It's taken eight years, but finally Game Pass is positioned to save the Xbox console business and give Xbox a pointAmongst the doom and gloom around Xbox consoles, there is still reason to be hopeful.Image credit: Eurogamer Opinion by Tom Orry Editorial Director, Gamer Network Published on Jan. 31, 2025 My son is all-in on Xbox. On the TV he only plays Xbox. He prefers the Xbox UI and services (not that he'd use that term, he's not a robot), the Xbox controller, and the fact that he has Game Pass on there. He has multiple Xbox hoodies and bemoaned the lack of an Xbox birthday cake in the supermarket that was selling a PlayStation-branded one. When I ask him if he thinks he'll prefer PlayStation one day, he's typically pre-teen: "Why would I?" he replies as if talking to the world's dumbest man. He's not a console warrior, but it's fair to say that Xbox is his life.My feelings on Xbox change every time I attempt to figure out what my feelings are. I've stared at that sentence on and off for a week or so, wondering if I can just stop there and publish, letting people think I've made a highly intellectual point and didn't in fact just have a jumbled mess of thoughts stuck in my head.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Watch on YouTubeI want to say something about the present and future of Microsoft's gaming division, but what exactly, and where do I possibly start? As someone with more fondness for Xbox than the average person (no doubt why my son is so keen on the console that "has no games") I find it bizarre in the extreme that we are entering what might be the best period for Xbox-published games of all time while the uncertainty over the future of the company's console business and general public sentiment has never been rockier.I'm not going to suggest Xbox is safe because my son prefers it to PlayStation, but he's clearly not the only person who thinks this. There's always a running commentary alongside video game consoles that is desperate to declare winners and losers - I know this as I've been part of that group. If we're talking about Xbox vs PlayStation, well, PlayStation has won. Simple. Add to this the fact that there are no "red lines" for Xbox games coming to other platforms now, and it's easy to see where the doomongering comes from.Xbox has always struggled to gain a strong footing outside the US and has underperformed in Europe. My view is that you either like Xbox because of its hardware and functionality, or you dislike it because it hasn't had enough/any big exclusive games - the latter usually being too much of a mountain to climb for most people. The notion that the major reason to buy a console is to play the games exclusively available for it has gone out the window completely at Xbox. In fact there aren't any windows at all, or a ceiling, or walls. Xbox is essentially an idea floating around now, uncontained, and that's hard for people to pin an allegiance to - and allegiances do matter. Listen, I like the Xbox more than most people because the Xbox 360 was "my" console. It came at the perfect time in my life and had loads of games I loved. That's not the reason I think Xbox consoles have a future, though. | Image credit: XboxSo does Xbox, the console/box/machine, have a future? Sorry for being that guy again, but I think it all comes down to Xbox Game Pass. Ever since Game Pass promised Day One games from Microsoft it felt like an unbelievable service, one that I expected people would be all over. It reminds me of the summer I got a cinema pass and would watch two or three movies a day over the school holiday. I felt like I'd found a loophole akin to carrying in a bottle of coke and a packet of Minstrels under my coat. Why not watch Toy Story 2 a second time, followed by Gladiator? For me, Game Pass worked. I was sold on Xbox and I enjoyed the games. But what if you didn't think much of the Xbox line-up because it was missing the blockbusters? I can see how that is a big problem. A U-571/Frequency double bill isn't for everyone, even if you've already paid for the tickets.I don't think PlayStation's exclusive line-up over the last two generations has wildly beaten Xbox (some of my favourites are from Xbox's raft of studios), but there's no denying Sony has fired bigger, crowd-pleasing guns as well as smaller niche hits. Uncharted, The Last of Us, Spider-Man, Ratchet & Clank, God of War, Horizon, Gran Turismo, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone, Dreams, Until Dawn, Returnal, Demon's Souls... the list could go on, and that's not even including the likes of FF7 Remake/Rebirth, Death Stranding, FF16, Stellar Blade, etc. It's fair to argue that Xbox had the service, but it didn't have the games big enough to spearhead it.Following the delayed release of Halo Infinite in December 2021, the next new Game Pass release from Xbox Game Studios of any note was Pentiment, some 11 months later. Minecraft Legends, a so-so spin-off arrived in April 2023, the severely lacking Forza Motorsport in October the same year. Another substantial wait followed, with the visually spectacular but ultimately disappointing Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 in May, 2024. