… Sharma said that in the long term, Xbox " will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system , which will take time to test and learn around." Earlier this month, Xbox and Discord announced a partnership offering a "starter edition" of Game Pass to Nitro subscribers. …
… But not surprising." Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis agrees that "the commercial reasoning for pursuing a subscription-first strategy for new releases the size of CoD has not been realised." "Its inclusion in Game Pass was hoped to turbo-charge the service," he says, "but these short-term in… …
… Sharma recently discussed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's ten-year vision for Xbox , emphasizing the firm's commitment to driving Game Pass subscription revenues and investing in features for the firm's next console, known as Project Helix.
This week, Xbox announced that Call of Duty will no longer be added to Game Pass Ultimate at launch , instead being added around a year later. This was paired with a reduction in the cost of the service , from $29.99 down to $22.99 on Xbox and from $16.49 to $13.99 a month for PC Game Pass. …
… But my greatest fortune, by far, has been the privilege of working with amazingly talented and passionate game developers over the past 25 years. …
… Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz in 2022, Pav Bhardwaj, senior global product manager at Xbox Game Pass, said that streaming was a "great alternative" to consoles . In 2025, Microsoft's then-games chief Phil Spencer wrote in a LinkedIn post that its cloud streaming business was on the rise . …
… As for why games companies want to work with charities, it generally boils down to staff being passionate about a specific cause, and tax incentives. Emanuel points to another benefit to games firms: access to talent. …
… The people creating video games often require hugely powerful setups to run the software that is used to build games. Wired2Fire's Miles sees this as another area of pressure on already embattled game studios. …
… When Valve says it's forced to pass on component price rises, people believe them. …
… But Schade highlights other important avenues, such as Xbox Game Pass and early access. He says Xbox Game Pass supported Everspace 2's "production runway," enabling more content and polish across platforms. …