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Why is Microsofts Game Pass PC still so horrible?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 36578
  • Start date

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
I finally had a night to myself and figured I could try out Halo Infinite for the first time, but good lord Game Pass PC is HORRIBLE!!! This is maddening. For the past 2 hours I've been trying to download the Halo Infinite campaign to no avail. I attempted to download just the campaign, but every time I'd click that option, the multiplayer would begin to download. I couldn't figure out anyway around it so I decided to dl the whole thing, multi , campaign and all. The download gets hung up , then completely disappears , as if I never clicked anything to begin with. I've been trying to troubleshoot this for the past few hours and I'm still unable to even download anything at all. The file sizes don't even make any damn sense on their own store pages.
When I click what drive I'd like to download it to, I'm met with the below pic. I swear I'm about to give the fuck up. I bought Game Pass for the next two months specifically for this and now I feel ripped off. Is this just how it is??? They never fixed anything after the Game Pass PC beta?

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Polyh3dron

Polyh3dron

Prophet of Regret
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,860
Because they're a big company, they aren't all that agile, and it's taking a long time to implement something better in its place. It's been announced that they're working on it.
 
flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,934
Polyh3dron said:
Because they're a big company, they aren't all that agile, and it's taking a long time to implement something better in its place. It's been announced that they're working on it.
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They have already released the "fix" they announced for insiders, and it does absolutely nothing to address the issue described in the OP.

As a matter of fact the "fix" is just a hack stuck on top of the rotten and broken backend that allows you to install apps into any folder you want. It barely functions and makes the issue described in the OP even worse.

They have never even acknowledged the issue described in the OP which has been a massive problem for the last ten years, let alone said they are fixing it
 
Hella

Hella

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,391
Just wait until you get it installed and running, only to have the Gaming Services bug pop up. That's when the real fun begins.

Doing anything on PC Game Pass is a gamble. In the end you'll always lose.
 
Yappa

Yappa

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,471
Hamburg/Germany
Hella said:
Just wait until you get it installed and running, only to have the Gaming Services bug pop up. That's when the real fun begins.

Doing anything on PC Game Pass is a gamble. In the end you'll always lose.
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That pissed me off. Almost reinstalled the game.
Not the first time that an Xbox App update screws over your game installs.
 
CommodoreKong

CommodoreKong

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,690
Even big companies like Microsoft don't typically give different departments unlimited budgets. If Microsoft had more people work on PC Gamepass that means they would likely have less people to work on the Xbox store and OS and that likely just doesn't make sense for them. They just make more money having minimal staff work on PC Gamepass along with putting games on Steam where tons of people buy them.
 
RedHeat

RedHeat

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,681
I think the way 343 split the multiplayer and campaign while still requiring them to be in the "same" game further exacerbates the problem. I tried for 10 minutes only downloading the campaign but but just gave up and downloaded the entire thing.
 
Jaypah

Jaypah

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,866
I don't know how to fix your issue but I agree it's fucked. I pay on a monthly basis because I never have any problems with it (outside of a game not initially downloading once) but it's been over a year now and I'm still scared to take the plunge on a deal on the yearly sub because I don't know when (if) it's gonna shit the bed. I understand that I'm actually rewarding them in this scenario but all of my games and downloads work so I still get an acceptable value, but it sucks that others are having problems to the point that I feel like I'm in a minefield.
 
Pasha

Pasha

Banned
Jan 27, 2018
3,018
It's going to take a while for them to fix these issues. Seems to me like the Windows division is slow as hell and they have gaming as bottom tier priority.

Hopefully Game Pass will start to make them enough money to start giving a shit.
 
trashbandit

trashbandit

Member
Dec 19, 2019
3,909
Does it still use UWP as the primary API? Anecdotally, UWP apps have always been more busted on my install of Windows 10 than Win32 apps, and I always chalked up the Xbox app's finicky-ness to that.
 
nath999

nath999

Member
May 7, 2018
1,497
Game Pass is actually pretty bad. I signed up for the next 3 years but damn it sucks. I thought the Xbox App on PC was going to be like Steam where I could buy games and stay in the Xbox Ecosystem but it's not quite like that at all.
 
