The best game we got to play thanks to our game subscription service.
Previously called Best Game On Game Pass in 2023, this award category now covers any video game that is released in a subscription service.
Subscriptions are getting more expensive this year, as Xbox Game Pass and PS Plus prices have gone up. But for those that do still use them as a rentable backlog, this award is to celebrate some of the best games that not only makes the subscription worth paying for, but also make them worth existing.
Past Winners: MLB: The Show 24 (2024), Starfield (2023), Tunic (2022)
Best Game On A Game Sub Nominees
- Blue Prince
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Doom: The Dark Ages
- Sword Of The Sea
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
How The Winner Is Decided (Deliberations Summary)
Similar to last year, the way we frame this award is to reward games that benefit from the discoverability that game subscription offers.
While Xbox has started to walk back a bit on their promise of offering all 1st-party games day-1 on Game Pass, the progenitor of this particular subscription model still has a strong showing. Doom: The Dark Ages and the shadowdrop of the year that was The Elder Scrolls IV: Remastered, out of a few from our pool of Top 30 games, we reckon is worth playing on a game sub the most.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was a big get for Xbox Game Pass. They may have snubbed an eventual GOTY winner when they failed to get Baldur’s Gate 3 on the subscription service way back when, but here they got themselves a real gem of a game. While it’s a fantastic game to be able to experience on a game sub, but it’s also a safe and expected game. We know this was coming to Game Pass for years.
The crew remains adamant that the winner for this award category should be given to a game that you wouldn’t even try if it were not on a game sub you happen to be on. The Netflix analogy is used here, it’s like discovering a one-off show or a one-season series out of nowhere that you’d find yourself enjoying a lot, but wouldn’t necessarily go after or fork money on otherwise.
Sword Of The Sea and Blue Prince fit that bill. Both titles somehow went under our radar, and seeing them pop on PS Plus Game Catalog (and for Blue Prince, also on Game Pass) is what made us checked them out.
But to use the Netflix analogy again, between this two, there’s one that you can replay over and over, just so you can learn more about the world, piece together the world, and try to get the good ending for real this time. One of the two is Black Mirror Bandersnatch.
It happens to have a name that starts with the letter B.
Best Game On A Game Sub Winner
Congratulations to Blue Prince for winning Best Game On A Game Sub! The roguelite puzzler is truly one-of-a-kind that’s also a hard sell. The power of a game subscription has made us gave it a chance and see this creative work’s vision, and it truly is sublime.
Check out the Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters Game Of The Year Awards 2025 hub for full list of awards.