Xbox Game Pass gets Mass Effect, Outer Wilds, and more this month

By Otto Kratky January 4, 2022

Microsoft’s game streaming service is kicking off 2022 with an explosive list of additions. During January, Xbox Game Pass subscribers will get access to eight new titles in total, including Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Spelunky 2, and Outer Wilds.

Starting today, however, Game Pass subscribers will be able to give a few other notable titles a try. Olija and The Pedestrian are now available on Game Pass, along with developer Buried Signal’s hand-drawn puzzle title, Gorogoa.

On Thursday, January 6, both The Outer Wilds and Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be made available on Game Pass. For anyone who hasn’t played the Mass Effect franchise yet, Legendary Edition is everything they’ll need to get into the series before Bioware releases its mysterious next Mass Effect game.

Similarly, it’s worth noting that the version of Outer Wilds available as part of Game Pass won’t include the game’s Echoes of the Eye expansion. Along with the two games, Embr, which puts players in the shoes of freelance firefighters, will also be available on January 6.

Spelunky 2, the cave-diving roguelike platformer, is set to land on Game Pass on January 13 along with The Anacrusis, a wave-based cooperative shooter.

With the games coming onto Xbox Game Pass this month, some also have to leave. As of January 15, Game Pass subscribers will no longer have access to Desperados 3, Ghost of a Tale, Kingdom Hearts 3, Mount & Blade: Warband, Pandemic, or Yiik: A Postmodern RPG. PUBG: Battlegrounds will also be leaving Game Pass, although for a different reason. The battle royale title, perhaps trying to maintain its space in the genre, is going free-to-play on January 12.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

Gaming

Why cloud gaming is the linchpin in Microsoft’s troubled Activision Blizzard acqusition

Key art showing multiple devices playing games via the cloud.

The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) delivered a shocker this week when it blocked Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard on Wednesday. While a lot of focus on Microsoft’s fight was centered around whether or not the acquisition would give Xbox consoles an unfair advantage over PlayStation consoles, what ultimately decided it was a much smaller market: cloud gaming.
The idea of being able to stream the game you’re playing from the cloud has existed for well over a decade. Cloud gaming’s relevance to the video game industry has only grown over the past several years thanks to both failed and successful efforts from big tech companies like Google, Amazon, and, most importantly, Microsoft. Still, cloud gaming is considered relatively niche, with Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick calling it "inconsequential" in an interview with Bloomberg and UCL Associate Profession Joost Rietveld saying it’s not a distinct market in a submission to the CMA.
Despite those pleas, the CMA claims that cloud gaming is a “nascent market” and that “already strong incumbent in this market even stronger” in its 418-page report on the matter. Following the CMA’s decision on Wednesday, I spoke to several different analysts to find more clarity about how big Microsoft is in the cloud gaming space and why the CMA should feel compelled to intervene. While experts mostly side with Microsoft over the CMA on this decision, one greater truth emerged from these discussions. Whether one thinks cloud gaming is relevant to this acquisition or not, this emergent style of gaming has reached a point of no return where it'll be instrumental to the video game industry going forward.
Microsoft, king of cloud gaming
Cloud gaming may sound like a niche within the industry, but that's not entirely accurate. BrandFinance Managing Director Laurence Newell tells Digital Trends that “cloud-based services account for over 70% of Microsoft’s brand value, amounting to a staggering $137.5 billion.” That’s quite an eye-catching number that understandably would raise a regulator's alarm bells. However, Newell admits that gaming only makes up 8.5% of Microsoft’s revenue, and cloud gaming is an even smaller amount of that slice.
Despite its relatively small impact on the wider company, most of the experts I spoke to agreed that Microsoft has emerged as a cloud gaming leader thanks to its compatibility with a large segment of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate library. Conversely, Activision Blizzard has had almost no cloud gaming presence outside of one Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice port on Google Stadia before that service’s shutdown. If it were to be acquired, it is inevitable that more Activision Blizzard games would likely come to cloud-based gaming services.

