Microsoft’s Game Pass makes it weird

Microsoft made some substantial changes to Game Pass last week. Find out more below. Also, Palworld’s developer forms a partnership and Sweden plans to add games to its “cultural cannon.” Let’s go!

Will you pass on Game Pass?

After releasing their Xbox app on Fire TV Sticks and a new advertising campaign that states “You Don’t Need An Xbox To Play Xbox,” Microsoft raised the price of their Game Pass service, and added confusion to the various tiers available. 

Here are the basics:

• Game Pass Ultimate, the plan for PC and Xbox subscribers, goes from $16.99 to $19.99 per month. 
• Game Pass for PC raises its price from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.
• Game Pass Core (formerly Xbox Live Gold) goes from $59.99 to $74.99 per year. This is the plan that gives you the basic ability to play online games with others on Xbox. 
• The $10.99 per month Xbox Game Pass for Console tier is no longer accepting new subscribers. Current subscribers will be able to keep this tier if they auto-renew their subscriptions. 
• “In the coming months,” Microsoft will roll out a new tier called Xbox Game Pass Standard. This tier will have access to a lesser selection of the Xbox catalog, but not “Day One Releases.” 

Confused yet?

Microsoft expands details of the upcoming Standard tier in their FAQs. "Some games available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on day one will not be immediately available with Xbox Game Pass Standard and may be added to the library at a future date." 

Not surprisingly, Xbox owners and subscribers were not happy with the change. Here are some reactions from the web:

• Opinion: Call of Duty is tearing Xbox apart (Game Developer)
• The Best Deal In Gaming Keeps Getting Worse (Kotaku)
• Welcome To Xbox’s Rot Economy - Everything is getting worse on purpose (Aftermath)

Will you continue to subscribe to Game Pass if you do now? Let us know in the comments.

Palworld makes some new friends

Sony and Pocketpair, makers of Palworld, are joining forces along with Aniplex to form a joint venture called Palworld Entertainment Inc. The new organization will be led by Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe.

According to a press release:

The joint venture will be responsible for developing the reach of the intellectual property and for expanding commercial business endeavors, including the global licensing and merchandising activities associated with Palworld, outside of the interactive game.

[Our] efforts will begin with the development of exclusive merchandise based on the game—which will debut and sell at the Pocketpair booth during Bilibili World 2024.

Games as “cultural canon”

Sweden is taking steps to make sure video games are an artform recognized by the government. A jury of seven experts picked 15 games created by Swedish firms to be part of the country’s cultural canon. From a post by the Swedish Games Industry:

Games should be an obvious part of culture but are missing from most cultural policy documents. Therefore, as the trade association for Sweden's video game companies, we have taken the initiative to produce a list of digital games that mean a lot to Swedish culture. 

The 15 games nominated by the committee include some big names. Here is the full list:

• Amnesia – The Dark Descent (Frictional Games)
• BackPacker (Tati Mixedia)
• Battlefield 1942 (DICE)
• The Battle of Polytopia (Midjiwan)
• Budget Cuts (Neat Corporation)
• Candy Crush Saga (King)
• Europa Universalis (Paradox Interactive)
• It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios)
• Goat Simulator (Coffee Stain Studios)
• Ground Control (Massive Entertainment)
• Minecraft (Mojang)
• Sayonara Wildhearts (Simogo)
• Star Stable Online (Star Stable Entertainment)
• Stugan (Kimmo Eriksson, Viggo Kann, Olle E Johansson)
• Toca Tea Party (Toca Boca)

Read a more detailed description of the games here.

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

🏊🏻 An update on the possible Adult Swim games being delisted. 

3️⃣ Amazon is giving away three free games for Prime Day: Suicide Squad, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Chivalry II.

🏀 Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics and A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces are the NBA 2K25 cover athletes. 

🎮 The First Descendant welcomed 10 million players its first week, despite being accused of ripping off Destiny 2 art. The company behind the game says they have "taken the concerns raised seriously" and will be making adjustments.

⛔ Kotaku Australia has been shut down. 

⏰ Frostpunk did quite well at the latest Steam sale, with consumers buying a copy every two seconds. 

😱 Nintendo teased a mysterious horror game that has the internet talking. 

🎯 The developers of Once Human are struggling to cope with a huge number of players, as their game is an unexpected hit. 

😠 Apex Legends players are upset, as the next season’s battle pass will charge users twice as much, and require them to pay with real money instead of in-game currency. 

🐶 The highlight of Summer Games Done Quick was a very good dog playing 16-bit baseball.

🥊 Developer Riot scrapped a Smash Bros. inspired fighter over market concerns.

🌆 City Skylines 2 on consoles is delayed indefinitely, as the developer struggles to hit stability and performance targets. 

💰 Stellar Blade developer Shift Up raised $320 million in their IPO.

🤖 The tutorial robot for The First Descendant is talking so fast, players are screenshotting its dialogue to learn to play the game.

🥽 Meta will soon let young kids chat in VR, but only with their parents’ approval.

🗾 How Japan has avoided the gaming industry’s persistent layoffs. .

📉 May spending on gaming hardware, content and accessories in the U.S. fell 6% over 2023, with Ghost of Tsushima leading gaming sales.  

🍎 After rejecting it twice, Apple approves Epic Games Store for iOS.

🐱 How ‘Exploding Kittens’ founders turned their best-selling card game Into a Netflix TV series and mobile game.

🏆 Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 won big at the Develop Star Awards. 

🔫 Concord extends its closed beta by a day, with an open beta open to all coming this weekend. 

☕ The upcoming Star Wars Outlaws began life in a café at E3.

♟️ Multiple board game publishers fell prey to scammers impersonating a board game Facebook group.

⌨️ Valve, the company behind Steam, is much smaller than you think. Read more. 

🖥️ Why 1994’s Lair of Squid was the weirdest pack-in game of all time.

🐺 Danny Trejo’s favorite video game of all time? Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

New Releases this week: 

Check out our article 11 New Games to Play in July.

7/17: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate (Switch)
7/18: Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
7/18: Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
7/18: Schim (PlayStation, Switch and PC)
7/19: EA Sports College Football 25 (PlayStation and Xbox)
7/19: Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)

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