox Live members from Marc Whitten, Xbox LIVE General Manager. Increased demand from Xbox 360 purchasers (the largest number of new user sign-ups in the history of Xbox Live) was given as the reason for the downtime. On January 18, 2008, Microsoft announced Undertow would be offered free to both Gold and Free members for
765-428: A headset and communication, a feature that was still in its infancy. Leading up to the launch, Microsoft enlisted several waves of beta testers to improve the service and receive feature feedback. The first wave of beta testers were given Re-Volt ! (which was never released officially) and NFL Fever 2003 to beta test. Once beta testing concluded, Microsoft sent these beta testers a translucent orange memory card,
850-586: A headset carrying case, and a beta tester t-shirt with the slogan "I've got great hands". When the service debuted, it lacked much of the functionality that later titles included, but Xbox Live grew and evolved on the Xbox and many aspects of the service were included with the Xbox 360 console out of the box, rather than through a later update. Microsoft granted Live-related patent that gives Xbox 360 users access to watch other gamers compete against each other over Xbox Live. The packaging for playable Xbox Live titles on
935-406: A launch title for it, atypical of Rare's typical output. According to Rare studio director Craig Duncan, working on Kinect Sports gave them creative ideas for a future game with multiplayer elements, which they initially called "Rare Next" but eventually developed into Sea of Thieves . Sea of Thieves was intended as a major test of demonstrating how well Game Pass would be adopted by players and
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#17327798257081020-546: A limited form of Xbox Live "awareness". In July 2004, Xbox Live had reached 1 million online users. In July 2005, Xbox Live had reached 2 million online users. On November 15, 2007, Microsoft celebrated Xbox Live's 5th anniversary by offering its then over 8 million subscribers the title Carcassonne free of charge and awarding gamers who had subscribed to Live since its inception 500 free Microsoft Points . Due to intermittent service interruptions during late December 2007 and early January 2008, Microsoft promised to offer
1105-556: A new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription tier in April 2019. On January 22, 2021, Microsoft planned to increase the prices for the Xbox Live Gold subscriptions, as follows: by $ 1 for the monthly subscription ($ 10.99 from $ 9.99), by $ 5 for the 3-month subscription ($ 29.99 from $ 24.99), by $ 20 for the 6-month subscription ($ 59.99 from $ 39.99), and by $ 60 (double the price) for the 12-month subscription ($ 119.99 from $ 59.99). However,
1190-683: A new tier that combines both Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold into a single subscription package. It became available for testing to Xbox Insiders that same day, while general availability began on June 9, 2019. In May 2019, Microsoft announced Game Pass for PC, which would be supported on Windows 10 and have over 100 games available at launch. On June 9, 2019, Microsoft announced that Game Pass for PC would launch in open beta, and this would also be included in Ultimate. Spencer said in October 2020 that their current pricing model for Game Pass at this point
1275-406: A perceived value, rather than the per-play royalty -based approach used by services like Spotify . The upfront approach, along with the large subscriber numbers, allows developers to select ongoing directions for their games. In the case of Obsidian Entertainment , they were able to consider additional downloadable content for their game Outer Worlds as they knew millions were playing it. In
1360-539: A preview that started on February 28, 2023. A portion of the PC Game Pass catalog will be available to the GeForce Now streaming service later in 2023. Xbox network#Xbox Game Pass Core The Xbox network , formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live , is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It
1445-1184: A rotating library of games, with the games remaining accessible as long as the user has an active subscription. Game Pass subscribers also receive discounts on purchases of games from the service's library and their respective downloadable content (DLC). The service consists of two products; Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One , Series X, and Series S consoles, and PC Game Pass for PCs running Windows 10 and Windows 11 . Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass are available as separate subscription products. A premium tier known as Game Pass Ultimate includes access to both services, in addition to Xbox Cloud Gaming , an on-demand cloud gaming available on console, PC, and mobile platforms, and Xbox Game Pass Core subscription benefits. The service features titles from first-party Microsoft Gaming subsidiaries Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media , as well as other third-party publishers. Since January 2018, all new Xbox Game Studios titles have been available to Game Pass subscribers immediately upon their release. Microsoft has also offered access to Electronic Arts 's EA Play service for PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. Xbox Live Gold
