Xbox Game Pass Received An Insider Program Feature

A new quality-of-life feature is inbound.

Xbox Insider Program has offered insight into what will be officially rolled out to everyone on the Xbox platforms. Today, we’re learning that another update was rolled out to those participating in the program this past weekend. This update saw a new useful feature that will make it worth keeping for those who actively use the Game Pass subscription service. Of course, being that this is an Xbox Insider program update, we will have to wait for the update to be officially rolled out to everyone. 

Thanks to Gamespot, we’re finding more details about the Xbox Insider Program update that went out. For the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, in particular, a new update is focused on games leaving the service. This feature was previously tested, but now it looks like Microsoft has added it back into the program for players to test out. Essentially, this feature will allow a new screen to appear when a player starts up a game on the leaving soon list. From there, it will allow the user to select the option to purchase the game.

If you’re unfamiliar, Xbox Game Pass typically sees a constant flow of games coming in and out each month. All of Microsoft’s first-party titles will remain on the Game Pass subscription service. So there is never really fear that these games will get dropped off. That’s not to say it won’t happen; we’ve seen an example with Quantum Break, where licensing issues caused the game to be dropped for a little while. However, once the licensing issues were handled, the game was able to return to the Game Pass service. 

But again, third-party games will eventually see their removal from the service. As a result, Microsoft would often share what games are being removed alongside the announcement of new games coming to the service. That gives you a notice of when the game will be dropping and a heads-up on a discount. Each game that leaves the service will have a special discount for Game Pass subscribers that will offer the ability to purchase the game at a discount prior to its departure. 

So now, with this new feature enabled, players won’t have to pay attention directly to the leaving soon category of Game Pass. Furthermore, they won’t need to check the Xbox Wire to see what games are leaving when the new game additions are unveiled. This should be a welcomed feature that will further help present useful information to players, especially since this will pop up when you’re trying to play a game that is actively on its way out of the service.