A digital store for Xbox and PC, where you can buy and download games and applications from Microsoft and third-party publishers. Here, as well as in Origin, there are its exclusives – actually, games from Microsoft, like Gears 4, Forza Motorsport 7, Forza Horizon 4. However, this exclusivity is not constant: some titles have already moved to Steam, and now Microsoft is releasing all the new games from Xbox Game Studios simultaneously on both services, giving players a choice.
There is an opinion that if it were not for the games from Microsoft, this service would not be a success on PC. And there is a telling case associated with it: in 2015, players who bought the shooter Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare faced the trouble of empty servers – it turned out that the version from the Microsoft Store allowed to play only with owners of the game from the same store, and since there were very few (literally a few), network lobbies were empty.
However, such cases are rather the exception than the rule: the majority of games in the MSS Store supports cross-play between different services and even platforms, so you can always find a partner for joint adventures in Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 4 and other titles.
As for sales and bargains in the store, it is not a very common practice. Moreover, there are no regional prices here, so you have to pay, mainly, $60-$100 for games, depending on the edition, and there are no refunds for purchases. After the transfer of prices from rubles to dollars has become more complicated and replenishment of the “purse” in the Microsoft Store, but for a time opened a funny bug, with which players were able to buy games at very low prices, literally for pennies.
What do we have in the end? Not the most popular service, often with high prices and not the most convenient functionality. This is partly offset by exclusive games not available in other stores, and also the presence of Xbox Game Pass subscription, which allows for a monthly fee (about $10) to play all the new products from Microsoft, as well as many games from an extensive catalog, which includes and AAA-titles, and indie projects. The list includes such hits as Gears 5, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, State of Decay 2, Imperator: Rome and many others. A good offer for those who play a lot and love games of different genres.