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 released in November in a rather sorry state, ending a rather tepid three years of first-party titles that left a lot of people wondering what the hell was going on over at Xbox. Things, however, do seem to be improving on the Game Pass front, even if the latest out of Microsoft is missing any numbers we can properly dig into. Brilliant oddities like Pentiment need to live alongside a steady stream of big-hitters for Game Pass to sell consoles, and that might be about to happen. | Image credit: Xbox Game StudiosDerailing this section ever so slightly, a quick shout-out to Pentiment and Grounded (not mentioned already as its initial release didn't fit into my arbitrary timeline). Two brilliant games, quite unlike anything you'd expect from the "We make Gears of War and Halo" publishing house - two games, I'd argue, that would be looked at with a greater admiration of their creators' artistry had they been published by let's say, PlayStation. Of course, PlayStation wouldn't go near them these days, which is a bizarre turn of events given the "Hooah" vibes associated with Xbox and Sony's legacy of experimentation.Anyway, back to the old Xbox release schedule, or "the void" as I called it. Activision Blizzard and Bethesda have helped, but their contributions to Game Pass are really only just getting started. Starfield was seen by many as the saviour, an Xbox exclusive RPG from the makers of Skyrim and Fallout, on Game Pass from the day of release. Sadly we know how Starfield turned out, with some substantial tweaks and fixes arriving too late to change public perception. Black Ops 6 in October and Indy in December, though, show what is possible now, if the juggernaut that is Microsoft Gaming can get rolling.Let's look at 2025's (and sneak in the end of 2024 because it helps make my point stronger!) Game Pass line-up.Call of Duty: Black Ops 6S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of ChornobylIndiana Jones and the Great CircleNinja Gaiden 2 BlackEternal StrandsSniper Elite: ResistanceCitizen Sleeper 2AvowedAtomfallSouth of MidnightClair Obscur: Expedition 33Doom: The Dark AgesThat list, which runs until May 2025, is undeniably strong and I've left off plenty. Five big releases from Xbox (I'm rolling in all the subsidiaries of Microsoft Gaming here for ease) dotted around some third-party games that have great potential to be excellent. We don't know what June and beyond hold, but it could potentially see an Oblivion remake, Fable, Gears, Call of Duty and more. People obviously buy consoles for reasons other than exclusives, such as big-hitters like GTA, but they need something to fill the gaps. For far too long Xbox was full of gaps. Things are starting to tighten up.At a time when PlayStation seems to have got itself into some bother by unwisely going all-in on live service games, an Xbox line-up packed to the rafters with single-player experiences is a great look and a tempting offering. When you are drawing from Xbox's in-house studios, Bethesda, Activision, Blizzard, and external but funded titles there should no longer be any reason for droughts. For years people have wanted Xbox to match PlayStation's prestige output. The signs are pointing towards that becoming a reality, but the fight is no longer Xbox vs PlayStation, it's Game Pass vs PlayStation. This is the inside of a PC. No one really ever wants to see this. It's like thinking you'll be OK watching an operation in ER. We shouldn't be exposed to these kind of things!Xbox is making a big push to convince people that everything is an Xbox. It's a solid selling point, but one I think needs far more work on the technical side to succeed. While Microsoft's cloud gaming offering has been in beta for years now, Nvidia's Geforce Now has made huge strides to the point that for most people on good internet connections it's interchangeable with a high-end PC experience - and it's really only the relatively small number of supported games compared to what's available on Steam that lets it down. It's seriously impressive from a tech point of view, which isn't something you can say about Xbox.There's also talk of not needing an Xbox and just buying a PC, which is great and all but ignores the fact that PCs are a complete pain and are liable to destroy your valuable free time with unexpected issues. I love PCs, I'd build an ever-changing rig of awesomeness if I had the time and money, but I've also been around them long enough to know that they are not a console replacement for the masses."I'll just play all those games on PlayStation," people say, one after another on message boards (they still exist), social media, and Reddit. I'm not sure if Xbox likers, of which I am, are intended to be chastised by these statements, but most aren't. That's fine, go ahead and play games on whatever you want. PlayStation, PC, Switch, phones, cloud, calculator it doesn't bother me one bit. You do you. I want to play Game Pass games on a console, and it just so happens that (aside from the OG Xbox One) Xbox makes great consoles with best-in-class functionality. If Xbox can show that all these great games, releasing on PlayStation and Switch 2, are available Day One as part of a sub if you're on an Xbox, I think there's life in an Xbox console yet. I think that's called having your cake and eating it too.On the walk to school this morning my son asked when the next Xbox was going to be released. "I don't know," I said. "Probably in a couple of years," I blagged. He, like me, can't wait.