#184 | The Xbox Game Pass Squeeze FINALLY Happened...

After years of conversation on the topic, Xbox has finally made long anticipated adjustments to its popular subscription service. Day one Game Pass games are gone from its standard tier and all have seen a price hike. The conversation naturally navigates itself to the "why" in this situation. All subscription services go up whether it's Netflix, Disney+, or Spotify. Is it because of Black Ops 6 impending? Is Day One Game Pass hurting Xbox? Is $20 enough to stop any form of bleeding with that in mind? Are they extracting maximum value from the service at its peak? Are they setting a newer, higher standard for the batch of new subscribers that will join with the launch of a new Call Of Duty game? There's many ways for us to assess, so we'll comb through all of them carefully! Furthermore, we have details on Hellblade 2's performance on the market. From sales to engagement, there are question marks about what this game has done for the platform, so the Dukes dissect what information Circana has provided on that matter. Plus more on Banjo Kazooie, LEGO Horizon on Xbox, the questionable Fire Stick TV ad, Bioshock updates, Dragon Age: Veilguard romance options, and plenty more! Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. 0:00:00 - Intro 0:31:56 - Banjo Kazooie rumors 0:38:41 - Guerilla Games on Xbox version of LEGO Horizon Adventures 0:42:38 - Atlas Fallen coming to Game Pass? 0:44:48 - Xbox summer sale 2024 is live now 0:46:35 - Cities Skylines 2 will be missing its Xbox console release 0:49:21 - Xbox Amazon Fire Stick TV ad 0:54:20 - Cloud Chamber is heavily recruiting for BioShock 0:56:28 - Dragon Age: Veilguard romance details 1:02:46 - Star Wars: Outlaws planet details 1:04:58 - Piranha Bytes is the latest studio to be shutdown by Embracer 1:07:45 - New Yakuza Game? 1:12:07 - Bleach Rebirth Of Souls announced 1:17:07 - What We’re Playing 1:41:54 - How do we celebrate our birthdays? 1:47:48 - What Xbox franchise could get a Lego version? 1:50:06 - Will Metaphor: ReFantazio get an enhanced edition? 1:50:55 - Game Pass Changes 2:31:46 - Xbox's Hardware and Software sales 3:04:41 - Game Pass Pick Of The Week 3:10:41 - How would we improve our recording area? 3:19:30 - Wrap Up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices