Xbox Game Pass Really Isn't Coming To Nintendo Switch

Doesn't matter at all for me.
I don't like and don't even need Game Pass or any gaming rental service.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is still talking nonsense and do absolutely NOTHING for their XBOX.

Microsoft : I think I want to give Nintendo Switch a Game Pass.
Also Microsoft after several minutes later : Nah... I changed my mind.

man, it would have been nice but doing that would just kind of cement them as a software-only studio and i get they dont want that. With that being said however, give them a few more years and THEN we'll see how theyre holding up on this front

I’m hoping instead for rare replay.

@Anti-Matter Glad to see you're back with the negativity.

That’s ok, just bring Rare games to Nintendo and everything will be fine

Then Iv been lied to

@GameOtaku Capital idea. Just wonder if Microsoft still knows about it to port to other platforms like PC.

People shouldn't put so much stock into rumors and leaks. I bet a bunch of people are mad because Starfield isn't coming to PlayStation, as if they weren't just making fun of the game when it came out last year.

Like the majority of people on here, just give the Switch the Rare games. I miss Jet Force Gemini.

@Joeynator3000 is it not on NSO?

I'm good with that. Xbox needs a reason to buy in, so if everyone had it, there'd be little to no point of xbox.

@PizzaKing back and better than ever!

Personally, I could never see Nintendo signing off on Game Pass coming to their hardware, not when it is damaging to both them as a company and the wider industry in the long term.

Announcement really didn’t push the needle at all- Microsoft has been porting over 1st party exclusives for years

I doubt this is the outcome they wanted though, they most likely got rejected by PlayStation and Nintendo.

@Anti-Matter Glad to see you're back with that radiant positivity you're so well known for!

When @Anti-Matter posts, everyone is shocked and infuriated. I love seeing such a consistent source of controversy!

Never change, Anti-Matter.

No one was asking for Game Pass to be on other platforms anyways. Microsoft seems to bring that up only to then turn it down many times as if PlayStation and Nintendo players give a damn. Nobody on PlayStation and Switch care about Game Pass, stop bringing it up if you're not offering it.

@Anti-Matter Wow, you're quite the celebrity, aren't you?

That's fine. Rather just buy games like Hi Fi Rush, pentiment etc that are likely to come to Switch. As for Rare titles, add them to NSO or just put Rare replay on Switch.

Not really surprising since they don’t have reason to do otherwise.

Oh no! Anyway.... I'd like to see Pentiment on Switch. Add it to the ever growing queue.

@Rhum17
Microsoft has a ton of reasons to have it on those platforms the thing is that Nintendo and Sony have more reasons to not allow it, this is good because if this happened the second the bulk of Switch and PlayStation users only care about a game if its Game Pass the way Xbox users do it’s game over.

@bluemage1989 It is on NSO.

Good. Streaming can die in a fire.

It just doesn't make sense to release it on another platform at a 30% loss.

… as they know Nintendo wouldn’t allow it…

@TheMegaMarshtomp Haha gotta love it

I read the header as "game pass really is coming to switch" and got very excited

@Lightsiyd he gave Everybody 1 2 Switch a perfect 10 out of 10 score, he deserves respect

IMO, Microsoft changed their mind after rumor speculation painted a non-exclusive Game Pass negatively. Did they really need a podcast episode just to not name 4 games and hint at new hardware? Idk maybe they did but the presentation felt more like damage control than anything else.

I guess I can see the appeal, but it's not like everyone on this site doesn't have a device they can run it on already.

@Jalex_64 In the defense of the guy, he only stated that MS (or rather a couple of their execs) is always saying they WANT GP on other platforms like switch. And then they say the exact opposite a few days later.

Bringing game pass to everything would make the Xbox pointless so it's a good move.

I’m of the mindset that Gamepass damages creativity. Instead of trying to make the greatest game so people buy it, Gamepass needs ‘CONTENT’ that’s on time to fill a schedule, and satisfy the algorithm that says what people play on the service. It’s why there are so many first person shooters.

