Xbox Game Pass Is Going Somewhere You Probably Forgot About
Xbox and Meta have expanded their partnership by adding Xbox Game Pass Starter Edition to Meta Horizon+ subscriptions. Horizon+ subscribers now gain access to over 50 games through cloud streaming on their Meta Quest VR headsets, with the option to download games directly to the device.
The partnership follows a similar initiative announced in May with Discord Nitro. The Starter Edition provides access to a curated selection of games including titles like Fallout 76, Fallout 4, Overcooked 2, Grounded, and DayZ. However, cloud-streamed games are limited to 10 hours of gameplay per month, and users require a high-speed internet connection for optimal performance.
Meta Horizon+ itself is a monthly or annual subscription service that grants access to over 100 VR games for Meta Quest headset owners. The addition of Xbox Game Pass is positioned as a standard benefit of the subscription tier, expanding the value proposition for VR enthusiasts.
This collaboration builds on Microsoft and Meta’s previous partnership from the prior year, which resulted in the Xbox Edition Meta Quest headset bundle—a specially branded device that came pre-equipped with Xbox Cloud Gaming access and a custom controller. Today’s announcement also hints at further improvements coming to Xbox VR controllers as part of the ongoing partnership.
The deal represents Microsoft’s broader strategy of bringing Game Pass to multiple platforms and subscription services, having previously established similar partnerships with Discord. For Meta, the arrangement offers a way to bolster the appeal of its VR ecosystem at a time when the broader metaverse concept has struggled to gain mainstream adoption.