1530-438: A successful result. On February 28, 2017, Microsoft announced the debut of Xbox Game Pass and made a limited catalog of games available to select members of its Xbox Insider community for testing and feedback. Later in the second quarter of 2017, the service was opened up to players who subscribe to Xbox Live Gold , and then to the general user population. An Xbox Live Gold subscription is not required for Xbox Game Pass, but it
1615-487: A variable number of Achievements, while each Xbox Live Arcade title contained 12 Achievements totaling 200G. On February 1, 2007, Microsoft announced on their Gamerscore Blog some new policies that developers must follow related to Gamerscore and Achievements in future releases. All regular disc-based games must have 1,000 Gamerscore points in the base game; the title can ship with fewer than 1,000 points, but anything added later must be free. Game developers also now have
1700-421: A vision of making premium download content and add-ons that would attract many new customers. Based on this reasoning, the console included a standard Ethernet port (10/100) in order to provide connectivity to common broadband networks , but did not include a modem or any dial-up support, and its online service was designed to support broadband users only. Critics scoffed at it, citing poor broadband adoption at
1785-534: A year ago, during the Dive into Media conference in Southern California. In June 2014, Microsoft retracted the Xbox Live Gold requirements to access streaming media apps (including Netflix , Hulu , YouTube , Internet Explorer, Skype, and others), though various rental or subscription fees may still apply. On December 25, 2014, both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live suffered network disruption after
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#17327798257081870-473: Is an achievements point accumulation system that reflects the number of achievements accumulated by a user on Xbox through the displaying of the number of points accumulated. These Achievement points are awarded for the completion of game-specific challenges, such as beating a level or amassing a specified number of wins against other players in online matches and other various in game challenges. Initially, retail Xbox 360 games offered up to 1,000G spread over
1955-457: Is available only while the game is in the catalog and is only for the particular game. Games from the catalog can be played while the console is offline, but for no more than 30 days before it must reconnect to verify an active subscription . If the game is removed from the catalog or the player ends their subscription, access is suspended until the player purchases the game or renews their subscription, but their in-game progress will be saved in
2040-426: Is compatible with PC and mobile web browsers (including, in particular, iOS devices, as restrictions enforced by Apple that inhibit the ability to offer cloud gaming services on the platform). In June 2021, Microsoft stated that it was working on a Game Pass app for smart TVs , as well as a " standalone streaming device ". Both of these offerings would be built around xCloud. In December 2021, Microsoft announced
2125-445: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Xbox Game Pass Game Pass is a subscription service as part of Xbox and offered by Microsoft Gaming . Launched on June 1, 2017, the service allows users to download and play video games via video game consoles , Microsoft Windows , Android , iOS , iPadOS , web browsers , smart televisions , and cloud. Game Pass contains
2210-540: Is for casual gamers, Family is for family-friendly gamers (without profanity, etc.), Pro is for competitive gamers who enjoy a challenge, and Underground is for no-holds-barred gaming where anything goes (as long as it does not violate the Xbox Live Terms of Use). However, in practice these gamer zones were displayed only on the Gamercard of the player, and did not tend to affect the gameplay experience or
2295-408: Is no limit to the number of games a player can download and install to their consoles, other than the amount of storage space available to the console. As long as a game remains in the catalog, it is available for unlimited download and play by subscribers. Players can purchase games in the catalog at a 20% discount, and any related add-on content for those games at a 10% discount. The discounted price
2380-469: Is offered from MTV , VH1 , Comedy Central , Turner Broadcasting and CBS ; and movie content is Warner Bros. , Paramount and Disney , along with other publishers. Originally called Live Anywhere, Play Anywhere is a cross-platform service allowing owners of Xbox and Windows games the ability to use said games on either operating system. Under the scheme, supported games purchased digitally on Microsoft Store for Xbox One can also be downloaded on
2465-418: Is possible for them to access Xbox network if they provide an address located in a country where Xbox network is officially available. The country selected during account creation affects the payment options, content, and services available to the user. Previously, users were unable to change their account region, but in October 2012, Microsoft introduced an account migration tool as a pilot project, which allows