JomanC137

JomanC137

Member
Oct 27, 2017
290
It once erased my RE7 save file and I couldn't recover it, was about to finish the game, it's an absolute do
 
wafflebrain

wafflebrain

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,175
I'm downloading the campaign now through the base install app, also I see the Windows Store app got updated and now I have no idea where to see download progress for anything other than a little progress wheel next to what's being downloaded. Is there any way to see current dl speed for things being downloaded in the new Windows Store app?
 
flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,934
trashbandit said:
Does it still use UWP as the primary API? Anecdotally, UWP apps have always been more busted on my install of Windows 10 than Win32 apps, and I always chalked up the Xbox app's finicky-ness to that.
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It uses the AppX wrapper and backend from UWP on every game. So while many of the games aren't native UWP apps they still require Win32 games to use the AppX wrapper and backend. So they have almost all the issues that native UWP apps have.

That is why everything is so unstable with Gamepass games.
 
HorseFD

HorseFD

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,019
Melbourne
Aren't there big changes coming, allowing you to install games in any directory and so on? I'd say it's likely to improve in the reasonably short-term future.

Also I think the main problem is that the base game is required in order to play the campaign. I'm not sure what went wrong apart from that though.
 
flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,934
HorseFD said:
Aren't there big changes coming, allowing you to install games in any directory and so on? I'd say it's likely to improve in the reasonably short-term future.

Also I think the main problem is that the base game is required in order to play the campaign. I'm not sure what went wrong apart from that though.
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See post #5 in this thread.

In summary- the fix is a hack and actually makes things worse.
 
secretanchitman

secretanchitman

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,754
Chicago, IL
You're not doing anything wrong. The Xbox App/Microsoft Store really is that bad and even the new beta client that has "fixes" just breaks more things from what flyinj and some others have experienced.

I know I'm repeating myself with every Game Pass PC thread but switching to buying Microsoft games on Steam was the best thing I've done. Zero download issues, smaller update sizes and everything just fucking works like you'd expect without any hassle.

Obviously the downsides are buying each game at full price or waiting for a sale and no cross-save support. Thankfully there is cross-progression with multiplayer games and cross-platform play so I'm fine with that.
 

bes.gen

Member
Nov 24, 2017
3,337
yeah they don't even officially acknowledge any issues with their shit store for almost a decade now.
but don't worry,im sure they'll make a funny t-shirt of it in 2040, when its all fixed and good.
 
Captain of Outer Space

Captain of Outer Space

Come Sale Away With Me
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,288
They really should not have raised the price and claimed it was no longer in beta, as the continued issues just makes it more annoying that it's not getting better and how obviously inferior it is to console game pass.
 
Cosmo Kramer

Cosmo Kramer

Prophet of Regret - Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,177
México
Yes, gamepass on PC sucks ass. I've had installed games dissapear from my HDD multiple times, it's a mess
 
Qudi

Qudi

Member
Jul 26, 2018
5,313
Just bought a ssd dedicated for gamepads games. Not taking any chances of losing storage capacity for my main game drive.

It's ridiculous.
 
-Peabody-

-Peabody-

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,593
I just keep getting an error about app licenses which makes me have to relaunch the game ten times until it suddenly just works.
 
TantricTorbjorn

TantricTorbjorn

Banned
Jul 8, 2020
48
I've been using it solidly for a month, and other than some minor install errors that were easily fixed by a quick google, it's been a miracle. I've been able to try so many games and play Halo with my wife for a dollar each.
My 10 year old self wouldn't have been able to believe how good this service is!
 
TeenageFBI

TeenageFBI

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,218
MS needs to completely redo their awful store's distribution method or just put Game Pass on Steam. The Microsoft Store is a disaster and I refuse to use it again.

