Also in 2022, the warm months of the eSports year are clearly in the sign of the fairs. While the gamescom in Cologne takes place offline for the first time after the start of the Corona pandemic and the Gamevention is just around the corner at the beginning of July, the E3 fell out again this yearNevertheless, some publishers and developers did not miss the opportunity to keep fans and interested parties up to date. While some of the presentations scheduled for this took place during the Summer Games Festival, there was probably the biggest surprise of the trade show – Season so far at the Xbox Showcase in mid-June.

Riot Games becomes part of the “Innovation

That’s because, as Microsoft and Riot Games jointly announced, the tech giant’s Game Pass will be richer with some of the developer’s top titles. “Game Pass is the latest in a long line of innovations from Xbox, and we can’t wait to add our games to its catalog,” Riot said of the future collaboration. For the first time, such an arrangement includes not only PC games, but “also the purely mobile or mobile-accessible titles from Riot”. Specifically, this means League of Legends (LoL) including the mobile offshoot Wild Rift, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics (TFT) and Legends of Runterra The Game Pass should be particularly interesting for fans of the popular eSports titles Valorant and LoL – because subscribers receive immense benefits in both games: While in LoL all champions are unlocked from the start, in Valorant all agents are available immediately. This eliminates the need for lengthy sessions to unlock characters. In addition, there will be experience points as a further treat for selected titles

Game Pass customers clearly at an advantage

Exactly how Game Pass members will be able to link their account to Riot titles, and what additional benefits the partnership with Microsoft will bring, fans are expected to learn in the near future. “In the coming months, we’ll be announcing more about the partnership and revealing how Game Pass members will be able to access the content. Most countries will have access to the full range of Game Pass content, but in some cases titles may be excluded from Game Pass.” Microsoft thus takes the next step in the race of subscription models with Sony and possibly puts the PlayStation developer under pressure again. Sony itself had recently sealed a revolution of its own service offerings with a merger of PS Plus and PS Now.