Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Goes Live Today

Xbox fans will be excited to see what Microsoft has in store for them with their latest addition to the Xbox platform — the newly launched Xbox Game Pass.

The Xbox Game Pass, which went live for Xbox Live Gold users earlier today, is a monthly game subscription service that allows players unlimited access to a rotating catalogue of games.

The pass will retail at $9.99 a month, and will grant players access to the current month's rotation of games. Once a game has been rotated out of a catalogue however, it can be no longer accessed by the user unless they purchase a copy of the game itself.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers will also be granted 20% off the purchase price of all games in the Xbox store, as well as an additional 10% off DLC's and other add-ons.

Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox division at Microsoft, has been hinting for awhile at a subscription model similar to Netflix's for its own Xbox platform. As a fan of story-based games and content, Spencer discusses the need for companies to shift towards such a model, in order to see a sustainable drive for creative output.

I love story-based games... As an industry, I want to make sure both narrative-driven single-player games and service-based games have the opportunity to succeed. I think that's critical for us.

I've looked at things like Netflix and HBO, where great content has been created because there's this subscription model. We've got to understand that if we enjoy those games, the business opportunity has to be there for them.

If the Xbox Game Pass fares as well as its cousin Netflix, it will be interesting to see whether it will give rise to more opportunities for original story-driven content.

Microsoft is currently launching the Xbox Game Pass in over 30 different markets, and will be expanding "to as many new markets as catalog availability permits". Will you be subscribing and spending some quality time with your Xbox next month?