Xbox Game Pass is one of the best deals in gaming currently, as new games rotate monthly for players to play to their heart's desire. However, Xbox Game Pass could have looked much different than it does currently, it originally being envisioned as a video game rental service.
The beginning of the Xbox One era was a signal point for the direction that Microsoft wanted to take the Xbox brand in. Microsoft saw a digital future when it launched that console, making the Xbox One always online, and used games unplayable, and in turn, received backlash from gamers and critics alike. From then on, Microsoft had to climb its way out of the hole it had created, but never quite abandoned its original vision for Xbox, expanding it from just a video game console to a full-fledged digital video game service. Xbox Game Pass is a product of these trials, allowing users to conveniently play an assortment of games from anywhere, no renting or mail service required.
In a large interview with Britain GQ, Microsoft sheds some light on the origins of Xbox Game Pass, and the different form it could've almost taken. Sarah Bonds, Head of Gaming Ecosystems at Xbox, spoke with writer Sam White, about Xbox Game Pass, revealing that the initial concepts of the service go back to 2013. Its development codename was Arches, and it was originally envisioned as a video game rental service before pivoting to a subscription-based, streaming service, the likes of a "Netflix for video games." This decision was also in part to where video game revenue comes time-wise, Bond explaining, "Something like 75 per cent of a game’s revenue used to be made in the first two months of release. Nowadays it's spread over two years."
Xbox Game Pass was a gamble that many publishers were uninterested in at first. Bond describes the process of pitching the service around the industry, allowing Xbox to put their new releases on Game Pass, and being shot down. However, many publishers allowed Xbox to use their older games, where the risk was not as high, and after player engagement greatly exceeded expectations, Microsoft was ready to risk a first-party game on the service. That game was Sea of Thieves with Bond explaining, "Here was Xbox giving [players] its latest, most valuable product, as well as its existing back catalogue, all from £7.99 per month."
And the rest is history: Xbox Game Pass sits somewhere between 25 and 30 million subscribers, with the number growing by the day, and gamers on other consoles wishing that Sony and Nintendo would offer similar services. In some ways Xbox Game Pass is still a rental service, as players never actually own any of the games they download; there is just no return date, and players can go on to purchase most games at a discount if they desire. If Xbox Game Pass was kept as a full-on rental service though, it probably would not be the sweeping success it's seen as today.
Source: GQ Britain