Winners and Losers: Game Pass gets better with Xbox Series X and Twitter’s hack woes continue

It’s time again for another entry in Trusted Reviews’ Winners and Losers series, where we revel in the best and worst newsworthy events of the past week.

This week has epitomised a running theme of 2020: it’s been a great year for gamers, but social media is becoming an increasingly horrendous place to spend your time.

Jumping from heavy hitters like Animal Crossing: New Horizons to The Last of Us Part II, gaming is set to get better – if you’re an Xbox fan that is. Meanwhile, the full details of Twitter’s recent hack are only now starting to emerge, and it’s worse than we first thought.

Winner: Xbox Game Pass

Let’s put the console war politics aside and appreciate what just happened – Microsoft absolutely smashed it with the Xbox Games Showcase. So much so that this journalist is considering picking up an Xbox Series X over the PS5. And it’s all down to one feature that’s largely overlooked: Game Pass.

Don’t get me wrong, the expansive world of Halo Infinite looks a joy to explore, and the existence of a new Fable game is long overdue for die-hard fans, but the real excitement comes knowing these games – every single game shown during the showcase – are coming to Game Pass.

Related: Xbox Game Pass vs PlayStation Now

Game Pass has been great value for money so far. I’ve dived into some classic titles such as Gears 5, Life is Strange 2 and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice at a fraction of the cost of purchasing these games outright. But knowing Game Pass will be the first port of call for these titles just cranks the value up to the nth degree.

Somehow, that’s not even the best part. As a means of satiating gamers in the wait until the Series X hits shelves, Destiny 2 and all of its DLC packs, will be available on Game Pass from September. That includes upcoming DLC pack Beyond Light, which makes the service a must-have for Destiny fans or anyone who’s been looking to get into the popular online shooter.

Loser: Twitter

Twitter isn’t my favourite service at the best of times. Once a place to tell your following what kind of sandwich you had for lunch, it’s become an online space filled with vitriol, threats of violence and countless takes on why your new favourite game is actually the worst thing on earth.

With that said, the one thing still assumed of Twitter was that its security was at least secure. Well, those assumptions came crashing to a halt this month as 130 major accounts belonging to A-list figureheads such as Elon Musk, Barack Obama and Jeff Bezos were hacked as part of a wide-spread Bitcoin scam.

The scam in question saw the affected users tweet out a link to an investment ‘opportunity’, ensuring followers their money would be doubled if they invested within 30 minutes (sounds too good to be true). What’s coming to light now is the additional damage caused by the hack.

As it turns out, the hackers also got access to the private messages of 36 of the affected accounts. Twitter won’t reveal exactly who was affected, but it’s worth noting that roughly £93,600 was funnelled into the scam before Bitcoin itself put a stop to it.