It’s just like films on Netflix- how many Adam Sandler comedies and cheap horror films do they churn out because the Algorithm shows people settle on watching them?

Microsoft are a company that have invested astronomical amounts of money into their vision of gaming (and the capitalzation of the hobby grr.) They talk about live service games being bigger than a single platform. If they own that game, it doesn't matter which platform you are playing it on as long as they see the sub and microtransaction revenue. (Probably advertising later down the line when they start struggling for year on year growth...) Heck, they are betting heavily on cloud gaming. Maybe in a couple of generations, it will be unrecognizable to today.

But, the market isn't quite ready for it currently. So Microsoft find themselves in a bloody weird spot of being this massive developing house with designs on everything being exclusive to Gamepass (or whatver they brand it in the future) but not being successful enough to do it without leaving money on the table. (Lucky for them MS seem to have bottomless pockets and don't really nee to worry about market forces!)

Live service, f2p games on every platform makes business sense (if not morally quite right?) as the f2p model is basically the same as a begger asking for change on the streets. They just aren't picky who they ask.

Smaller niche games that maybe under performed is basically what Nintendo did with the Wii U games on Switch. So releasing them on other platforms again makes sense.

But yeah, MS are in a weird spot. I'm sure their goal posts are going to move over the next couple of years. But as their internal emails suggest, they want to own everything and get people to subscribe to use it. But while they are languishing in third place, they may aswell make out that they are on everyone's side lol.

@Anti-Matter I mean, it was all speculation anyway it’s not really Microsoft’s fault that people were treating it as fact.

So Phil Spencer said that the Switch wasn't the right location for Game Pass?

@Serpenterror They were just typical Click bait rumors!

People need to grow a braincell or two and start using their brain a bit more and not believe everything blindly the internet tells them!

Microsoft has never said nor hinted that GamePass was coming to other platforms like PS and Switch!

This whole rumor started, after Microsoft and Nintendo shared some news about increased cooperation and that more games would come to the Switch.
Then people started immediately putting clickbait articles on the internet about GamePass coming to the Switch! Which was never said nor hinted at!

You can play XBOX Gamepass via the XBOX App on your phone, tablet, laptop and PC. All platforms that are not competing game console platforms.
Many 3rd party studios wouldn't even want that, since separately selling their game on Playstation 5 for example makes about half their profit margins for their AAA titles.

@Rambler Phil is right. 999 of each 1000 Switch owners hate Xbox. Just look at any Xbox related article on this site as proof.

Game Pass on Switch would probably get 100 subs at best, so why even bother.
Microsoft must be to port anything to Switch as everything they ever released on it were a failure.
Anything with Xbox logo is automatically ignored on eShop by everyone.
If same games had a Nintendo logo, people would be all over the exact same games.

@Toastmaster

Nooo, it was a bit of an obscure joke
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spencer_(television_personality)

I don't know how anyone could have thought Gamepass was coming to Switch when half the games on there wouldn't even technically be able to run on Switch. Sheesh!

@Slain Good luck running Starfield and Hellblade II on Switch. lol

@Toastmaster Exactly.

I don’t interpret the statement in that conversation to be MS wanting to keep it exclusive to their platform, but rather they do not yet have a way forward to publish it on Switch and PS. If they had a way to do so, I believe they would in an instant.

In the same call MS was very clear they want their games to be available across multiple platforms and that Xbox is a platform, not a device.

@Smigit Game Pass have been available for over 3 billion devices for years.
Who doesn't own a media Box, TV, Phone and Tablet today?

Good. Not a fan of game rentals.

@Toastmaster how many of those devices have the processing power to run 2/3 of GamePass games, on device? Until XCloud becomes more viable, low end hardware isn’t a substitute for something like a PS5 or even a Switch. Currently networking just isn’t there for XCloud to be the solution.

For phones MS has the same issues as other companies have had too where an Apple 20-30% cut hurts economic viability of selling GamePass or XCloud on Apples devices.

MS keeps flip-flopping about this issue.

This whole article is clickbait. I've been following the rumours quite closely over the past few weeks and it's all been about actual games coming to other platforms - not Game Pass.

