Xbox Showcase: Game Pass will make or break Xbox Series X

It was Microsoft's turn to make the case for the company's next generation console. And as we've been anticipating over the last year or so, isn't really going to be about Xbox series x, specifically, Microsoft's game. [MUSIC] Plan is not as much hardware driven as it is service driven, reinforced and made a abundantly clear after watching the Xbox game showcase. The real star of the show was undoubtedly game pass. And the company's future success will now heavily depend on that services consistency. And that's sort of been the case for a while now, right? I mean, game pass has been able to overshadow Sony's PlayStation Plus And everything Microsoft showed during the showcase will be available on gamepass. Think about that. It's kind of amazing. It says a lot and it definitely speaks as to how Microsoft is approaching its business model moving forward Where Sony has cemented itself as more of a generational console maker. Xbox says you can play anywhere. Now with that Microsoft has to make the case that investing in the Xbox platform is the way to go. So what did we see at the game showcase? Well, we saw Halo because. Of course, we're gonna see Halo. We saw Halo gameplay, and it looks a lot like Halo with a grappling hook. Okay, great. It's also becoming a little more clear that this next one is going to be a little more open world than any of the previous games, which seems cool. And I'm curious to see just how all of that works. Is it going to be as linear as all those other games? So what else some of the developer acquisitions that Microsoft has been making over the last few years are starting to bear fruit. We saw trailers for Psychonauts two rares new breathtakingly stylized ever wild, a new state of decay game and a few surprises to like stalker to, And maybe not super surprising, but finally an official Fable announcement, and we also got a sneak peek at world debuts like the next Forza Motorsport game, As Dusk Falls, and a look at the next open world RPG from Obsidian called Avowed. So in addition to everything we saw being on game pass, news also hit that destiny two will arrive on game pass this fall with access to the previous expansions and the beyond light update that's scheduled to come out in November. And while nothing announced was inherently exclusive just to the Xbox series x console. Microsoft says there are going to be over 100 titles on that platform this holiday season. There are also console launch exclusives to take note of as well, which means those are games that will hit Xbox, likely PC, but not PS5 when they launch. Those games that they highlighted were titles like Medium And the free to play Crossfire x. Now there wasn't much news in regards to x cloud, which is a bit of a letdown, in my opinion. That's Microsoft's game streaming service. But we did learn recently before the event. That an ultimate game pass subscription will give you x cloud included and all that starting up real soon. There is still some of the story that's yet to be told though, and that's fine. These debuts of the next gen consoles still have a few months, but I'm not 100% sure someone who wants to enter the Xbox ecosystem. Knows exactly just what to buy at this point, especially if they don't plan on playing any games on PC. With stories of older Xbox consoles being discontinued and a possible debut of a half step next generation Xbox that's still to be revealed, sort of tough to know what someone who doesn't already have an Xbox should do. Of course, this is all temporary and it will crystallize as the months go by. But right now I could definitely see some people sort of stuck in Limbo. Now we couldn't hit on every single game that Microsoft debuted today, so be sure to jump over to the CNET highlights channel for anything you might have missed. It is super interesting to see just how these consoles are starting to line up. Are you an Xbox series x day one person? If so, why? Or are you just going to wait to see what that mid level console looks like? Let me know in the comment section below. Thanks everyone for watching. Stay safe. We'll see you next time.