May 1, 2026

Expedition 33's success shows Game Pass's value, but won't silence doubters

by Will Guyatt, Tech Journalist and Broadcaster

You might love something, but that doesn’t make it good for everybody. Two bits of news related to Xbox Games Pass appear to deepen the polarisation of opinions on the contribution of Netflix-like subscription services for gaming.

Personally, I think Game Pass is amazing - and I’ve been spreading the word, it’s made it into a load of Christmas buyers’ guides - and regularly mention it as an essential on countless TV and Radio chats. I know it’s saved me thousands on buying Xbox games over the last couple of years. Fabulous for my overdraft, but awful for the games industry?

Well, if you listen to the creators of Sandfall Interactive, perhaps not. This week, they announced that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had sold over 8m copies in its first year, a huge success for any game, and almost unheard of for a first-time developer launching a brand-new IP. Respected games industry analyst, Mat Piscatella from Circana took to social media to suggest that being on subscription services can help you sell bucketloads of games.

By his estimations, Clair Obscur saw a massive influx of players first on Games Pass as a day one release. Their positive experiences generated significant word-of-mouth for the game, and saw millions of players pay to play it on PlayStation or PC.

So surely, that’s a good thing right? Well, based on other news from Microsoft perhaps not, as sales of its biggest franchises are clearly being affected by the existence of Game Pass. The company hoped the loss of Call of Duty as a day one title on the service would be softened by claiming it had “listened to feedback” before slicing £6 off its monthly Ultimate sub. Instead, CoD will now appear on the service “about a year later.”

Was this change a selfless act of hearing what gamers wanted, or delving even deeper into Matrix-like streams of data extracted from Xbox Live? We can safely assume the bosses did the numbers and saw that a sizable number of CoD fans were subscribing to Game Pass for a few months around launch and then clearing off. By removing it as a Day One title, they hope to see sales increase.

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I’ll mourn the loss of the all-you-can-eat buffet now there’s a table time limit, but I’ll still be stacking the bowl with indie titles and games I might not typically buy - stuff like Clair Obscur. I hope Xbox Games Pass continues into next-gen.

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