During the podcast, there was no discussion about Game Pass going to other platforms - it was literally that single sentence taken out of context, which was said in a broader discussion about exclusivity. The full quote was something along the lines of "Our games will always be on Game Pass day one, and we know Game Pass will only be available on Xbox".

Regarding Microsoft's claim that consumers are moving away from hardware specific software...

What about Nintendo?

Or do we just ignore that?

Not being funny, but it seems to me that Nintendo are the only publisher that properly looks after their IP.

What benefit has Sonic seen from multiple platforms? How does Star Wars perform as an IP without even a dedicated developer?

I find it alarming that such a significant player in the industry is so unaware of consumer's behaviour. I think they need to go back to the research and focus their attention on the fact we are, for the first time, in a period where a significant volume of parents are knowledgeable on gaming and this is feeding into their kid's gaming habits and choices.

Fact is, you are only going to see a decline in microtransactions and subscription games because we aren't letting our kids play those games. It has nothing to do with the hardware.

Microsoft are making the hilarious mistake of thinking Minecraft shows the normal consumer behaviour. Minecraft is the anomaly, not the norm. Good luck adopting a Minecraft model on a game like Gears or Starfield - it will not work.

Rare Replay on Switch (or it's successor) would be a great idea.

@Smigit Xcloud is perfectly viable, it's not like you need crazy faster internet for it. Only folks who seem to have a problem with it are technical elitists who cry at unnoticeable input lag. Those people aren't doing their gaming on Switch

@Smigit Did you read my comment first?
Where did i say that Starfield etc. runs natively on phones, TV's etc?
Streaming don't have any system requirements. Even a smart watch can stream games.
System requirements is the same as Netflix.

I never thought it would.

@nocdaes and on your point about more parents actually knowing about video games. Thank you. So many analysts, gamers and the industry itself seem to ignore or forget this. A lot of parents nowadays grew up playing video games and this affects how/what video games their kids play. Mine are all into Splatoon, Mario and Pokémon. My parents had no clue about any of the games I was into as a kid and I know exactly what mine are playing. Sorry for the mini rant, but it just annoys me that the market in general seems to ignore that very important fact.

What they said:

"We know that Game Pass will only be available on Xbox....."

(The quiet part they left out):

".....Because Sony laughed at us just like when we offered to buy Nintendo."

Well I never wanted it anyway.

Presuming Microsoft will release physical copies of their games on PS and Switch and I'm all for that.

All the fools paying for subscription services across movies, music and videogames - you own nothing and this content can be taken away at a moment's notice and you are powerless to stop them. Why can't people see this?

Look at the furore with Sony recently announcing they were deleting Discovery TV shows even though people had PAID to apparently own them. Even their climb down from this is a temporary solution as they've only extended the deal for an extra few years or smth?

Wake up, smell the coffee and buy physical!!! Screw subscription services!!!

@Toastmaster the streaming requirements for cloud gaming and Netflix are night and day in terms of different needs. You can’t buffer seconds or minutes worth of content when you’re streaming a game, and unlike streaming film or audio content, latency matters.

Perhaps you live in an area where network on average is good enough and the MS data centre hosting the servers are a reasonable distance away, but that’s not true globally for many millions of MS customers.

In regards to MS wanting services on PS and Switch, there’s many many references to this throughout the past 18 months with the CMA case concerning the Activision purchase.

@Big_Fudge my experience where I live is that playing a game like Halo, there was a quarter to half a second delay between my pressing a button to the input being reflected on screen. It was certainly noticeable.

We have a reasonably ok 100/40 network connection (which is the max speeds we can get where I am), but if the MS datacentre isn’t near by that’s not going to save you.

If you have a reasonable connection and the datacentre is located such that latency isn’t a big issue, then I’m sure XCloud is great and viable. I’m sure there’s however a good reason cloud streaming for games is still a niche segment of the market.

@Smigit Yeah. I live in a area where as good as everyone have fiber line and also 5G for phones.

Game streaming and Netflix have same line speed requirements.
Minimum 5-10 for low quality and 15 for high quality.

