Xbox Game Pass – The Ultimate Demo Service?

I’ve been using Xbox Game Pass since the day it was announced and offered to Xbox consumers, and for a long time, I almost fell sway to the folks who said, “Yah, but you don’t actually own the games.” Over the past while, I’ve been using my Xbox a bit less than I normally would – this is the first time I’ve owned all three major consoles at once! – but anytime I load it up, I often find myself looking through the Game Pass games to see what’s new and what I might want to play.

The latest release on Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft Flight Simulator, has quickly highlighted why I actually love Game Pass so much. While the plethora of games is outstanding, I’ve begun treating Game Pass as a demo machine. I get to try something out to see if I would like it. Some things from Xbox are a slam dunk for me. Of course I’m going to like HALO Infinite, and of course I’ll love Fable and the next Gears of War game. Those are easy to predict. Flight Simulator? I wasn’t so sure, and having Xbox Game Pass allowed me to sample the game to see if it was for me.

In a past life, I might have actually dropped the launch day asking price on something like Flight Simulator. Friends on Twitter have been raving about the release of the game since it landed on PC last year, and the Xbox release was highly anticipated. Plus, it was going to push the Xbox hardware to places it had never been before, and I wanted to see that. So, after a lengthy download and then a subsequent update, I was flying high in Microsoft Flight Simulator, heading out to my favourite place on earth: Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay.

And that’s about as far as I got, because I quickly realized that Flight Simulator wasn’t for me. It just wasn’t a game I was going to get lost in, or spend a ton of time with. I’m keeping it on my system so I can show my wife Castaway Cay in the game, or for when friends come over to see what the Xbox can do. But in terms of me actually playing the game on my own. That ship has sailed.

And that’s why I’m so extra thankful for Xbox Game Pass. I sparred myself the entry price of Flight Simulator, and still figured out it wasn’t for me. All because of a really good subscription service. That’s pretty great in my opinion. While Nintendo might be the one still releasing demo’s from time-to-time, Microsoft is the only company offering up their entire game as a demo, to see if you’ll like it. Pretty nifty, no?