Just a couple of weeks ago, Starfield and Redfall became the latest AAA titles to be delayed into 2023. This seems to have upset quite a few Xbox Game Pass subscribers, who have taken to Twitter to announce publicly they will unsubscribe from the service over the perceived lack of AAA games.
A lack of AAA games on Xbox Game Pass
Washington Post games reporter Gene Park was one of the most prominent to announce he was unsubscribing as he “was promised new exclusives every 3 months and we just don’t have that.” Bloomberg Opinion columnist Tae Kim also declared the service a “bad investment for AAA-focused gamers.” Tom’s Guide writer Tony Polanco was a bit kinder, saying “the service is great but there aren’t any AAA exclusives to compel me to stay” (although this has come just 16 days after he also said, “Xbox Game Pass really is the best deal in gaming“). There are plenty more complaints along these lines.
Xbox Game Pass offers day one access to any title released by Microsoft’s first-party studios. The removal of Redfall and Starfield from the 2022 release schedule means there will be no games from any of these studios released on Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One this year. Since the start of 2022, there have been plenty of third-party AAA games added to Xbox Game Pass, including Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy, NHL 22, MLB The Show 21, Madden NFL 22, F1 2021, Total War: Warhammer III, Hitman Trilogy, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction, and Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Few of these are day one releases, although Sniper Elite 5 also launches into Xbox Game Pass in just a few days.
This list of games has an equal number of Twitter users concocting theories about the real motives for so many players supposedly unsubscribing, seeing as AAA games aren’t a massive problem. The most common theory is that it is linked to the FTC investigation into “stealth advertising” and “fake reviews or influencers who hide that they were paid to post.” There is no evidence to say those mentioned above, or any others who have announced they are unsubscribing, were paid to promote Xbox Game Pass, though.
In other news, Nintendo still has “nothing to announce” on the Wii and DSi shop maintenance downtime. Elsewhere, Outright Games announced titles from Paw Patrol and DC Justice League as part of their latest batch of upcoming family-friendly titles.
