With the recent cancellation of this year's E3, a few big-name contenders have thrown hats in the ring in an attempt to fill the gap. Geoff Keighley's Summer Games Fest is returning once again, bringing a slew of livestreams over the course of two weeks, each one slated to reveal some exciting upcoming games. A few days after Summer Games Fest is set to begin, Xbox and Bethesda will be hosting its own showcase. While nothing has been confirmed so far, it seems likely that Xbox Game Pass will have a pretty substantial presence during the showcase, much like it has the last few years.
Xbox Game Pass has quickly proven itself to be one of the best deals in gaming, offering hundreds of titles for just one more than reasonable sum per month. While some games on the service may be better than others, there's no beating Game Pass' sheer number of titles, ensuring that every type of gamer has at least a handful of titles they know they'll enjoy. With more and more first-party Xbox and Bethesda titles releasing, Game Pass is sure to gain some excellent additions over the next year, and this showcase will likely put a spotlight on just how great of a deal Xbox Game Pass really is.
Xbox Game Pass' Rise to Stardom
First announced in February of 2017, Xbox Game Pass was met with minimal fanfare from the vast majority of fans. With a pretty limited starting lineup, outlets speculated that Game Pass really wasn't anything all that new or worthwhile, but as a free addition to an Xbox Live Gold subscription, it wasn't going to do any harm.
In January 2018, perceptions around Xbox Game Pass changed quickly. Microsoft announced that first-party Xbox titles would be released on Game Pass on launch day, for no extra fee. With just one announcement, Xbox Game Pass went from being a neat little addition, to a must-have subscription.
Sea of Thieves was the first game to hit the service on launch day, with Crackdown 3, State of Decay 2, and Forza Horizon 4 following soon after. By 2019, Xbox Game Pass had proven itself to be worth the price of admission, and then some. As the library continued to grow, so did Game Pass' value; with Indie gems, first-party exclusives, and a range of Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles hitting just about every possible demographic.
With Xbox's acquisition of Bethesda, Game Pass only continued to expand. Some of Bethesda's best games were added for no extra fee, ranging from older Elder Scrolls titles to the entire Fallout series, and the excellent new Wolfenstein and Doom games. Though the price of Xbox Game Pass has increased slightly over the last few years, its value has increased exponentially, with the service now including over 400 titles, many of which come from some of the best third-party developers.
Xbox Game Pass Shows No Signs Of Stopping
Xbox Game Pass has proven itself time and time again to be an exceptional deal, and if recent months are anything to go by, the service shows absolutely no signs of stopping. Since the start of the year, Xbox Game Pass has added countless titles to its console, PC, and Cloud services, including heavy-hitters like Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Death's Door, Rainbow Six Siege, Total War: Warhammer 3, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, and so much more
In May, Game Pass is expanding even further, bringing big titles like Assassin's Creed Origins, Sniper Elite 5, and Pac Man Museum+ to the table. Though specific dates are known for most titles, the current Game Pass slate for the rest of the year is truly impressive, showing that Xbox has no intention of scaling back its service.
Over the last few years, Xbox's E3 showcases have put a heavy emphasis on Xbox Game Pass. With every first-party title that's been revealed, a "Coming to Game Pass day-one" announcement has followed. By the end of any given Xbox showcase, Xbox will have at least another 20+ titles confirmed for its service.
By announcing that a title is heading to Game Pass alongside its reveal, Xbox is able to build even more hype for the game, and ensure that the title reaches an even wider audience, as subscribers are much more likely to test out a new game if it's included as part of the service they're already paying for. This has been seen with recent titles like Nobody Saves the World, which saw a large day-one player base due to its inclusion on Xbox Game Pass.
It seems pretty likely that Xbox will want to continue this trend of putting Game Pass at the forefront of its announcements, suggesting that it may just be the unsung hero of the upcoming Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase. Though details on the event are a little scarce right now, it seems as though the highly-anticipated Starfield will get a significant new look ahead of its November 11 release date. The high profile nature of Starfield will likely confirm Xbox Game Pass' worth once again, as one of the year's most anticipated games is heading to the service day-one.
Arkane's four-player co-op vampire shooter Redfall will probably also make an appearance during the Xbox Bethesda Showcase, appealing to the co-op Game Pass fans. With the showcase being around 90-minutes in length, it seems pretty likely that there will be plenty of new reveals, with Game Pass being heavily featured throughout the entire presentation.
There may even be a handful of Game Pass-specific surprises, with some recent big releases rumored to be coming to the service sometime soon. Ghostwire: Tokyo, for instance, has been rumored to make its way to Game Pass soon, and the Xbox Bethesda Showcase may be the perfect place for the announcement.
On top of the games heavily rumored to make an appearance, the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase might also throw out a couple of complete surprises, some of which may be tied with a Game Pass announcement. MachineGames' Indiana Jones title, for example, might get a reveal, followed by a Game Pass confirmation. Regardless of what actually shows up in the Xbox Bethesda Showcase, it seems pretty probable that Game Pass will be a big part of the event, just like it has been the last few years.