2550-525: Is required for any online multiplayer content the games in the catalog may contain. As part of Microsoft's E3 2017 press conference, Microsoft announced that selected Xbox titles would be made available through a new backwards-compatibility feature similar to that in place for Xbox 360 titles. In a later interview, Spencer stated that some of those games could make their way onto Game Pass, as well. On January 23, 2018, Microsoft announced an expansion of Game Pass that would see first-party titles arrive on
2635-654: Is the account for Xbox ecosystem; accounts can store games and other content. The service was extended in 2007 across the Windows platform, named Games for Windows – Live , now defunct, which made most aspects of the system available on Windows computers. The Xbox app is now used to cross over the Xbox ecosystem into PC gaming, in addition to handhelds and mobile phones as part of the Play Anywhere initiative. Microsoft's former mobile operating system , Windows Phone , included full Xbox Live functionality until it
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2720-637: The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in three days time. On November 4, Microsoft announced that the service would be launched on November 29 in Argentina and Israel . The service also appeared in the following month in Slovakia and Turkey . The service was launched in China in late 2014. As Microsoft developed the original Xbox console, online gaming was designated as one of
2805-527: The "Xbox network" to cover all of its services related to Xbox, and began slowly phasing out all "Live" branding until it was fully removed in 2023. The Xbox network is available in 42 countries and territories. '*' = Country where Xbox network and Store are officially available, but the Store is in Global currency USD, not in local currency. Users from other countries are not officially supported, although it
2890-514: The 6-month and 12-month subscription price increases would not affect existing subscribers when they resubscribed at the same level, nor those already subscribed through the Xbox Games Pass Ultimate program. However, after complaints from the Xbox community, Microsoft made an announcement on the same day that they revoked their decision, and that they would not increase the prices of any of the subscriptions, thus they would remain
2975-632: The Game Pass as more of a platform to offer games that do not fit the common mold that sell well and would be difficult to gain a publisher, and instead to allow these games to be offered in the subscription model, encouraging both developers to create new and experimental titles. The Game Pass also provides a way for players to try games they would not normally have purchased. The catalog features select games for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One as well as select Xbox 360 and Xbox titles with which Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One are backwards-compatible. There
3060-958: The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. On March 29, 2022, the PC Game Pass Preview launched in five more Southeast Asian countries (the first one was Singapore), including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The service has been officially launched in these countries on April 21, 2022. The PC Game Pass service has also expanded to several European, North Africa, and Middle East countries through
3145-471: The Video Marketplace. They expire in 14 days after download or at the end of the first 24 hours after the movie has begun playing, whichever comes first. Television episodes can be purchased to own, and are transferable to an unlimited number of consoles. Downloaded files use 5.1 surround audio and are encoded using VC-1 for video at 720p, with a bitrate of 6.8 Mbit/s. Television content
3230-451: The Xbox 360. Launched in the United States on November 22, 2006, the first anniversary of the Xbox 360's launch, the service allows users in the United States to download high-definition and standard-definition television shows for purchase and movies for rental onto an Xbox 360 console for viewing. With the exception of short clips, content is not currently available for streaming, and must be downloaded. Movies are available for rental from
3315-515: The Xbox Game Pass subscription). A gamertag is the universal name for a player's username on the Xbox network. A gamertag is a unique identifier, and can include numbers, letters, and spaces. Gamertags can be changed using an Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, or Xbox 360 console (first time is free, all other changes afterwards are charged), while the Xbox 360 supports eight Xbox network-enabled profiles per memory unit and thirty-two profiles on
3400-531: The Xbox One as more of an entertainment hub and not a gaming console, and certain design decisions made prior to launch had to be reverted following negative criticism of this positioning from consumers and the media. Spencer, after taking over the Xbox brand, recognized he needed to put the Xbox in a better position as they planned for the next generation of the console, while reinvigorating the team he had with new ideas for this, even if his ideas were risky. One of
3485-401: The Xbox app, subject to Xbox approval. Users were formerly forbidden to use strings such as gay or refer to homosexuality in any way in their gamertag or profile due to it being considered "content of a sexual nature", even if the string occurs in a legitimate surname. Incidents where a woman was suspended from the service for identifying herself as a lesbian , and an incident where a male user
