Xbox Game Pass remains one of the best deals in gaming if we believe a recent analysis of the value of all new games that were added to the catalog this year. According to The Loadout, the total value of all new console and PC games that joined Xbox Game Pass in 2021 is $6,317.85, and this figure is based on the base price of each game on the Microsoft Store.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is currently priced at $14.99 per month, and Microsoft adds new games to the service every month. March was the biggest month for Xbox Game Pass in 2021 with new additions worth $964.67, but April brought the least value with the new games only being worth $330.91. Still, April was the month when Outriders, Square Enix’s brand new loot-shooter launched on Xbox Game Pass on day one, and this helped the game to attract over 3.5 million players in its first month.
Xbox Game Pass launched on Xbox consoles back in June 2017, but the service definitely took a new dimension in 2021. EA Play games are now free to play with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and the premium tier also provides access to Xbox Cloud Gaming with over 100 cloud-enabled games supporting touch controls as of this writing. In recent months, Microsoft also brought a series of critically-acclaimed games on day one including the Xbox Series X|S version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Psychonauts 2, Age of Empires IV, Forza Horizon 5, and Halo Infinite.
Microsoft announced back in January that it had crossed 18 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and head of Xbox exec Phil Spencer made it clear that the current pricing is “completely sustainable.” Xbox Game Pass is pretty much a must-have if you own an Xbox console, but PC Game Pass (formerly Xbox Game Pass for PC) still deserves a bit more love. Microsoft is currently working on advanced installation and management features for the Xbox app on Windows PCs, but there’s still a long way to go before the game launcher can rival Steam in terms of reliability and consistency.