Despite the shutdown of Google Stadia and the relatively small brand value received from cloud gaming compared to the rest of the company, the CMA still points out in the press release about its decision that “monthly active users in the U.K. more than tripled from the start of 2021 to the end of 2022. It is forecast to be worth up to 11 billion British pounds globally and 1 billion pounds in the U.K. by 2026.” Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the UCL School of Management Joost Rietveld, who has also been a consultant for Microsoft during its acquisition process, challenges the notion that cloud gaming as a whole is a single market.
Instead, Rietveld splits it into four categories, placing Xbox Game Pass into a category called “cloud gaming as a feature,” which is when it’s “offered as part of a consumer-facing distribution platform” or “included within a bigger bundle of services provided by the platformer.” Under Rietveld’s view, services like Nvidia GeForce Now, Ubitius, and EE -- all of whom Microsoft has made individual deals to bring Activision Blizzard and Xbox Game Studios titles to -- fall into different categories and thus shouldn’t be considered or directly compared to Xbox Game Pass. No matter how they’re categorized now, the real question mark looming over the technology is its future growth, according to Omdia Senior Principal Games Analyst Steve Bailey.
“Will it remain a niche additional service or become the gaming platform of the future?” Bailey asks in his statement to Digital Trends. “Our projection is that cloud gaming is growing rapidly (revenue should more than double by 2026), but it’s still a long way from taking over the games market, so it remains arguable either way.”
“Arguable” stands out as the keyword to me here. Like any emergent technology, we’re heavily debating the positives and negatives of cloud gaming, specifically through the lens of this acquisition. But what exactly is it that the CMA sees in Microsoft that worries them?
The CMA’s problem with Microsoft
“The CMA’s argument is not that acquiring Activision Blizzard would allow Microsoft to dominate the console market as a whole, where Sony and Nintendo have strong positions relative to Xbox, but only that it would help it to achieve a dominant position in cloud gaming specifically,” Bailey tells Digital Trends. “Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will likely argue that this is disproportionate, given the relatively small scale of the cloud gaming market.”

Gaming

PS Plus’ library is looking more like Game Pass’ in May lineup

Two cars race side-by-side in Grid Legends.

Sony revealed the next batch of three games that will be available throughout May 2023 as part of PlayStation Plus Essential. The lineup includes Grid Legends, Chivalry 2, and Descenders. All are very solid games in their respective genres, but interestingly, they are all also games that Xbox Game Pass subscribers will already have access to.
Grid Legends is the headlining game for this month, and it's a racing game from Codemasters where the standout feature is a story mode framed like a racing documentary with live-action interviews. While I had mixed feelings about the game and the mode when reviewing it last year, those looking for a basic but enjoyable racing game to tide them over until the next Forza Motorsport, Test Drive Unlimited, or The Crew can have some fun with it. If you're subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you're also able to play this game on that platform thanks to EA Play.

For those that are still in a sporty mood, Descenders is an enjoyable downhill biking game that'll scratch the same gaming itch as series like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or Lonely Mountains: Downhill. Then, there's Chivalry 2, a very intense multiplayer game set in medieval times, which gives it a very welcome change in setting compared to many of its multiplayer peers. Both games are currently playable if you have an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, but will likely leave the service at a later date.
If you are subscribed to both PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass, you will be fine skipping out on May's PS Plus Essential titles. If you only own a PlayStation console, though, or want to guarantee that you'll still have these games after they leave Xbox Game Pass, then definitely consider downloading them. These games will all be available with PS Plus from May 1 until June 6. Make sure you pick up April's PS Plus Essential games before May 1 as well.

Gaming

7 excellent game deals you can’t miss during Steam’s Xbox publisher sale

Raz runs on a colorful stage in Psychonauts 2.

Like a lot of modern gamers, I'm an Xbox Game Pass subscriber. I get a lot out of the subscription service, using it to play everything from Microsoft's first-party exclusives to smaller indie sensations like Citizen Sleeper. There's just one downside to that: I don't own any games I play on it. If Microsoft decided to pull a game like Forza Horizon 5 one day, I'd have to shell out if I ever wanted to continue my progress. It's a peculiar side-effect to the gaming subscription era, one that still makes me eager to buy any Game Pass title I love.

If you're in the same boat as me, Steam can help. The PC storefront is currently running an Xbox Publisher Sale, which features major discounts on some of Microsoft's biggest titles. From now until May 4, you'll find heavy hitters like Halo Infinite and Gears 5 discounted. What's particularly eye-catching is that tons of excellent games are currently on sale for $20 or less -- with some of Xbox's best exclusives selling for as low as $5. If you're looking to buy some of your favorite Game Pass titles, here are seven deals you should know about (you can grab all of them for just over $86).
Psychonauts 2 -- $20.39