Streaming Ahead

As the first decade of the twenty-first century drew to a close, it was clear that Microsoft was King. Only a few years before, Microsoft had entered the video game console war with the release of the original XBox, taking on the unprecedented might of Sony's Playstation 2. No one expected them to win - that would be impossible so early on - but no one suspected the success would come so swiftly either...

Upon the release of a new generation of consoles in the mid-noughties, Microsoft still had a lot to prove. Sony, on the other hand, entered the new console generation with an air of extreme arrogance. The Playstation 2 was so successful that one could assume that Sony believed failure to be impossible. Yet the Playstation 3 (the imaginatively titled successor to the PS2) launched with two huge flaws, one that, with time, could be corrected. The other...well, that would be more difficult.

Sony's first mistake was to put so much tech into the PS3 as to effectively price it out of the market. Yet the second mistake was, arguably, even more damaging. Nestled in the heart of the PS3 was the notorious Cell Processor that was extremely difficult to develop games for. Sony had put a Trojan Horse right in the heart of their shiny new console.

Microsoft, meanwhile, succeeded the original XBox with the 360. While on paper not quite as powerful as the PS3, it had the benefit of being extremely easy to develop for. It won't take a genius to work out what happened next. By the end of that console generation and with the dawn of the next on the horizon, Microsoft had seemingly done the impossible; they had caught up with Sony in just two console generations.

Yet, in a humiliating reversal of fortune, Microsoft fell victim to the hubris of their own success when it came to the successor of the 360. The XBox One, released in 2013, was less a pure video games console that a set-top TV box with a games console shoved in. Sony, meanwhile, had licked its wounds and had created the PS4, a console that emerged like a phoenix from the ashes, being not only more powerful than the Xbox One but with added bonus that it was extremely easy to develop for. The PS4 left the Xbox One in the dust.

So now, at the dawn of yet another new console generation, history yet again seems to be repeating itself. One company has gone off to lick its wounds while the other gloats, brandishing the crown in its hand. As the 'loser' of the previous generation, Microsoft's strategy this time around isn't just to try and make a more powerful console than Sony. No, this time they are doing something that will quite possibly change the video game landscape forever.

In only a few months time, we will see the release of Sony's PS5 and Microsoft's XBox Series X. Both are extremely capable of producing stunning looking games. Microsoft has gone all out and has won the battle of the specs by planning to release a console with a whopping 12 teraflops of power. Despite that however, there is still one area in which Microsoft is severely lacking...exclusive games.

By the end of this console generation, Sony have emerged with a huge roster of stunning games that are only available on the PlayStation. Microsoft, for numerous reasons (one being that they didn't spend enough time and money funding exclusive games of their own) has hardly anything of note for the XBox. If you want to play some of the most popular and critically acclaimed games of the last five years and their inevitable sequels, then the only way to do that is to buy the PS5. So what can Microsoft do to combat this?

Their answer is Games Pass. Quietly released a few years ago and now with 15 million subscribers (with a 50% increase in the last year alone) Games Pass, exclusive to the XBox, is, in the simplest terms, the Netflix of video games. For just £10.99 a month, Microsoft will give you access to a library of over 100 games. Now these games aren't just cheap shovelware. The library contains hugely popular titles that cost £40-£50 to buy individually. Perhaps the biggest bonus is that games and IP owned by Microsoft are released on Games Pass on the same day that they are released physically in shops and online. For gamers trying to save money, Games Pass offers ludicrously good value for money.

Yet, Games Pass won't keep its allure if the quality of the games doesn't continue to hold up and you won't be seeing any of Sony's gems ever appearing on the service. The solution? Well, if you have as much money as Microsoft, the answer is simple. Buy some of the most talented game development studios in the world and make sure that they now only develop games for your new console - games that will appear, exclusively, on Games Pass. And this is what Microsoft has been doing, buying up dozens of small, incredibly talented developers in order to create content for the XBox. The only problem is that Microsoft only started doing this last year and mega budget console games take a good three to four years (at least) to make. What on earth can they continue to offer in the meantime?

The killer blow was struck on Monday 21st September. Microsoft announced that they had purchased ZeniMax Media, the parent company of some of the biggest game franchises in the world (Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom) for $7.5 billion dollars. This was huge news, the gaming equivalent of Disney buying 20th Century Fox in order to prop up their new streaming service. All of those amazing, classic games from Bethesda Studios and I.D. will now appear on Games Pass as part of the monthly subscription. And the new, hugely anticipated games from those developers? Well, they'll launch for free on Games Pass the day they are released elsewhere. If you only have a PS5, you'll have to pay £70 each to play them. If Microsoft actually allow those games to be released on the PS5 at all. Ouch.

So it's clear that Microsoft see the Netflix style subscription as the future of video games (or at least they certainly want it to be the future). And they are not the only ones. Last week Amazon announced _Luna_, a cloud based gaming subscription service that rivals what is offered with Games Pass. Add Google's own cloud based gaming service_Stadia_ to the equation and it is abundantly clear where the future is heading (although neither Google or Amazon have yet made a multi-billion dollar acquisition of a games publisher like Microsoft has).

While all these services offer amazing value and convenience, I cannot help but feel worried at a completely digital future, where nothing is owned, only 'borrowed' or streamed. Video games, after film and music, was the last big hurdle to join the Netflix and Spotify business model. While that model has its benefits, something is also lost in its application. We end up paying the world's most profitable companies more money and, in a physical, tangible sense, getting less in return.

I, for one, love the feeling of holding a new game in my hands and the excitement of slotting in the disc for the first time, eager to see what new worlds I am going to explore. I love the freedom of playing the game whenever I want, not being tied into a golden handcuff subscription fee. I like the feeling of knowing that a game will always be available to play and not subject to suddenly vanish from a sever without warning...but these are just empty cries into the dark against an inevitable future. Of course I will still be able to buy and own games individually, but how long will that last?

With the more powerful console and the value proposition of Games Pass, Microsoft may very well be set to win another console generation. The only question is, what will Sony do in order to hold onto their crown? The answer is blindingly obvious, but when _that_ future arrives, I will be holding onto my physical games with a warm sense of nostalgia. After all, nothing beats sliding in that disc for the first time, no matter how many games I have access too for a cheap monthly fee.