Indiana Jones Encourages Resubscribing to Game Pass Ultimate

Time to check in again on the health of Microsoft’s cloud game service: Game Pass.

Have read here and there that Microsoft might be cutting back on the Day 1 releases on Game Pass Ultimate. I hope these reports are inaccurate, because there are some (many?) AAA game releases that would be enticing to play on Game Pass vs. buying and then possibly refunding if they don’t meet expectations on Steam.

Back in June of 2024, in an article titled Good Reason NOT to Renew Game Pass Ultimate I wrote about not renewing Game Pass Ultimate on Valentine’s Day. Toward the end of that piece, I pretty much guaranteed I’d be resubscribing at some point.

Turns out all it took was the new Indiana Jones game (mentioned here: Secret Level Adult Animated Series + New This Week Game Releases (NTWIG) 12/9 – 12/16/2024) to prompt me to cash in some banked Microsoft Rewards points. I cashed in enough reward points for 3 months, so now I’m back.

I played a little over an hour of Indy and felt like the game was 7 out of 10. Might return again, but as of this writing. haven’t done so yet. Another PGM member and moderator of our PGM Twitch stream Vader4633 has almost 12 hours in the game. He and I have been talking a bit about it in the PGM Discord. He shared that there is even a fishing hole at one point — although you can’t actually fish in the game:

BTW, I did like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I would not pay $70 for it, but as a day 1 Game Pass release, it was plenty enough to respark my interest in resubscribing. At least for three months, anyway.

Am also using this time while subscribed to poke around and see/play what else is new to me in there. And the meanwhile, I started doing my daily max Microsoft Rewards, which, when doing all dailies — PC, mobile and on the Xbox console — seems to bring my daily total points around 500 (500 x 30 days = 15,000 points per month). Maxing out these points each day takes me around an hour or so, while doing other stuff. If I was focused, I could do all of them in under 30 minutes.

It’s up to you, friendly reader, if you think working that is worthwhile. From my perspective, I’m going to do internet searches throughout the day, so doing them on my phone and on the PC isn’t really that big a deal. Playing a game on the PC, mobile and console is another daily task. Good way to start the day off.

Since a month of Game Pass Ultimate costs 12,000 points, if one does all their dailies every day, they can pay for that and have a couple thousand bonus points leftover. A month of paying for Game Pass Ultimate is $19.99/month, so maxing out your daily Microsoft Rewards can save you $240+ per year. In these challenging economic times, this might be just the motivation for at least some folks reading, right?

As for what’s on Game Pass and what’s changed in the last 10 months roughly I’ve been away? Am still figuring that out, but not seeing anything earth-shatteringly different. Nintendo games would be amazing, as pondered in: Will Xbox Ever Have Nintendo Games on Game Pass or Vice Versa? — but the answer is a hard no on that. Nintendo is too busy working their Switch 2.

Also, after the addition of Blizzard, not seeing World of Warcraft as a benefit, as hoped for here: Will MMORPG World of Warcraft Drop Monthly Paid Subscription and Come to Game Pass Now That Microsoft Owns Activision/Blizzard? Maybe this becomes a thing in 2025 or beyond? Seems doubtful. Microsoft did add a Call of Duty to Game Pass, so that’s encouraging. There’s a pretty good forum thread on Blizzard itself here: WoW on Game Pass, when? – Community / General Discussion – World of Warcraft Forums — consensus seems to indicate: no, it’s not going to happen.

We’re a ways off from 2027, when Phil Spencer questioned the future of the service: Microsoft CEO of Gaming Hints Closing Game Pass if Subscriber Numbers Don’t Meet Expectations by 2027 – but am happy to be back subscribed to Game Pass, even if I don’t renew it again once the three months is up.

In the meantime, you might see me poking around, playing game pass games and so on. I’m still a fan of the service, but thinking they are probably at their ceiling price-wise. $20/month seems like more than I’d want to play for this if was actually paying and not using Microsoft Rewards points, but I’ve got plenty of points to burn on this, while still earning more. I’d say at this point the likelihood I stay subscribed longer than three months is likely. They added an auto-redeem for the Microsoft Rewards as well.

Are you currently subscribed to Game Pass, any tier? If so, what do you like most about it currently? What would you change or hope to see them add more of? What would you like Microsoft to fix? Sound off in the comments.