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3570-709: The Xbox network into their applications and games. Microsoft also stated that they were looking to bring this functionality to the Nintendo Switch , anticipating this to be a post-launch feature for the Switch port of Cuphead . Play Anywhere was originally released as Live Anywhere as a cross-platform initiative to bring the Xbox network to a wide variety of Microsoft platforms and devices, including Xbox , Xbox 360 , Microsoft Windows ( XP SP2 /SP3, Vista and 7 ), Windows Phone , and Zune . Microsoft's Chris Early said of Live Anywhere in 2006 that "it [was]
3655-485: The catalog day-and-date with the retail release of the game, starting with the aforementioned Sea of Thieves launched on March 20, 2018. Crackdown 3 , State of Decay 2 and Forza Horizon 4 would also be added upon launch, although their launch dates were not announced at the time, and future releases in existing Microsoft franchises, such as Halo and Gears of War , would also be added upon their release. Additionally, select ID@Xbox titles are also added to
3740-512: The catalog from time to time. Xbox Game Pass allows the player to download the full game to the console; according to Head of Xbox Phil Spencer , this was done to give players "continuous, full-fidelity gameplay without having to worry about streaming, bandwidth or connectivity issues". Unlike EA Play, Xbox Game Pass offers games from a wide range of publishers, such as Bandai Namco , Capcom , WB Games , 2K Games , and first-party games from Xbox Game Studios . According to Spencer, Microsoft sees
3825-593: The economics of the system. Spencer knew there was strong hesitation from other game publishers and developers on the subscription model, so he made plans to have Game Pass launch using a catalog of older titles, and then bring on Sea of Thieves as Microsoft's first first-party game for the service, on the same day that it would also be available at retail or purchasable through digital storefronts. Spencer had told Duncan that even if every player of Sea of Thieves played it through Game Pass and that no retail or downloadable copies were bought, Spencer would still consider that
3910-650: The first player in history to reach 1 million Gamerscore. The Gamecard is an information panel used to summarize one's user profile on Microsoft's Xbox network. The pieces of information on a Gamercard include: A player's Gamercard can be viewed via the guide, the Xbox app, or online through Xbox.com. Similarly, Mac OS X users were able to download widgets that display their Xbox Live Gamercard within Mac OS X 's Dashboard . These can be downloaded onto any Mac with OS X 10.4 or higher via Apple's widget download page . On Xbox 360, there were four Gamer Zones; Recreation
3995-542: The first time since its inception. The basic service was also renamed. Prior to October 2010, the free service was known as Xbox Live Silver . It was announced on June 10, 2011, that the service is going to be fully integrated into Microsoft's Windows 8 . In October 2011, Microsoft announced live streaming cable television with various providers. In February 2013, Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, shared that Xbox Live members now number 46 million, up 15 percent from
4080-513: The fiscal year ending January 2021, which was about 30% of Microsoft's games and services revenues, or 18% of its total Xbox business. In February 2024, Microsoft announced there were 34 million Game Pass subscribers. Xbox Game Pass is available in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
4165-549: The full roster of champions or heroes will be available to Game Pass subscribers, while for other titles like Legends of Runeterra , subscribers to Game Pass will receive in-game rewards. A Friends and Family tier was revealed in September 2022, with trials first released in Ireland and Colombia. The higher priced plan, estimated to be $ 25/month, allows one to share their account with up to four others, limited to those within
4250-605: The game library, excluding day one releases, has been introduced. Other plans remain the same including day-one access but will see their price increased by $ 2-3 per month, ahead of the availability of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as a day-one title on the service. Xbox Game Pass is similar to Xbox One's existing EA Play video game subscription and to the PlayStation Now service offered by rival Sony . The subscription catalog contained more than 100 games at launch, with games being added to, and sometimes withdrawn from,
4335-530: The game". While there had been rumors that Microsoft was working to bring Xbox Game Pass to other console platforms like the PlayStation or Nintendo Switch , Spencer said in an August 2021 interview that there are currently no plans for these consoles. Spencer said "We have no plans to bring [the full Xbox experience] to any other kind of closed platforms right now, mainly because those closed platforms don't want something like Game Pass" and that their focus