It might be worse than Games for Windows Live, but in a different way.
 
Pyramid Head

Pyramid Head

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,837
wafflebrain said:
I'm downloading the campaign now through the base install app, also I see the Windows Store app got updated and now I have no idea where to see download progress for anything other than a little progress wheel next to what's being downloaded. Is there any way to see current dl speed for things being downloaded in the new Windows Store app?
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I wouldn't worry about it. You'll probably need to reinstall the whole thing from scratch at least one more time before you get to sit down and play it.
 
Richter1887

Richter1887

Member
Oct 27, 2017
39,143
Because windows as a whole have been trash lately. Instead of keeping it simple they need to force everyone into the smartphone esque OS.

Whoever is in charge of this needs to go out for some air and rethink wtf they are doing.
 

Vector

Member
Feb 28, 2018
6,631
Because Microsoft's software direction outside of the Xbox consoles has been laughably bad. Even the Microsoft Store on Windows 11 is plagued with issues from 5 years ago.
 
Cheesy

Cheesy

Member
Oct 30, 2017
2,267
I got a 3 month trial once and it was enough to turn me off forever. I had to babysit downloads because they would download for maybe a minute, then come to a stop, and then fail, then I'd have to hit a button to restart the download, it continued from where the download stopped but it was a really slow process. When Gears 4 came out it would consistently hit 99% downloaded, and then the download would fail, and I would have to start the download all over again on my slow ass internet, just ended up getting it on xbox.
 
Xbox Live Mike

Xbox Live Mike

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 29, 2017
2,434
USA
I mean the OP isn't wrong, It's the reason people are so reluctant to buy games from anything than Steam. It seems like they are working on it but PC Gamepass still needs a lot of work
 

furfoot

Member
Dec 12, 2017
595
The only reason i am subbed is it offers so much value when family sharing with my kids.
 
HOTSPUR

HOTSPUR

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,866
Nah its really bad. It didn't sour my experience on the **amazing** campaign but just another reason why gamepass pc fucking sucks. At least I got 3 months for a dollar. I'll be buying Halo on steam regardless but I couldn't play campaign 6+ hours after launch due to gamepass issues

Note: I really don't give a shit and would've waited to play Halo Infinite next year if necessary but PC gamepass is an atrocity and i would rather use Uplay than this
 
skullmuffins

skullmuffins

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,418
the halo campaign works as DLC for the base multiplayer game. You can't only download the campaign. I know a lot of people have had trouble with the store but I have not had any problems with it so far (knock on wood) for the year and a half I've had game pass. I feel like a lot of people with natural pc gamer tweaker tendencies try to fight the store and micromanage shit and end up exacerbating the problems
 
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Bonfires Down

Bonfires Down

Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,813
I'm losing hope that it will be fixed in any reasonable time frame after the recent "fix" turned out to be a dud.
 
5taquitos

5taquitos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,860
OR
Just give me a Steam subscription like EA does. I don't care if it's just MS first party, I'll gladly pay it. I will never use their store, nothing but terrible experiences on my end.
 
LazyGradient

LazyGradient

Member
Nov 9, 2020
436
For some odd reason my Gamepass thought my PC was set to Japanese text so all my games would start in Japanese. Nothing I tried worked and believe me, I spent hours trying to fix it. In the end it took a full Windows reinstall to have everything appear in English again.

Please, just do like Steam and give us a language selection menu in the Gamepass app.
 
PixelatedDonut

PixelatedDonut

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,966
Philly ❤️
skullmuffins said:
the halo campaign works as DLC for the base multiplayer game. You can't only download the campaign. I know a lot of people have had trouble with the store but I have not had any problems with it so far (knock on wood) for the year and a half I've had game pass. I feel like a lot of people with natural pc gamer tweaker tendencies try to fight the store and micromanage shit and end up exacerbating the problems
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Wonder what would make someone say this known broken thing was actually broken by the player.
 
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