Blog: Xbox Game Pass

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

MIDiA’s five games trends to watch in 2025

Rhys Elliott

19 Dec 2024

Switch

20 second song

Xbox Game Pass

The year 2024 has been eventful for the games market to say the least. Call of Duty came to Game Pass, Sony released its PS5 Pro console, live-service games faced a reckoning, and gaming has solidified its space at the heart of entertainment.

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Game Pass’ updates mark a new era for Xbox

Rhys Elliott

19 Jul 2024

Xbox

Microsoft

Games

Xbox recently announced significant changes to its subscription offering ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hitting the service. In September 2024, Xbox is: Increasing prices for Game Pass Ultimate from $16.

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Xbox’s Games Showcase points to a reckoning for game subscriptions

Rhys Elliott

13 Jun 2024

Xbox Game Pass

Xbox

Games

“Play it day one with Game Pass.” These words flashed on the screen 15 times during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, which wowed critics and fans alike with a lineup of 30 Xbox games. Most of the titles are coming in 2024 or 2025, which is a huge turning point for Xbox.

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Focusing too much on Xbox's hardware decline misses the point

Rhys Elliott

2 May 2024

Xbox Series X

Xbox Game Pass

Microsoft

Microsoft recently released its Q1 2024 financial results (fiscal Q3). Gaming revenue was up +51% and Xbox content / services revenue was up +62%. These gains mostly came from Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition.

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Collector’s editions are becoming a backdoor for monetising early access

Rhys Elliott

17 Apr 2024

Xbox

Xbox Game Pass

Ubisoft

Since publishers first increased AAA game prices from $60 to $70 in 2020, many people have asked MIDiA if publishers will raise that price further. Our answer: they already have – sort of, anyway. Via collector’s editions – more expensive versions of games with extra content – publishers are already leveraging superfans’ FOMO to grow launch revenues.

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Why the Xbox announcement is an important and strategically smart nod to developers

Karol Severin

16 Feb 2024

Xbox announcement

cross-platform

Games console

Xbox announced on its podcast with Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty, that it is bringing four of its titles to other consoles. While no specific titles were named, it ruled out Starfield and Indiana Jones, and mentioned that two of the games are community driven and the remainder are smaller games that may have reached a plateau on Xbox.

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Why the ‘Game Pass cannibalising games sales’ story does not change anything

Karol Severin

16 Feb 2023

games subscriptions

Xbox Game Pass

regulation

This week it has been reported that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) report includes Microsoft sharing that its “ internal analysis shows a decline in base game sales following 12 months of their addition on Game Pass.

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The co-op opportunity

Perry Gresham

25 Nov 2022

Microsoft

coop games

family-centric

This month Microsoft released the results from a consumer survey they commissioned into Christmas-period gaming habits. According to the survey, video games are a more popular seasonal activity than either board games or outdoor activities (among those who celebrate the season).

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The fall of Stadia

Perry Gresham

7 Oct 2022

stadia

games streaming

games subscriptions

Google’s game streaming service Stadia is shutting down in January 2023, just over three years into its life. What went wrong for such a promising technology with the backing of one of the largest corporations in the world? What does this mean for the future of cloud gaming? Popularity contest The key reason Stadia is being scrapped? User numbers.

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Xbox Cloud Gaming expansion heralds a cross-platform future

Perry Gresham

13 May 2022

Xbox

cloud gaming

Fortnite

MIDiA has been writing about Xbox’s cross-platform future for years, and Microsoft is bringing this closer to reality with each step they take. Ultimately, Xbox gamers may soon not need to own consoles at all.

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Microsoft’s new cloud focus solidifies Xbox Game Pass as the Netflix of games

Perry Gresham

29 Mar 2022

cloud gaming

Xbox Game Pass

Netflix

Last week Microsoft announced a new division of Xbox Game Studios, the “Cloud Gaming Organisation”, designed to help developers create new cloud-native games to be distributed via their Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

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PlayStation Plus overhaul: a defensive catch-up move, or foundation for growth offensive?

Karol Severin

9 Dec 2021

PlayStation

Xbox Game Pass

games subscriptions

According to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter, Sony plans to weave PlayStation Now (its on-demand games streaming offering) into PlayStation Plus (subscription necessary to access multiplayer features, and a small, windowed selection of games).

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Microsoft’s Zenimax acquisition is about the future of Games Pass more than console sales

Karol Severin

30 Sep 2020

Games

games consoles

Zenimax

With the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, Microsoft is gaining an important content asset for its portfolio – Bethesda’s games. And while the timing of the announcement certainly won’t make Sony too happy as it is about to launch PS5, the key benefits of this acquisition are tied to the future of Xbox Game Pass, rather than to who will sell more consoles this holiday season.

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Quick take: Xbox’s future is cross-platform, PlayStation’s is cross-entertainment

Karol Severin

30 Jul 2020

Games

playstation now

Xbox Game Pass

If Fortnite showed us anything, it’s that the future of entertainment is about monetising fandom – not just consumption and access to content. Games are perfectly positioned to help monetise fandom across all entertainment fields.

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