Xbox All Access lands in the UK
Subscribe now and earn the option to upgrade to the Xbox Two when it launches next year
For the first time, aspiring gamers in the UK can purchase Xbox All Access, a service that bundles a console and a 24-month Game Pass Ultimate subscription together for a monthly fee.
Xbox All Access is available right now via the Game website. The price varies depending on the console you choose: an Xbox One X subscription will set you back £25/mth, and an Xbox One S subscription, £20/mth. You can also grab the new(ish) Xbox One S All-Digital edition, for £18/mth, if you don’t mind sacrificing the disc drive.
Thanks to the inclusion of a 24-month Game Pass Ultimate subscription, however, you might not mind at all. Subscribing to Game Pass grants you access to over 100 games, from recent launches to Xbox 360 and Xbox mainstays; unlike Sony’s rival PlayStation Now service, subscribers must download a game to play. Not all new titles end up in the Game Pass library, but it remains a cost-effective way of ditching the disc.
New to Xbox All Access is the option to upgrade to the Xbox Two, currently known as Project Scarlett, when it launches around Christmas time next year. This option rolled out in the US prior to Black Friday, and is available now in the UK on all three subscription types; the caveat being that unless you purchase the Xbox One X bundle, you will need to complete a full 18 monthly payments before you qualify for the upgrade.
To sign up, just head to the Game website and select a console bundle. You’ll need to undergo a quick “soft credit check” through Klarna, a Swedish banking firm which also acts as the storefront when you purchase the subscription. Klarna will let you know exactly how much you’ll be paying in total (over 24 months) before you buy, which is nice.
It’s a bit risky to describe this as the cheapest way to buy an Xbox One console. Instead, we’ll say this: if you can’t quite stretch to the £200-£350 outlay necessary to buy a console outright, you’re comfortable paying in instalments AND you like the idea of 100 on-demand Xbox games, then Xbox All Access is for you.