game pass

Microsoft’s decision to raise Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $19.99 to $29.99 a month — a 50% jump that rolled in partner perks like Fortnite Crew and a promise of “75+ day‑one releases” — has turned what was widely billed as gaming’s best-value subscription into a contested experiment in platform...

Microsoft is quietly testing a free, ad-supported tier of Xbox Cloud Gaming that would let non-subscribers stream certain games after watching short ad breaks — a move that could reshape how Microsoft monetizes cloud play and where cloud gaming fits in the broader streaming ecosystem. Background...

Microsoft’s October overhaul of Xbox Game Pass is the largest restructuring the subscription has seen since its 2017 debut — and it has changed the math for millions of players overnight. In a single announcement Microsoft renamed and recast the lower tiers, bumped up PC Game Pass pricing, and...

Xbox’s Game Pass shake-up is dramatic by design: the company has restructured tiers, rolled cloud access into lower plans, bundled partner services, promised a surge of day‑one releases — and bumped Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $19.99 to $29.99 a month, a 50% increase that landed with immediate...

Xbox Game Pass makes playing hundreds of PC titles as simple as signing in and clicking Install — but there are a few important steps, settings, and troubleshooting tricks every Windows user should know to download Game Pass games reliably, manage storage, and avoid common pitfalls. This guide...

Canceling Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is quick and straightforward: you can stop recurring billing from your Microsoft account, directly from an Xbox console, or from a Windows PC, and you’ll keep access to the service until the end of your current paid period. Background Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is...

ASUS and Xbox have opened pre-orders for two new handheld Windows gaming PCs — the ROG Xbox Ally and the higher‑end ROG Xbox Ally X — promising a console‑like, controller‑first experience built on Windows 11 and tuned jointly by ASUS and Microsoft to bring Game Pass, installed PC libraries, and...

Microsoft’s Game Pass strategy moved from aggressive growth to an unmistakable consolidation play this week as ID@Xbox head Chris Charla confirmed the company has struck deals with more than 150 partner studios in what he described as Microsoft’s “largest investment in Game Pass to date.” That...

Microsoft's new handheld-focused, full‑screen Xbox interface for Windows 11 can already be unlocked on many in‑market Windows handhelds thanks to a Release Preview of the Windows 11 25H2 update and a handful of community-discovered switches — meaning you don't have to wait for the ROG Xbox...

Microsoft’s handheld push has taken a new turn: the Xbox-style, full‑screen “Xbox Mode” that will ship as the default experience on the ROG Xbox Ally family is already appearing on other Windows 11 handhelds — in community builds and hacks — ahead of the Ally’s retail launch, forcing a rapid...

Gears of War: Reloaded landed as a high‑polish remaster that aims to modernize visuals and frame‑rates, but for some players the experience was undermined by aggressive camera motion — a problem the Windows Central reviewer solved by turning off a single setting: camera shake. Background /...

Gears of War: Reloaded hit my PC with all the polish and performance of a modern remaster — and also with a nasty, unexpected side effect: I felt nauseous within minutes until one toggle in the game settings changed everything. Background / Overview Gears of War: Reloaded is the newest remaster...

Microsoft’s pitch for Windows 11 promised more than a new skin — it promised a gaming OS that would feel like it was built from the ground up for modern play: Auto HDR to breathe new life into older titles, DirectStorage to make load screens and texture pop-in fade into memory, and tighter Xbox...

Microsoft’s Xbox app on Windows 11 has quietly evolved from a Game Pass storefront into a genuine, controller-friendly gaming hub capable of listing and launching installed titles from Steam, Epic, GOG, Battle.net and more — and the company is now rolling key pieces of that work out to wider...

Microsoft has quietly repurposed the Xbox button on gamepads when used with Windows 11 Insiders: a long press now opens Task View while a short press still launches the Game Bar, and a press-and-hold continues to power down the controller — a small but practical tweak rolling out to Dev and Beta...

Microsoft has quietly reworked the Xbox app on Windows 11 into a genuine one‑stop hub for PC gaming, and the implications reach well beyond a refreshed launcher: the app now aggregates installed titles from multiple storefronts, lets you launch non‑Microsoft games without opening third‑party...

Microsoft’s push to make Xbox the gaming platform that follows players across consoles, PCs, and handhelds is now measurable—and exposed by a practical problem: some of the biggest publishers still aren’t playing ball with Xbox Play Anywhere, and that gap risks turning Microsoft’s cross-device...

Lenovo’s newly announced Legion Go 2 will ship this October as a bigger, more expensive flagship handheld and — crucially for Windows handheld gamers — Lenovo says it will be able to run Microsoft’s new Xbox full‑screen experience starting in spring 2026, making the Legion Go 2 the first...

It’s a blockbuster start to September on Xbox: the long‑awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong drops day one on Xbox Game Pass, while a crowded slate of indie, mid‑tier and AAA releases — including NBA 2K26, Cronos: The New Dawn, and Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion — land across Xbox and PC between...

Xbox Game Pass has quietly become one of the most consequential subscription services in modern gaming — not because it’s perfect, but because it keeps expanding like a Swiss Army knife for players who want choice, cross‑device continuity, and an alternative to buying every title outright. What...