@Smigit I don't know how niche it is, but I suspect its lack of popularity is because it's still pretty new, most gamers play 1 or 2 games, and hard drives can fit those fine so there's no point, and because people tried it 10 years ago and got stuck with this bad impression of it.

I don't know how near you've got to be to a Microsoft data center. I'm about 200 miles away with 30MB internet and happily play competitive Halo

@Big_Fudge I believe I’m about 300km away from where MS had servers at the time I tried it, which was last about 18 months ago. Not 100% clear on the timeframe, but it was probably weeks after the launch in Australia which is where I’m based.

I’ll give it another go. At the time I recall reading somewhere that certain locations in AU were hosting XCloud, and while MS has a local presence (under 50km), at the time the local DC wasn’t used for gaming delivery so traffic had to go to the next city. Possible that has changed since I gave it a go.

In any event I could get through a game of whatever the horde mode is called with AI opponents, but it wasn’t a very smooth experience. For benefit of the doubt I’ll look to give it another go sometime. For all I said above, I’m very very keen on cloud gaming taking off as I am a Mac/Apple user and I see it as the most likely way for gaming to become broadly accessible on my Mac, more so than developers widely targeting Apple silicon for native gaming.

The industry needs to come to terms that they are producing way more than the average person can afford. Nintendo has published over 100 titles on Switch. That is a $6000 investment to buy everything. That is about a tenth of the average US household income. Throw in they are moving towards $70 games and the price of everything else going up, something will have to give.

Game Pass is a bad idea for the industry, but it does provide a cheap way for people to access games they may want to try or play but not own. I use PC game pass as a replacement for rentals at this point because not every game is worth owning nor is it possible for me to invest in owning them all.

Much like everything else, the constant chasing of up and to the right is driving the industry down the toilet.

Lol Booty. As in bum. Har har har

I'm convinced that Rare Replay will never come to Switch. Nintendo won't allow the release of so many good games for a cheap price when they can drip feed those games through NSO/remasters, maximising returns with as little effort as possible.

How is it exclusive if it's on PC and Surface?

@bring_on_branstons Don't tell me you buy a DVD or Blu-Ray for every single movie you watch. You use Netflix, why? Because its convenient, it let's you try things you weren't sure if you wanted to blow out who knows how many dollars on a movie ticket. Then if you really really like it you are free to buy a DVD for yourself to take up space in your home. Or maybe not, maybe you're a minimalist.

Same concept applies to Game Pass. Convenience, letting you try tons of new things and saving you money. There is nothing inherently bad with it. And at least I personally will never even compare it to how great owning physical games is, because that's how I prefer my games. But your argument is quite silly, instead of attacking all subscription owners, why don't you also see its benefits over buying every single little game you want?

As an ex-Nintendo-only player, I really think that more Nintendo fans should give Xbox a go and would likely love it, especially since Nintendo is so closed-minded about hardware, sharing and everything else.

Matt Booty's license plate

@Toastmaster @Edwirichuu To me, the greatest thing about Game Pass (and Xbox) is that unlike other services such as Stadia, Luna, NSO and partly PS Plus, you can download the games or play them on the Cloud but, most importantly, you are able to buy every single Game Pass title and unsubscribe whenever you want and the save files are always available to you, even if you don't pay for the service. It's not a one-way street nor a bottomless pit, but the opposite. It gives players options.

@Banjo- Exactly, glad you can see the good side of it 😃

@Edwirichuu You're conveniently overlooking the fact that not everything shown on Netflix or other streaming services is available to legally buy on physical or digital media. Some are, but many are not. And that's obviously intentional - these companies want you to continue paying out, month after month to access their exclusive content. By limiting how it is available (at least legally) they are tying you in to their service as long as you are willing to pay for it, yet you own nothing. So yeah, sure, if I watch something on Netflix and I really like it I will go and buy it. But crucially that's not always possible as they don't release everything to buy. And why would they? If I want to watch certain films I have to pay my sub to Netflix or whoever. That's their whole business model.

