2024 may bring a change to Xbox Game Pass that would make it possible to get the service for free, but despite how appealing this may sound, this overhaul would have some enormous drawbacks. Xbox Game Pass provides access to a library of hundreds of games on Xbox consoles or PC with a subscription fee, and the service has proven popular since its original introduction in 2017. Many have gotten hooked on the model after testing out cheap or free trial periods, but the one thing that sounds a lot better than a temporary discount is a permanent one.
Subscription prices typically go up rather than down when it comes to entertainment access, with recent price raises from services like Netflix making for plenty of disgruntled customers. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, the premium version of the service, jumped from a monthly cost of $14.99 to $16.99 earlier in 2023, while Sony’s competing service PlayStation Plus increased prices by $20 to $40 dollars yearly depending on the plan. Inflation makes these jumps unsurprising, but it doesn’t make them any more welcome, and the idea of getting things for free is obviously significantly more appealing.
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Xbox Game Pass Might Go Free – With Ads
A report from Windows Central rounds up the reason to believe that Xbox Game Pass may actually introduce an ad-supported version of the service in 2024, which would sub out the subscription fee in favor of earning time to play through watching ads. This is obviously a tried-and-true model for streaming video, but it would be something of a maverick move for Xbox Game Pass, adding a very different alternative to models like Xbox Game Pass Core. For some, this might sound like an appealing way to get access to more titles, while others might find it fundamentally off-putting as a model.
Xbox Game Pass Ads Might Not Be In All Markets
One big piece of evidence for an ad-supported Xbox Game Pass comes from recent remarks by Microsoft Gaming CFO Tim Stuart who mentioned “models like Africa, or India, Southeast Asia” as places where a free version of the service might make sense. Surveys and bits of code in Xbox OS support the idea that Microsoft is seriously considering the idea, but there’s not yet any evidence that the US or some other major markets would be included in the plans. If responses from US surveys were positive enough, however, it could certainly be in the cards as an interesting way for Xbox Game Pass to beat PlayStation Plus in value.
The free-to-play gaming scene already offers a major sphere of ad-supported gaming, from mobile titles with pop-ups to major console and PC titles (some paid!) that heavily push item markets and DLC in-game. A free version of the Xbox Game Pass would connect this kind of model to many games that are currently ad-free, a harsh deal to strike in exchange for unpaid access. If Xbox Game Pass does provide a free option in 2024, it will have the enormous upside of bringing some great titles to wider audiences than ever before, but it won’t come without a cost of a different sort.
