Xbox is getting rid of its standalone Game Pass app

By Carli Velocci September 25, 2024

Five screens from the new Xbox mobile app. The middle one says black ops 6 — Xbox

All of Xbox’s mobile features will soon be under just one app. Microsoft announced Wednesday that it’ll be moving Game Pass features into the regular Xbox app for beta users starting this week.

This signals the end of Xbox Game Pass app as a separate entity. Game Pass functionality, like searching the catalog or grabbing perks for Game Pass Ultimate members, will be in the main Xbox app. The move also means the Game Pass app will no longer be available for new download beginning in November.

Recommended Videos

This is a welcome move for players who don’t want to deal with two apps in order to access everything PC and console players get in one place. It also makes it less confusing if you want to see what’s on Game Pass catalogs versus available in the regular Xbox Store. The app still won’t have native Xbox Cloud Gaming functionality, but Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can still stream games through a browser.

To join the beta program on mobile, you can download the Xbox beta app on the Google Play Store for Android or via TestFlight on iOS.

The Xbox blog post also reveals other updates for PC and console players. First up, Game Bar Compact Mode, a smaller version of the Game Bar on PC optimized for smaller screens like on Windows handheld consoles that was previously only available for Xbox Insiders, is now available for all PC players. Now instead of having a number of widgets taking over your screen, you’ll just have one widget on the left-hand side that can also be navigated via a controller.

If you already have the Game Bar installed, just open it up and you’ll be prompted to turn on Compact Mode.

PC players are also getting more management tools to help save download space and view games at a glance.

Finally, console players will get a new feature to make it easier to play games with updates and pre-downloads. It’s not available in all games, but it’s supported in some Xbox titles already like Sea of Thieves and Minecraft. Consoles will also now get notifications when a game on a player’s wishlist has received an update, is available to purchase, is available with a promotion, or is added to the Game Pass library.

Topics

Contributor, Games

Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…

Gaming

Shattered Space is Starfield at its very best and worst

The players moves towards a glowing objects in zero gravity in Starfield: Shattered Space.

While I had put around 25 hours into Starfield after it launched last September, I hadn't revisited Bethesda's ambitious sci-fi RPG in about a year. When the Shattered Space expansion was released on Monday, I was excited to finally have a worthwhile reason to jump back in and reassess the game. I was happy to discover that Shattered Space leans into some of the best aspects of Starfield, namely very handcrafted content, even if this expansion can't escape the rocky foundation that it feels like this RPG has lived on.

The gaming community has not been nearly as kind to Starfield as it was to previous Bethesda RPGs like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. The base game's overreliance on procedural generation and lack of polish are to blame. If the former was your biggest problem, then you might actually enjoy a lot of Shattered Space. If the latter bothered you more, Shattered Space won't do anything to win you back. I'm glad I returned to Bethesda's sci-fi universe one more time, but I'm not sure I'll stick around.
Starfield, one year later
Jumping right into Shattered Space's storyline is quite the cold plunge if you've been out of the loop for a while. This expansion focuses on the religious House Va'ruun faction and the lore that comes with it. The names and references to events that took place centuries before the events of Starfield's story were a lot to take in at first, but after a while, I settled in and found myself enjoying this DLC's tale. That was thanks to some core strengths that Starfield has always had.

Gaming

3 new Xbox Game Pass games you should play this weekend (October 4-6)

Sifu's main character at age 70 in Sifu.

Later this month, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will receive its biggest day-one release ever with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Until then, we'll have to bide the time with other recently added Xbox Game Pass games. Thankfully, multiple games came to Microsoft's subscription service during Tokyo Game Show in September and one particular highlight just landed this week. If you're looking for something to play this weekend, these are the games you should be looking for on Xbox Game Pass.
Sifu
Sifu | Sloclap | Night Club Gameplay Teaser | PS4, PS5 & PC

Sloclap's Sifu is an intense action game with intricate hand-to-hand combat that feels like it could've been pulled right out of John Wick or a classic kung fu movie. It's incredibly satisfying for that reason alone, but Sifu's most unique hook happens when players die. With each death, players get a little more powerful but age up and lose a bit of health. This gives Sifu a one-of-a-kind difficulty curve because it gets easier and more difficult in different ways with each death. With lots of content and accessibility updates under its belt at this point, you'll have a fantastic time checking out the complete version of Sifu now if you've never played it before. Sifu is available to Game Pass subscribers across PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. It's also on PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie
We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie - Xbox Game Pass Trailer

Gaming

All cross-platform games (PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)

Two squads of heroes clash in an Overwatch 2 trailer.

Cross-platform support is becoming more important in the world of video games. Multiplayer hits like Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Fortnite have pushed crossplay into the limelight, and now most AAA multiplayer games release with at least partial cross-platform support. Finding every cross-platform game is no easy feat, though, so we did the hard work to bring you a comprehensive list of games that support crossplay.

Unfortunately, there aren't any rules when it comes to crossplay, so each game handles the feature a little differently. To make matters more confusing, certain backward-compatible games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X still support crossplay on the most recent hardware, even if there isn't an official release for that hardware.