Am I the only one who feels motivation from seeing a game or movie in a streaming or subscription service is “Leaving Soon”? Things that were only passingly interesting to me suddenly end up at the top of my watch or play list.

This is the case for games on the Xbox Game Pass for me. I noted, for example, that the only reason I tried Sea Salt was because it was leaving soon. Though I haven’t written about it yet, I’m playing Gris for the same reason. I only have a few days left with that game, so I better get to it!

This is the same for seeing shows on my Watchlist suddenly flagged as “Available until (date)” on Netflix. I’m not much of a binge watcher, and usually like to take my time with shows and movies. However, I’m currently watching through as many episodes of Bates Motel as I can because after next month, it’ll be gone.

I don’t respond that way to everything, I notice. There was some other Netflix series (I can’t remember what) on my Watchlist that was flagged as leaving the same day. Seeing that Bates Motel has 5 seasons, and the other was fairly long, too, I knew due to time constraints, I’d have to choose one or the other. So I removed that one — which must not have been a big deal because I don’t even remember the name. 🙂

Anyhow, being new to a subscription games-as-a-service, I kinda like the motivation that “Leaving Soon” gives me to try something out. I find myself checking back on the Xbox app for not just what’s coming in but what’s going out and adjusting my choice of games based on that.

I still feel as if the Xbox Game Pass is a good setup for someone with my sort of gaming habits. I haven’t actually started paying for it yet, seeing I had a 3 month free trial, but when I do, I hope to get value from it for a while.

What’s your experience with games or movies that are “leaving soon?” Does this motivate you to play or watch stuff you might have only been mildly interested in before?