Watching Kingsman on Disney+ while typing this article just shows how much an effect digital subscription services have on our lives, even more so during this on-going pandemic. With the kids stuck at home and hogging my Spotify account (which belongs to a family plan with a bunch of friends), I’ve taken to Apple Music for my music listening needs.

The latest digital subscription that I got though is Xbox Game Pass Ultimate when I received the Xbox Series S for my birthday. For the uninitiated, the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate does for games like what Netflix or Disney+ do for movies and television series. Renewable on a monthly basis, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate serves up a well-curated all-you-can-eat buffet of games including Day-1 and current releases, indie hits and even older titles on both the Xbox Series X|S as well as the PC, with the added bonus of EA Play titles.

The subscription service is priced at USD 15 per month (for a total of USD 180 a year). At such a competitive price, it definitely does put pressure on traditional digital distribution means such as Steam on the PC as well as whatever Sony has to offer on PlayStation Plus, which basically provides subscribers with 2 PS4 games to download a month and Nintendo’s Nintendo Switch Online, which provides access to retro NES and SNES titles. I’ve already subscribed to both PS+ and NSO.

So have I paid for brand new games on either of those platforms since getting on board with Game Pass? With the exceptions of Cyberpunk 2077 and Guardians of the Galaxy on the PS5 (which were on sale) and Death’s Door on the PC, not really. I’ve been checking out Sable, Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite and Unpacking, all of which are on Game Pass on both the Xbox and PC.

The last physical game that I’ve purchased is Fallout 4 for the PS4 and I can’t recall the last time I bought a Blu-Ray movie disc or an audio CD. The gaming rig that I’ve had built last year doesn’t even come with a DVD drive, although I did get a PS5 with a disc drive, and that being the only model available at the time of purchase.

Being used to buying digital games and media for the past several years makes it easier as well to transition over to a gaming subscription service such as Game Pass. Microsoft has announced recently that Xbox Game Pass will see a whopping 30-plus Day-1 releases, including recent acquisition Bethesda’s highly anticipated Starfield. And if the news reports are right, Sony is also looking to expand on its PlayStation Plus offerings to compete against Xbox Game Pass. So things are looking really peachy on the gaming subscription front and if you are a gamer on these platforms (PS5, PS4, Xbox and PC), there’s plenty to look forward to.

But what if you are someone who is just getting into gaming? Considering the skyrocketing prices of GPUs today, with nothing below USD 300, PC gaming is on the verge on being inaccessible. In this case, an Xbox Game Pass coupled with Microsoft’s cheaper but very impressive Xbox Series S console (Amazon | Play-Asia) could be a viable alternative so do look out for white console in a video game store near you.