As we head full-steam towards Game Developer Conference and E3, Microsoft is working feverishly to finalize details before they go public with several new features and products. Knowing that the company has been slowly dripping information related to these announcements for several months, piecing together some public information along with some insider knowledge, the puzzle is starting to come together.
We have known for some time that Microsoft is working on the Master Chief Collection (MCC) for the PC. Following the disastrous launch on the console, the company is going to make sure it is picture perfect before pushing it out and I have heard that it was already delayed several times; they want to ship it but know that scrutiny of the platform will be high.
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Much like the MCC, GamePass on PC is not much of a secret as well. Satya Nadella mentioned it last year during an earnings call and it’s a natural extension of what the company is currently offering on its consoles.
Going forward, it’s important to be thinking of the Xbox as a platform, rather than a plastic box that plays games. Microsoft is looking to push the service to all corners of the gaming ecosystem and grow the service significantly by untangling it explicitly from the consoles of yesterday.
Which brings us to today: Microsoft’s PC version of GamePass is close to being ready for release too. And knowing how Microsoft plans to position the platform, I would expect to see MCC as the carrot the company will use to help move users to the new game offering. Further, I would expect to see other titles from Microsoft, as the Age of Empires IP, show up with GamePass as well when it launches.
And adding more flavor to this idea, Microsoft has begun teasing announcements related to this content on March 12th.
While you can argue that GamePass does exist somewhat today with PlayAnywhere, that initiative was just the start of the GamePass experience. But, GamePass will take that model to the next level with more games and deeper integration into the Xbox world which the company hopes you will pay for on a monthly basis.
What we don’t know yet is how Microsoft will sell the service and if they will require Xbox Live to play the MCC titles. Further, the release timeline is still up for debate as well. Microsoft has several gaming conferences and events coming up where they could announce these products but as is often the case, timing is subject to change.
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#409490">In reply to TriplePlayed:</a></em></blockquote><p>You need a PS Plus sub to play 99% of multiplayer games on the PS4. There is a small handful of games that do not require it to play MP but none of the popular AAA games allow that. Also the PS4 arguably has the most players when it comes to popular multiplayer games.</p>
Stooks
<p>Hopefully they will have a CLEAR message on gaming at E3. With all the stuff you have recently written about Microsoft/Xbox gaming things are starting to get confusing at best.</p><p><br></p><p>We have right now Xbox Live Gold, Playanywhere, Xbox consoles, Microsoft store on PC and Xbox, Game pass on Xbox.</p><p><br></p><p>They maybe adding Game Pass on PC? MCC is coming to the PC. They also may allow a Windows 10 PC to be a Xbox (hyper v xbox OS?) and play Xbox versions of games on the PC shown by the recent build that had a Xbox version of State of Decay running on a Windows 10 computer????</p><p><br></p><p>Looks like your typical Microsoft clear as mud messaging to consumers to scare them away. Example lets say I wanted to get MCC on the PC in the future. I could….</p><p><br></p><p>Buy it in the Windows store, the PC version.</p><p>If I own it on the Xbox do I get it on the PC for free (PC version) because it will be a Playanywhere game?</p><p>Get it with PC game pass, PC version.</p><p>Run the Xbox version on the PC via this new Xbox on Windows 10 mode?</p><p>Run the Xbox version on the PC via this new Xbox on Windows 10 mode because I have Xbox game pass?</p><p><br></p><p>Kind of feeling like Google messaging on their music and video offerings at this point.</p><p><br></p>