#xbox-game-pass

#xbox-game-pass

The past year also saw the announcement of Valve's newest Steam Machine, the industry's first $80 game in decades from an unexpected source, EA announcing a take-private deal with Saudi Arabia, the retirement of a longtime Nintendo executive, Microsoft putting its games on rival platforms, the return of Game Informer magazine, and a voice-actor strike. Beyond big news and announcements, 2025 saw a continuation of trends from previous years, including ongoing mass layoffs, along with consumer behavior continuing to shift away from buying new games.

Fresh from sweeping the Golden Joysticks and poised to do the same at The Game Awards, Sandfall Interactive's phenomenal debut RPG is one of the most buzzed-about releases of the year, so it should surprise no one when we announce that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the biggest new third-party game launch on Xbox Game Pass of 2025, Microsoft announced in a new blog post.

Digital Sun's Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault launched in early access for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on November 19. The PC version of the highly anticipated Zelda-inspired roguelike is already seeing a nice discount over on Fanatical. You can pick it up for $20.09, saving you nearly $10 off the $30 launch price. This is the lowest price for the game so far, as Steam is offering the game for $24.89.

Black Friday technically starts tomorrow, but early sales are going in full swing already. Thanks to that, Amazon has dropped the price of the 16-inch Alienware Aurora gaming laptop to just $900. You're saving a straightforward $350 on its retail price of $1,250, and the sale is open to all shoppers. Even better, there are no coupon codes required to score the drop. Just add the laptop to your cart, and the discount applies automatically.

Announced as part of November's Xbox Showcase, Vampire Crawlers marks a significant departure from the simplistic gameplay of Survivors, adding increased depth and strategy via its strong focus on deckbuilding while still retaining a similar visual style and a penchant for chaos. Other notable features include the village, which serves as a central hub for your Survivors, as well as a shift to a 2.5D perspective.

That includes access to the current Fortnite battle pass, along with the OG pass, Lego pass, music pass and Rocket League 's rocket pass premium. On top of that, Fortnite Crew puts 1,000 V-Bucks in subscribers' wallets every month. Microsoft announced Fortnite Crew as a perk for Game Pass Premium in early October, when it jacked up the price of the service to $30 per month.

By all appearances, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 features a not insignificant amount of AI-generated art, Kotaku reports. The game's over 680 Calling Cards - collectible backgrounds earned through in-game achievements or purchases - appear to be the main offenders, featuring art that imitates the knockoff animation style of ChatGPT. While it's hard to authoritatively claim that Studio Ghibli-inspired illustrations are a smoking gun, the Calling Cards players have spotted do at the very least seem unpolished for a splashy $70 game.

Have you heard the whispers? According to my sources, Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed again. It's weird, because a guy promised me this wouldn't happen. Anyway, PlayStation Plus subscribers can somewhat console themselves with word from the extremely reliable leaker billbil-kun over at Dealabs: GTA V seems to be making its way back onto PS Plus yet again later this month.

On October 23, Game Pass will add two day one titles - PowerWash Simulator 2 and Bounty Star. The sequel to the indie hit PowerWash Simulator brings new locations and new ways to clean. Bounty Star, on the other hand, is a 3D mech combat action title with base building mechanics. Both games join Game Pass day one for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members.

Newegg is selling three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $52, which is a fantastic deal. The list price is $60, but drops down to $52 by entering the code SSE2589 at checkout. The sale ends soon, so don't dilly-dally. This is a discount of $38, thanks to Microsoft mandating a price hike that brought a single month of Game Pass Ultimate up to $30. That controversial move has irked fans of the subscription service.

After Microsoft decided to jack up the price of its Xbox Game Pass subscriptions to up to $30 a month, it has another unwelcome surprise for members. In a statement provided to multiple outlets like Insider Gaming, a spokesperson for Microsoft confirmed it has removed the discounts for DLC that come with a Game Pass subscription, replacing them by offering points for its Rewards program.

No matter how you look at it, this was a wild week for the games industry. Electronic Arts, the massive publisher behind multiple sports franchises and BioWare games, has been acquired for $55 billion by an investment consortium that includes the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia; Xbox announced it was overhauling Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and increasing its price by 50%; and Harmonix announced it is delisting Rock Band 4 this Sunday, meaning you only have two days left to buy it before it's gone forever.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate just shot up another 50%, jumping from $20 to $30 per month. Folks are canceling subscriptions left and right with reports of the web page to change you Microsoft subscription plan going down due to overwhelming traffic. $30 every month for a service is a bad price. Microsoft should know better, but not all of their services are that excruciating on your wallet.

Microsoft announced the new Xbox Game Pass additions in an Xbox Wire post on Tuesday. RoadCraft, Saber Interactive's vehicle sim, was added to the service on September 16. Released in May, RoadCraft puts players in charge of a construction company specialising in restoring natural disaster sites. Utlising the game's detailed vehicle simulation and realistic physics, players get to clear the debris and rebuild infrastructure damaged by natural disasters.

Microsoft has detailed the second wave of Xbox Game Pass removals for September, with notably a trio of games starring Ryu Hayabusa leaving in a couple of weeks. Those three titles in the Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection--Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge--will exit the subscription service September 30 alongside Terra Invicta. Ninja Gaiden Sigma originally released in 2007 on PS3.