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Microsoft's subscription service for Xbox and PC gaming, offering a rotating library of games and cloud streaming access across tiers.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has put Series X|S consoles back at the core of the business, telling staff the old Game Pass strategy sent Xbox into 'freefall'. For studios that makes Series X|S the safe target, while Helix, the next generation, is still a plan without a date.
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Microsoft has won exclusive rights to stream Grand Theft Auto VI at its November 19 launch, according to The Verge's sources. PC players without a console get a launch-day way into the game, through a cloud service that starts rationing hours that same month.
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The unlimited streaming bundled with Game Pass ends in November. Microsoft says the change touches 4% of subscribers because longer sessions cost it more, and it has not yet said what extra hours will cost.
Perspective Coverage
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Microsoft cut 268 gaming jobs this week, laid off most of Halo Studios and moved Rare, World's Edge and Obsidian to new parents. Anyone planning around Game Pass or Xbox hardware now has to sort their commitments by what Microsoft has actually decided.
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Matt Booty's memo to Xbox staff moves Halo out of the studio built to make it, folds Rare and World's Edge into Activision, and leaves Ninja Theory in consultation on a proposed closure.
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Microsoft eliminated 268 roles on Tuesday and moved studios under its larger publishers, giving a new Activision team the next Halo while Halo Studios keeps a smaller crew on the games it has already shipped.
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Game Pass tiers will include 5, 10 or 15 cloud gaming hours a month when the limits land in November, with extra hours for sale. Microsoft says rising costs drove the change and that 4% of subscribers are affected.
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An Epic developer told a Discord AMA the native Linux launcher lands after the store overhaul preview. A separate security engineering role aimed at Linux anti-cheat is the harder signal.
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