The danger for me (and my point which I didn't make clearly enough so apologies for that) is gaming is going the same way - right now you can indeed try a game on GamePass, and if you want it, buy it so you own it.

You might think it's good right now - but what about the longterm?

Will MS allow people to buy their games individually (either digitally or physically) in the future? I'd wager not. I obviously do not know this, but why do they want you to own something 'forever' when they can have people repeatedly paying the same monthly sub for it? This is the way the wind is blowing in all forms of media - games are no exception.

Let's see where we are in 10 years. I would be amazed if MS and probably Sony haven't tried to implement a sub only strategy to play games on their hardware.

Look at Nintendo. On Wii we had the Virtual Console - I could permanently buy old games and own them forever as long as my Wii console kept on working. What is Nintendo's model on the Switch? A subscription to access these same retro games. No longer can I buy Super Mario World or Ocarina of Time to own forever and pay a one off fee for. Now to access these games I have to pay each and every year to have continued access on my current machine. That's the point. And a perfect example of a shift in strategy from a games company. (And to be honest - I only want to play about 10% of the games on NSO - so whilst there's a lot of choice for me, I'm actually not interested in most of it and would wager that's the case with many players.)

If the XBox brand is around in 6 or so years (it's reported that if GamePass isn't profitable by 2030 their current way of doing business is unsustainable) how will MS be making games available? Sub only?

As for trying out games for less on a sub model - sure I can see your point. That's clearly good for many people.

My worry though is that people are sleepwalking into a model of business which on the surface seems convenient and beneficial right now - you have the choice to do either - but given time and if companies like MS have their way there will only be one option, and it'll be the one that benefits the games companies getting paid month in month out and not one for gamers.

Peace out man.

Good, now shut up about it Microsoft. I have an Xbox and PC and still don’t have GamePass anyway.

It’s not that bad of a service. I played and beat Kingdom Hearts III and played a few other games when I had it free for a month. This rumor is just tired at this point.

@SalvorHardin True enough, I was thinking more along the lines of if Microsoft would want to keep making consoles, then it wouldn’t be in their best interest to allow Gamepass on other platforms. Xbox is already struggling as a brand outside of Gamepass.

@bring_on_branstons "If the XBox brand is around in 6 or so years (it's reported that if GamePass isn't profitable by 2030 their current way of doing business is unsustainable) how will MS be making games available?"

@Rhum17 "Xbox is already struggling as a brand outside of Gamepass."

Where did you read that bs? Microsoft had confirmed previously that they pay $1 billion per year for including games that they don't own and they get around $5 billion per year from Game Pass subscribers. That means $4 billion per year from Game Pass, not including the sale of software, DLC, etc. Around 10-15 percent of Xbox's content and service revenue comes from subscribers, so imagine how much money they make with sales, leaving the 34 million subscribers aside. They are also ahead of Sony and Nintendo in gaming revenue and active players. Gaming is now Microsoft's third largest business, bigger than Windows.

I understand your worries but the only one that is doing what you fear so much is Nintendo and partly Sony. Xbox is respecting digital libraries and even physical purchases all the way back to the original Xbox discs, whenever it's possible via backwards compatibility. Nintendo makes the same users buy the same games even in the same generation, even after merging the NNID and Nintendo accounts. Sony has limited backwards compatibility, not all the games are available to purchase and download on PS5 services and they have removed digital content that people have paid for. To date, Xbox is the most reliable console platform from a consumer's point of view.

@Yoshif3 The best Rare games (the DKC series) are already on Switch. The rest of Rare's catalogue is mid at best.

The last MS console I owned (other than a PC which isn't a console) was an XB360. One of my favorite game systems: loads of stellar titles, the groundbreaking XBLA that Sony and Nintendo wisely copied, great controllers; the 360 was incredible.

MS pissed away their goodwill with the XBone and unfortunately hasn't recovered since.

That said, a reminder that while MS is evil, so are Sony and Nintendo. Don't delude yourselves into believing otherwise.

@GrailUK
F2P is not anything like a beggar asking for money on the streets. That’s a ridiculous analogy. You need to get out of the house and stop playing video games and get some perspective back.

