… 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… …
… I don't doubt that there were some teams within Microsoft who had an incredibly clear understanding of the differences between those markets and the flaws in any strategy that conflated them, but the headline idea – "let's put one of the world's biggest games on Game Pass and make Game Pass irresis… …
… Game Pass Ultimate decreased from $29.99 to $22.99 per month, and PC Game Pass was reduced from $16.49 to $13.99. The recent price cuts did not fully offset the 50% increase from October 2025 . Game Pass Ultimate was previously $19.99 on console and $11.99 on PC. …
… "On Xbox, Game Pass has enabled players to try different experiences with way less friction," says Porter. "The side effect of that, though, especially with the day one launch strategy on Game Pass, is that in charts, Xbox looks very subdued. …
… What may be within reach of its ambitions is clawing back some engagement via Game Pass, better system-level integration, and incremental improvements to the Windows gaming experience. …
… The company also plans to expand into China and emerging markets and strengthen Game Pass with a sustainable financial model. …
… Xbox as a whole might be in a state of transition right now, with Asha Sharma being drafted in to replace former head of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer , but Charla remains upbeat, saying that over the last 12 months, people have spent "hundreds of millions of dollars on games from studios in the ID… …
… There is also the question of Microsoft's services strategy. Game Pass generated early anticipation among indie developers as a discovery and revenue driver, but that excitement cooled as the commercial realities became clearer . …
… Jason Schreier reported for Bloomberg this week that that is coming to pass, with the company scrapping plans to launch major first-party games like Ghost of Yotei on PC . …