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#17327798257084420-467: The hard drive. A player's Gamertag account status can be checked using a variety of online tools, which is useful especially when looking for a new gamertag, or confirming that a gamertag exists. Using a valid gamertag, any player can be found and messaged from within the network. There are also several websites which allow users of gamertags to upload photos and information about themselves. Gamertags also contain avatar images (or "gamer pictures"), with
4505-414: The ideas generated during this time was a game rental service, and a project to establish this service was started under the code name Arches. As Microsoft progressed, online streaming services like Netflix and Spotify demonstrated successful subscription business models that led Microsoft to transition Arches to also follow a subscription model eventually into Game Pass. The concept of Game Pass fit into
4590-403: The interim. If the game is an Xbox 360 title, it will be backward-compatible and must be used on Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One; it cannot be downloaded to a player's Xbox 360 console unless the player chooses to purchase it. Spencer has stated that Microsoft has multiple ways to compensate developers for games on Game Pass and there is no one single payback approach. The payback scheme ranges from
4675-629: The key pillars for the greater Xbox strategy. Sega had made an attempt to capitalize on the ever-growing online gaming scene when it launched the Dreamcast video game console in 1999, including online support as standard, with the SegaNet service in North America and Dreamarena in Europe. Nevertheless, due to lack of widespread broadband adoption at the time, the Dreamcast shipped with only
4760-462: The larger corporate strategy of Microsoft to push cloud-based services under CEO Satya Nadella . The second area involved Rare , a game developer that Microsoft had acquired in 2002. During Mattrick's period at Xbox, he had positioned the Kinect motion-sensing peripheral (introduced with the Xbox 360 ) as a major component of the Xbox environment, and assigned Rare to work on Kinect Sports as
4845-517: The matching of players in online games . TrueSkill is a ranking and matchmaking system which was first implemented as part of the Xbox 360's Live service. Developed at Microsoft Research Cambridge ( United Kingdom ), the TrueSkill ranking system is now used in over 150 titles for the Xbox 360 and was used in the Games for Windows – Live game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II . It uses
4930-649: The option of adding up to 250 points via downloadable content every quarter after the first year of release (for a total of 1,750 points). Xbox Live Arcade titles also allowed players to obtain Gamerscore, initially up to 200 Gamerscore with additional points up to 50 Gamerscore via downloadable content (for a total of 250 points), but some XBLA games now contain up to 400 Gamerscore without DLC. On March 25, 2008, Microsoft cracked down on "Gamerscore cheaters" (those who used external tools to artificially inflate their Gamerscore), and reduced their Gamerscores to zero without
5015-523: The option to recover the scores that had been "earned", and branded the player by denoting on their Gamertag that they were a "Cheater". The development of the Gamerscore system had created a new niche in the internet economy. Many websites have been created to provide gamers with tips and tricks for getting achievement points. Some sites are solely devoted to these achievement guides, and some blogs provide gaming guides in addition to their other content. On March 13, 2014, Ray Cox IV or "Stallion83" became
5100-399: The original Xbox console featured a trademark luminescent orange-gold bar underneath the Xbox header. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Brute Force sported a Live "bubble" design, as they only featured downloadable content. It was changed later, wherein all Xbox Live titles included the universal orange-gold Live bar. By the time of the Xbox 360, all titles were required to provide at least
5185-404: The place where they will offer their first-party games first for Xbox and Windows. A number of pricing changes and tier offerings were made as of September 12, 2024. New users are no longer be able to buy into the console-only tier digitally, though existing users will remain on this plan for at least a year before migration. Instead, a new Standard tier, offering Xbox Live services and access to
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#17327798257085270-697: The rebranding of Xbox Game Pass for PC as "PC Game Pass" to reduce market confusion. The service continues to be branded with the Xbox logo. On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced that Game Pass had surpassed 25 million subscribers. On that same day, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard and to begin integrating Activision's catalog of games into Game Pass. Riot Games , which has traditionally offered its games through its own launcher, announced in June 2022 that they will be adding their free-to-play games including League of Legends to Xbox Game Pass later in 2022. For games like League of Legends ,
5355-561: The same as they were. Microsoft officially announced that they would be branding Xbox Live as "Xbox network" in March 2021 as to cover all the services related to Xbox and not just Xbox Live. Xbox Live Gold would remain the same name and to distinguish the subscription program from the set of services. Microsoft also stated that with this, it will eliminate the requirement to have Xbox Live Gold to play free-to-play games on Xbox consoles. By January 2021, Microsoft reported that there were more than 100 million Xbox users (including those through
