Microsoft revives Xbox All Access with Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live, and Xbox console starting at $20/mo, with the ability to upgrade to Project Scarlett in 2020
Xbox All Access bundles from as little as $19.99 per month — Microsoft is bringing its Xbox All Access bundle back, just in time for the holiday season.
Context & Ripple Effects
Xbox All Access has had a rocky arc: Microsoft launched the contract-based console-plus-subscription bundle in August 2018 (announced with Game Pass, Live Gold, and One S or One X hardware), then quietly told customers it would end on December 31 of that year pending a revised format. The revival — timed for the holidays and expanded to the UK and Australia (per the follow-up on international expansion) — now bakes in an upgrade path to Project Scarlett in 2020, turning a two-year lock-in into a standing subscription to whatever Xbox ships next.
First-order effects
- Holiday shoppers can finance a console plus Game Pass and Xbox Live from roughly $20/month instead of paying upfront, with Microsoft's retail partners carrying the financing risk on the hardware.
- Project Scarlett's 2020 launch gets a pre-committed installed base: buyers who sign up this holiday are effectively reserving next-generation consoles through their existing contracts.
Second-order effects
- Sony faces pressure to match a hardware-as-subscription offer during its own holiday window, since the bundle's real pitch is monthly cost rather than box price — a comparison frame Microsoft controls.
- Game Pass content spending becomes the bundle's margin engine: every financed console deepens the subscriber base that justifies Microsoft's exclusive-content investment ahead of Project Scarlett.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds through the Scarlett transition, console launches shift from one-time hardware purchases to subscription renewals, making churn rate — not units sold — the metric that defines each generation's success.
The trend: Console gaming is converting hardware ownership into a recurring-billing relationship, with Microsoft's bundle-and-upgrade structure as the template.