I wish Insomiac’s Sunset Overdrive would come to other platforms. It won’t. It’s doomed to limbo. Best Insomniac game and one of my all time favorites.

@BlueMonk Aww bless you.

@Banjo- “To date, Xbox is the most reliable console platform from a consumer's point of view.”

I agree, which is why I do the vast majority of my gaming on Xbox I haven’t had to re-buy games.

My comment about the brand outside of Gamepass is referring to two things:

1. When I go to Pure Xbox and read polls that indicate users don’t buy games often. (I only buy games and even physical ones when I can.) I admit such self-reporting isn’t reliable or scientific but it gives me the impression that the vast majority of Xbox owners only care about Gamepass.

2. Compared to Nintendo and Sony they are a distant third as far as sales go. (Software and hardware)

Am I wrong? I hope so, but that’s what I meant.

@eaglebob345

personally i wouldnt mind if i never saw another rumor regarding videogames (or anything else probably) but i realize that people have fun with them.

yet here i am reading the article, posting a comment. 😅

@axelhander

i feel that it's important that you know, i read your name "axe handler" every single time, for a long time now.

@TheMegaMarshtomp I'm crying RN because I can't see his comments, I think he blocked me ;-;

It would have been cool for fans of Microsoft's games, but I am personally not among that number and so am not fussed by this news. Xbox can keep their first party exclusive. I personally want less third party exclusives, and more of those on Nintendo hardware.

@Rhum17 I wouldn't pay much attention to the polls. Pure Xbox has now more PS fanboys than Push Square 🤣. The internet is full of misinformation and toxicity about Xbox, so I'll answer with facts and official data.

1. There are many Game Pass subscribers, but they sell even more. Around 10-15 percent of Xbox's content and service revenue comes from subscribers. Game Pass is profitable for the reasons I posted above. Xbox users buy lots of games, but digitally. Sony's financials for Q2 of 2023 stated that 4% of their sales are physical. Only Nintendo remains relevant in the physical market. Personally, I don't trust Nintendo and I buy my Switch games physically.

2. Distant third if you mean consoles sold this generation, but they are ahead of Sony and Nintendo in gaming revenue after the ABK acquisition, and they were already ahead of Nintendo before the acquisition. The number of consoles sold no longer means higher incomes like in the 90s. Sony is struggling financially and changing their strategy regarding online games and PC ports on day one.

As I always say, Nintendo is the luckiest company of this generation, well, last generation because Switch belongs to the last one, selling millions of full-priced Wii U ports from the same generation on weak hardware. The Mario Kart 8 port sold 60.58 million. For the record, I bought Mario Kart 8 on Wii U and Switch, all DLC included on both.

3. Most importantly, Xbox is just not consoles but Windows and Cloud. This is important because their business on PC and console is all part of the same ecosystem and OS. They confirmed yesterday that they have more developers than ever before building for Xbox consoles. The success of Xbox is split between consoles and PC, with Cloud being the fastest-growing market.

Like you and I said, Xbox is the most reliable, they respect our digital libraries, our physical libraries, even. I buy as many Xbox games as I want and I know they aren't going anywhere. Heck, we even get free remasters. Nintendo is exactly the opposite, so I avoid buying digital Nintendo games and any multiplatform game, although I bought Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled on Switch and Series X as an exception (and they look like completely different games).

@-wc- It IS important that I know, thank you.

No surprise here. People shouldn't believe far fetched rumours.

Doubt it…….(abcdefg)

@-wc- Same here. We are as guilty as the rest of the masses...

I've never seen so many Xbox articles on a Nintendo fansite.

It's like the editors are trying to send someone a message.

@Banjo-

It will soon give people another option for XCloud.
Play your purchased games from Cloud that is not in Game Pass.
Secondly, PC exclusive games will also be added to Cloud later.
And yes, Xbox is the only one who always had free save game cloud on any console for everyone.
PC games in Game Pass also uses Xbox cloud saving even if save is shared or not.

@Toastmaster Right, it's getting better. Lots of options that respect the player 👍🏻.