5440-434: The same country as the account holder. Since launch, Microsoft had offered an introductory $ 1/mo rate for new subscribers to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Microsoft announced it was discontinuing this promotion in March 2023 and was looking for potential replacement options to draw in new subscribers. Microsoft replaced Xbox Live Gold with a new Xbox Game Pass tier, called Xbox Game Pass Core, on September 14, 2023. Core carries
5525-399: The same day, Larry Hyrb , Xbox Live's Major Nelson, announced on his blog that Xbox Live support for the original Xbox would be discontinued on April 15, 2010, including online play through backwards compatibility on the Xbox 360 and all downloadable content for original Xbox games. In August 2010, Microsoft announced an increase to the cost of Xbox Live Gold in several countries by 20%, for
5610-521: The same features as Xbox Live Gold (including online multiplayer for non- free-to-play games), and offers a library of 36 games at launch, which is expected to expand and change over time, similar to the main Game Pass library. While Spencer described how Microsoft will be making select Xbox exclusives available on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch in February 2024, he stated there were no plans to bringing Game Pass to these platforms, instead remaining
5695-415: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Game Pass . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Game_Pass&oldid=1036796406 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
5780-552: The service on their release dates, the first being Robocraft Infinity . Spencer has stated that Microsoft's intent with Xbox Game Pass is to make it available across many devices, including those of their competitors. Spencer stated "We want to bring Game Pass to any device that somebody wants to play on...Not just because it's our business, but really because the business model allows for people to consume and find games that they wouldn't have played in any other space." On April 18, 2019, Microsoft announced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate ,
5865-465: The service. As part of a published report as part of Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard in 2022, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority reported that Game Pass did cannibalize sales of games for around the first year they are present on the service. Spencer acknowledged the report, but stated the "you instantly have more players of the game, which is actually leading to more sales of
5950-479: The services. Support for additional Android mobile devices are expected later. Alongside the release of Xbox Series X and Series S , EA Play was added to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on console and Xbox Cloud Gaming on November 10, 2020, before expanding to PC for Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass for PC subscribers on March 18, 2021. A web application for Xbox Cloud Gaming entered an invite-only beta in April 2021, and became generally available in June 2021; it
6035-472: The stock images sometimes associated with certain games or game characters. On Xbox 360, individual gamerpics are available, but they are usually bundled into packs. It is also possible to take "Public" pictures (which are shown to all that view a profile, unless the user has a different "personal" picture set) which can be taken of avatars while using the avatar editor. On Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, players are able to upload custom images of their choice through
6120-735: The system attempts to match individuals based on their estimated skill level. If two individuals are competing head-to-head and have the same estimated skill level with low estimate uncertainty, they should each have roughly a 50% chance of winning a match. In this way, the system attempts to make every match as competitive as possible. In order to prevent abuse of the system, the majority of ranked games have relatively limited options for matchmaking. By design, players cannot easily play with their friends in ranked games. However, these countermeasures have failed due to techniques such as alternate account(s) and system flaws where each system has its own individual TrueSkill rating. To provide less competitive games,
6205-617: The system supports unranked Player Matches , which allow individuals of any skill level to be paired (often including "guests" on an account). Such matches do not contribute to the TrueSkill rating. The Microsoft Store is the current digital marketplace for the Xbox ecosystem starting in 2017 for the Xbox One. It is available on consoles and on Xbox's website (as well as its own website), offering games from across all of Xbox's generations, in addition to movies, television shows, and multiple apps available as streaming services for music or television. Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace)
6290-458: The throughput of a broadband connection and the storage space of a hard disk drive , and thus these features would be vital to the new platform. This would allow not only for significant downloadable content, such as new levels, maps, weapons, challenges and characters, to be downloaded quickly and stored, but also would make it possible to standardize bandwidth intensive features such as voice communication. Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates both had
