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The story
Overseas outlet Eurogamer reports that Xbox Game Pass may be losing its headline perk — the ability to play new releases on day one. The source is ResetEra poster Slayven, who correctly called Microsoft’s 2025 Game Pass price hike and tier overhaul ahead of time. Microsoft’s statement said “there are no changes or finalized plans to announce today,” but it didn’t rule out future changes — and the thread is split on whether that phrasing amounts to a de facto non-denial or just standard corporate boilerplate.
Microsoft has not denied rumors that major changes to Xbox Game Pass are imminent — changes that, according to reports, would eliminate day-one game availability entirely.
Xbox may be planning a major overhaul of the Game Pass subscription service, one that could strip out one of the service’s signature perks. That’s according to a fresh leak from ResetEra user Slayven, who revealed in 2025 that Microsoft planned to raise Game Pass prices and restructure its tiers — claims that were later confirmed to be at least partly true.
According to Slayven’s latest posts, a reorganization of Game Pass’s tiers and their names is underway. The service is reportedly set to get a slight price cut — on the condition that day-one new releases are removed from Game Pass.
Source: eurogamer.net / Read the original article here
What people said
Microsoft's statement reads: "We regularly test various Game Pass offerings and evaluate what works best for players in different markets. There are no changes or finalized plans to announce today. There is no change to games already announced as available from day one on Game Pass Ultimate."
> There are no changes or finalized plans to announce today
They're not denying anything going forward, though.
Lmao that's a full-on denial.
Day-one releases are already locked in for next April and beyond.
Didn't we learn this lesson with Phil already?
Wasn't it something like "only 4 ports so far, at this point"?
The fact you even saved that "prophecy" says a lot about you lol
Lol, blocked.
If it turns out to be "no Game Pass, but Xbox exclusive,"
that'd probably cause an even bigger uproar.
Guess it's basically confirmed then.
To sum up:
Online play alone costs an extra $10.99
The traditional Game Pass without online play is $20 (a $2.99 cut)
With ads: $13
Cloud gaming becomes a separate paid add-on only — $6 for 24 hours of access
Say a lie 100 times and it becomes…
…an even bigger lie.
I bet he's been wishfully hammering out like 10,000 throwaway one-post threads all night.
Ran it through the "desperation checker" (a tool that flags how many posts each ID made) and 90% of them were one-and-done IDs lol
You're "Kizuna," aren't you? This reeks of Sony damage control — brace yourself, a PS Plus price hike is probably coming. Sleep tight lol
Even if the price goes up, I'm fine — just cancel once and you get a 30% discount.
Ugh, seriously…
If you're gonna brand me as "Kizuna," at least go back and check what I actually said in this thread.
Like I said, MS never denied anything about the future.
"We regularly test various Game Pass offerings and consider what works best for players in different markets. There are no changes or finalized plans to announce today."
Kizuna, read this 100 times.
You seem like the type who'd struggle with proof-based problems.
It's 3am right now, so even cycling IDs has its limits, you know lol
They should've been charging at least ¥5,000 a month for that.
The guy who leaked this is the same one who correctly called the last Game Pass plan changes.
That time too, the media asked and PR dodged the question, but it turned out to be true in the end.
We're watching the exact same pattern play out again.
The leak didn't mention PC Game Pass or Ultimate, though.
Also, it's not Phil (Spencer) calling the shots anymore — it's Asha (Sarah Bond) now.
There are parts that were just plain wrong, too — and I don't recall any story about media reaching out over the last price hike.
An ad-supported tier has been rumored for a while now, so this is probably just that rumor getting embellished.
Plenty of people were sounding the alarm that the math could never add up.
But the Xbox faithful (chikan, a mocking 5ch nickname for die-hard Xbox fanboys) rubber-stamped everything MS did — it was borderline cult-like, honestly kind of scary.
Honestly, it looks like you're just taking out your feelings about Sony dropping Kojima on Microsoft instead.
"There are no changes or finalized plans to announce today."
Do you seriously think that line works as a shield against the 2025 leak?
Sony (mocked here with the slur "Chony") spreading FUD right before a big event — nothing new there.
Asha (Sarah Bond) has only ever said she's turning Xbox around.
Sure, they'll cut the fat along the way, but they just lowered the Game Pass price, after all.
Nadella said the current setup is unsustainable and that they're turning it into a sustainable organization.
Improving margins is literally Asha's job.
Background and Key Points
Xbox Game Pass also went through a phased price hike and tier overhaul back in 2025, and it was this same Microsoft-connected leaker, Slayven, who correctly predicted it ahead of time. This time, the rumor threatens to gut the service’s single biggest selling point — AAA new releases landing on Game Pass on day one — so the stakes are high. The debate centers on how to read Microsoft’s statement that “there are no changes or finalized plans to announce today.” Since the wording doesn’t rule out future changes, some read it as a de facto confirmation, while others dismiss it as standard PR boilerplate. It’s worth noting that, as of this writing, this remains an unconfirmed rumor and not something Microsoft has officially announced. Beyond the fact-checking, the thread also saw plenty of back-and-forth sniping between Sony and Microsoft fans.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “‘Eurogamer’: Microsoft won’t deny day-one rumor — is it confirmed gone starting April?“.
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