PC Game Pass, the sister service to the Xbox Game Pass subscription, is entering five more countries. Microsoft today announced it is bringing the popular service to Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The named countries are currently not official Xbox supported regions, making the PC Game Pass injection focus a unique endeavor for the company.
“At Xbox, our mission is simple, to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. Bringing PC Game Pass to new countries in Southeast Asia is an important part of how we will achieve this as we strive to reach billions of players,” said Xbox Asia business lead Jeremy Hinton.
While full support for the game subscription service is still in testing, Microsoft has opened up a preview program for interested players to jump in and try out the available games. Microsoft will be testing the local payment systems and looking for feedback from players on the Xbox app"s functionality in the new regions.
To join the PC Game Pass preview in the region, PC gamers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam can download the Xbox Insider app from the Microsoft Store, which is where they can find the "PC Game Pass Southeast Asia Market Expansion" program. Enrolling does have a small cost attached. For example, in Malaysia it is RM1.00 (~$0.24) for the duration of the preview, which does not seem to have an end date yet.
Once registered, the Xbox app on Windows can be used to download and access the hundreds of available games on the subscription. The EA Play subscription is a part of the service for no additional cost as well. PC Game Pass will officially launch in full later this year in the Southeast Asian regions the preview is currently running.