I’ve never owned an Xbox system – in fact, all of my consoles since the PS2 have been Nintendo. Most of my heavy gaming I do on the PC, where I tend to amass more games in my backlog than I can hope to play. Even on the Switch, I have a backlog now. So I can’t imagine picking up yet another console to do the same.

However, when I heard about the Xbox Game Pass for PC, I got curious. I knew this was a thing for the Xbox consoles, and heard good things about it. But I guess recently, this subscription service (I see it as a Netflix for games) has extended to PC now.

You see, I’ve got a terrible habit of playing a game that I bought for a handful of hours, then getting sidetracked by something else – usually a game that I’ve put more hours into, such as a MMO.

I put the game down, then the next thing I know, months have gone by and I don’t remember a whole lot about what I played – certainly not enough to pick it back up in an unfinished state. Neither do I want to go back and completely replay the what I’ve already played, so I usually just file it away under a “Want to Play Again Someday” folder in Steam.

And that’s how my backlog goes.

So why am I interested in something like Xbox Game Pass?

Well, I know that I have a habit of trying a game out and getting distracted. What this offers is a low monthly fee on a library of games with the option to buy if you really become fond of one.

This appealed to me because there’s no backlog — you don’t technically own the game unless you want to. So my habit of buying a game, playing a few hours, and filing it away is actually more pricey in the long run than a $10 subscription that allows me to do the same thing with a library of games that changes from time to time.

Not to mention, there are actually games in the library that I’m interested in buying and even have on my Steam wishlist. Now I can quietly remove them from my wishlist and try them here instead.

So what actually tipped me into trying the Game Pass?

I was on the fence about trying this for a while until I logged into Discord the other day. Apparently Nitro folks get a free three month trial. So, absolutely, sign me up!

I’ve already downloaded Crusader Kings III (which I’m looking forward to!), Slay the Spire (which I played on Steam a while back, but returned for some reason, don’t remember why) and Astrologaster (which looks interesting).

I also finally tried out Hatoful Boyfriend – a game I’d likely never buy, but saw that it was being rotated off as of yesterday. And you know what… I really enjoyed it (blog post coming soon)! But I would have never played it at all if it wasn’t for this.

So I’m trying something new with this, and I feel like overall, it might be a really good direction for me based on my gaming habits. I certainly won’t be giving up my Steam library for anything, but going forward, for a blanket cost, I can “rent” a whole library of games without the stress of feeling a backlog growing around me.

I like that!