New Xbox Game Pass Ad Says “You Don’t Need an Xbox to Play Xbox”

Back in June, Xbox announced a dedicated app for Amazon Fire TV Stick, allowing Xbox Game Pass subscribers to use Cloud Streaming without owning a console. That app is now available to download, and Xbox is celebrating with a brand-new commercial. The commercial plays out as a parody of the Scream franchise, with a woman receiving a mysterious phone call asking her to play Xbox and “what’s your favorite video game?” When the woman insists that she doesn’t own an Xbox, the caller reveals that she can access hundreds of Xbox games thanks to Amazon Fire TV Stick. 

The new commercial for Xbox Game Pass can be found below. 

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of talk from Xbox about efforts to expand the platform’s audience, even to gamers that might not own an Xbox console. Making the Game Pass app accessible on other platforms is a way to make it easier for people to discover the company’s games, and that’s something Xbox has shown a lot of interest in lately. Of course, a subscription to Xbox Game Pass is still required to stream any game on the app other than Fortnite, so It will be interesting to see if this partnership with Amazon leads to a greater influx of users. If it’s successful enough, it’s possible that it could also lead to Game Pass coming to other platforms. There has been constant speculation about Game Pass coming to platforms like Nintendo Switch, but Xbox claims that it wants to keep the service exclusive to its own consoles. 

At the very least, the collaboration between Xbox and Amazon could benefit homes that already have one console, and want to have Game Pass accessible in a second room. Buying a Fire TV Stick is a lot cheaper than purchasing a second console, and there are already a lot of people that own Amazon Fire TV Sticks. The woman in the commercial immediately has an Xbox controller to use with her Fire TV Stick, but it’s worth noting that the Game Pass app can be accessed with other existing Bluetooth-enabled controllers, including the PlayStation DualSense and DualShock 4. 

How do you feel about this partnership between Microsoft and Amazon? Do you think this strategy will help grow the Xbox brand? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!