An Xbox rep has reportedly addressed rumors that it will remove day-one releases from Game Pass, but hasn't denied them either.
Earlier this week, a rumor posted by ResetEra moderator Slayven reported that Microsoft is set to change Xbox Game Pass next year. They report that there will be a tier with ads costing $12.99 a month, while the tier without ads will run players $19.99 a month. This is a $3 discount; however, it will reportedly be at the expense of a few things. Notably, they report that starting sometime between February and April, the day-one releases won't be included, and that cloud streaming will be removed from the service, which will cost $5.99 for 25 hours.
This was an unsourced rumor posted by the moderator, and thus was absolutely worth taking with a major grain of salt. However, Forbes' Paul Tassi reached out to Xbox about this rumor, and posted their reported response in a Tweet.
The statement reads: "We regularly test different Game Pass offerings and look at what works best for players in different markets. We don’t have any changes to announce today or plans that have been finalized. There are no changes to previously announced games coming to Game Pass Ultimate on day one."
A pretty standard statement, but the final line is fairly eye-catching; specifically calling out "previously announced games" seems to imply that bets are still off for future releases. So something like Fable, which is already being advertised as a game you can "play day one on Game Pass," will be safe, but perhaps the recently acquired Physint will not be a part of this.
Frankly, as convenient as it is for players, day-one releases on Game Pass have never felt sustainable, as Xbox has conditioned players to think their games have the value of a monthly subscription. However, once that band-aid is ripped off, I'm not sure it's one you can put back on either, because the type of person who will play Clockwork Revolution because it's on Game Pass may not be the type of person to pay $70 for it. I just hope whatever Xbox does doesn't result in even more layoffs for the studios under its banner.