6375-421: The turn of the century. When the Xbox launched on November 15, 2001, the as-yet unnamed online service was destined for a Summer 2002 deployment. Xbox Live was finally given a name at E3 2002 when the service was unveiled in its entirety. Sound-dampened booths and broadband-connected Xbox consoles—featuring an early version of Unreal Championship —demonstrated the service on the show floor. The Epic title
6460-487: The user to change their region and maintain their Xbox network profile. Subscriptions, such as that for Xbox Music, cannot be transferred with this method. On May 18, 2011, Microsoft announced that it planned to launch Xbox network in the Middle East within the next twelve months, but it never occurred during that time period. However, on October 20, 2012, Microsoft officially announced the service will be launching in
6545-439: The week starting January 23 through January 27 as compensation. On November 12, 2009, Dennis Durkin, COO of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, announced that November 10, 2009, the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 marked the busiest day ever on Xbox Live, with over two million active users simultaneously. On February 5, 2010, Marc Whitten announced that Xbox Live had reached 23 million members. On
6630-618: Was a unified storefront for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One which offered both free and premium content for download including Xbox Live Arcade titles, Xbox indie games , original Xbox games , Xbox 360 game demos, game expansion material (e.g. extra maps, vehicles, songs), trailers, gamer pictures and themes, television shows, music videos , movie rentals, Apps and games and more. On November 6, 2006, Microsoft announced Microsoft Movies & TV (Microsoft Films & TV in other supported countries) (formerly Xbox Video Marketplace, Xbox Video and Zune Video), an exclusive video store accessible through
6715-418: Was considered "completely sustainable" despite concerns from some developers that they were undercharging for it, and that Microsoft had no plans to raise the price in the near future. Xbox Cloud Gaming (codenamed "xCloud") launched for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on September 15, 2020, which adds the ability for cloud gaming to select Android mobile devices, with initially over 100 games optimized for
6800-500: Was discontinued on September 14, 2023, with the service being merged into Xbox Game Pass as a new low price tier, Xbox Game Pass Core , which offers a limited set of free titles to subscribers. Conception of what would become Game Pass came from two areas. First was with Phil Spencer taking over for Don Mattrick as the head of the Xbox brand at Microsoft following the troubled launch of the Xbox One in 2013. Mattrick had positioned
6885-436: Was discontinued. The service shut down for the original Xbox on April 15, 2010, and original Xbox Games are now only playable online through Insignia , an unofficial Xbox Live replacement service, or through local area network (LAN) tunneling applications. Xbox network service is available as both a free service and a subscription-based service known as Xbox Game Pass Core . In 2021, Microsoft renamed Xbox Live as simply
6970-531: Was first made available to the original Xbox console on November 15, 2002. An updated version of the service, adding the Xbox Live Marketplace , became available with the Xbox 360 console launch in November 2005, and a further enhanced version was released in 2013 with the Xbox One . The service is used on the latest Xbox Series X and Series S and, in addition to a Microsoft account ,
7055-585: Was on making it available to open systems like personal computers and web applications. In the Q3 2020 earnings call in April 2020, Microsoft reported that there were over 10 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers. By September 2020, it had reached 15 million subscribers, 18 million by January 2021, and over 25 million by January 2022. According to documents related to the Activision Blizzard acquisition , Game Pass had total revenues of $ 2.9 billion in
7140-436: Was one of the flagship titles for the service, which was slated for a debut on November 15, 2002, marking the anniversary of the Xbox launch. Microsoft announced that 50 Xbox Live titles would be available by the end of 2003. Utilizing the required broadband bandwidth, Xbox Live featured a unified gaming "Friends List", as well as a single identity across all titles (regardless of the publisher), and standardized voice chat with
7225-609: Was suspended for using his surname "Gaywood" in his username attracted controversy. In February 2009, Xbox Live Lead Program Manager for Enforcement Stephen Toulouse clarified the service's policy on sexual identification, stating that "Expression of any sexual orientation [...] is not allowed in Gamertags" but that the company is "examining how we can provide it in a way that won't get misused". Changes announced in March 2010 permit Xbox Live members to express sexual orientation in their gamertags and profiles. The Gamerscore (G)
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