Microsoft has announced that PC Game Pass is now available in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Last month saw the company released a preview of the monthly game subscription service for Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Philippines joins the full launch of PC Game Pass today.
PC Game Pass offers a library of over 100 PC games to download and play, with new games being added regularly. All Xbox Game Studios first-party titles, and select games from Bethesda (now owned by Microsoft) are included in the subscription. On top of that, Game Pass includes a subscription to EA Play, which gives you access to EA’s game subscription service at no extra cost.
You don’t own any of the games on Game Pass, so when they leave the service you have to buy them to keep playing, though there’s always a discount offered prior to a game leaving the service.
New players can subscribe to PC Game Pass for the regional equivalent of $1 USD for the first three months. In Malaysia, that initial offer is RM5. After that, you will be charged a monthly rate of RM15.
Players who opted into the previous preview program can also get the introductory deal of RM5 for the first three months. An email from Xbox should be arriving to your inbox on how to access the deal.
Here are the steps for PC Game Pass preview subscribers to receive the RM5 for the first three months introductory deal:
- Sign in at https://account.microsoft.com/services
- Click “Manage” for PC Game Pass
- Click “Turn off recurring billing” and follow the online prompts to turn off recurring billing
- Visit https://www.xbox.com/games/store/pc-game-pass/cfq7ttc0kgq8 (make sure you’re signed in)
- There will be an option to extend your membership at the discounted offer
- Click the “Extend” button to access the offer
“Our goal is to bring PC Game Pass to more countries where Windows is available to help us reach over 3 billion gamers worldwide,” says Jeremy Hinton, Xbox Asia Business Lead.
“We are off to a strong start in Southeast Asia where we saw great demand for PC Game Pass during the preview period. We are listening to the players and are always looking to improve the experience. This includes growing the selection of games across genres and providing better language support.”
This marks Xbox’s biggest entry into the Southeast Asia market. The Xbox consoles and its services were only available in one country in the region, Singapore, prior to this.
It’s finally time that gamers in Southeast Asia are being seen by Microsoft, and it’s a good time to enter the market given that folks here are already accustomed to subscription services.
UPDATE 22/4/22: We have updated the article to include steps on how players already in the PC Game Pass preview can get in on the RM5 introductory price.