Attached screenshot for context

I sometimes use game pass try out games that look interesting but I don't really want to buy. Decided to do so for Stalker 2.

This is the first time I have seen this prompt telling me that I can enable "offline gameplay" for my device. Apparently only certain games offer the "feature" hence why I hadn't seen it before.

What's funny and sad is that even when offering the ability to play your library offline they limit it to the point you can't even go between a few devices before it locks you to just one.

On a side note, why is Stalker 2 a 143GB game...

I've completely given up console gaming for company's DRM (digital rights management) * policies. Not to mention their lack of interesting titles.
Is lending a game piracy? I can't expect it to get better.

Wouldn't it make more sense to play your offline title across all accounts?

Remember when Xbox got clowned on the start of the generation because Sony uploaded a video of someone handing a game to someone else?

Yeah, I haven't forgotten that. I don't care about consoles, but Microsoft had a serious case of Cranial-Rectal Inversion which appears to have singlehandedly killed their consoles.

Unreal 5.
The end of compression because of SSDs and (supposedly) high network speeds globally and the death of physical media as the main delivery system.
Some bad choices.

In case that wasn't odd enough, their FAQ states the offline feature is a yearly license (for "owned" games, game pass games are a 30 day licence) that is renewed by logging back in. What I'm wondering is how they detect an expired licence if you remain offline. In any case, the entire system is ridiculous.

Some poor guy made a support thread asking to swap his offline device from his handheld and was told he has to wait 1 year for his licence to renew...Yeah, imagine paying full price for a game that's restricted to 1 device. Not account, device.

I used to be a bit of an Xbox fanboy but clearly something horrible happened internally through the later 2010s. Yup, it asked me to use my other SSD and I thought, "why, I have 200gb free"...Then I saw the game size and laughed.

The OP is playing on PC (using Game Pass), why are most of you going on about consoles?

I'm pretty sure that the game was 158GB when I downloaded a few weeks ago. Then the, just before it finished downloading, the next major patch dropped, and I had to download another 120GB!

Have you tried to start the game yet? Then you get the good old "compiling shaders" crash. Nothing to do with Xbox or Game Pass, that happens on Steam too. In 70 hours I found that it would crash during shader compilation 50 percent of the time that I tried to start the game, then just load again without it...which caused no issues whatsoever. Don't worry though, once you get past the compiling shaders screen, I never had any crashes at all and finished the game with no issues- the game also ran really well, and the only bugs I found were just the occasional dead body getting stuck in a wall.

I think developers are now just re-releasing the full game as opposed to traditional updates hence those large patch sizes.

I've almost finished downloading so I'll be playing soon enough which is surprising, 3-4 hours to get through 140gb is a record for my internet. Might just be the Xbox servers.

Thanks for the heads up, I'd seen a few videos about poor performance but sometimes playing the game oneself offers a different experience, especially if it's still a good game.

Keep in mind that when I say performance was good, I'm not someone that thinks every game should need to run at 150fps. My PC is considered high end as well. At 4K max settings I had around 80fps which is fine for a slow paced game like STALKER. I could have dropped settings to get higher, but after playing a few hours I actually went the opposite and capped at 60fps- which was perfectly playable and completely stable, and that may be why I didn't have crashes or stability issues.

Well, it was the DirectX Box. It was meant to be an extension of their research and had they played their cards right, a way to capture the Dreamcast crowd, seeing as it was the successor.

Problem is, Microsoft has as much appeal in Japan as unpopular Manzai act.

If my very limited experience on my little corner of the world is anything to go by, being very generous, I would say that in europe isn't even 5% share.

Most people I talk about videogames didn't even play Call of Duty once, let alone more than a single entry and is yearly the best selling games on the States...

Isn't "offline gameplay" just...you know..."gameplay"...?

Remember Windows XP online product activation? :)

The Microsoft Store is the worst when it comes to DRM and modding. The UWP DRM for games released before Gears 5 is very restrictive and many PC gamers had the worst modding experience with Microsoft Store games. It took me more time to get Halo Infinite working than it is to finish the campaign... And the campaign is one of the most mediocre campaigns i have played. I rather touch EA App, Ubisoft Connect, or Microsoft old GFWL than touch the Microsoft Store again.

And for Xbox consoles... you cannot setup a Xbox One and Series S/X offline and you need a online Xbox Live account at all times to play games, even "offline" physical disc games and the DRM is stronger than Denuvo as it still cannot be "modded" after 11 years. So how will these Xbox "physical" discs work after Xbox Live gets shutdown in 20-30 years?

In this day and age it's "suspicious aberration" if you're a big publisher and "huh?" if you're an average gamer.

Had no idea Xbox consoles had become this bricked. You pay for the console, you pay for a bunch of games, you pay for a live subscription, and you can't even play a couple of hours of Minecraft in the event your internet went down.