Microsoft

At Microsoft they are clear that Windows will end up being an agentic operating system. Users have jumped on him

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Microsoft has big plans for Windows and, how could it be otherwise in these times, artificial intelligence is in those plans. The president of Windows has boasted about the next evolution of Windows to an agentic system, but the response from the community has been clear: no. what has happened. They tell it in Windows Central. Pavan Davuluri, current president of the Windows division, has made a post on X in which it states that “Windows is evolving into an agentic operating system, connecting devices, the cloud and AI to drive intelligent productivity and ensure secure work from anywhere.” The news will be announced on November 19, when the Microsoft Ignite event will be held. The answer. “Enough of this nonsense. Nobody wants this. You live in a Twitter bubble where AI will create a ton of wealth and you will die unless you adopt it now,” he says the answer with the most likes. It is not the only one, the majority of users agree that they do not want an agentic system, some ironize that the evolution of Windows is to make users go to Linux and Mac. The positive comments are in the minority, it seems clear that the majority does not want an authentic operating system. Talk to your PC. Recently Microsoft released “Hey Copilot”; Not only is it integrating AI, they also want us to use voice. The problem with this is that experience tells us that We don’t feel like talking to our PC. The figures make clear that we are more accustomed to doing voice searches on mobile phones than on PCs, with 77% compared to 38% of users who speak with PCs. One reason for this is that we use the PC in places where there are more people and we cannot take it to a corner to do the search, but everyone can listen to us. General discontent. The effort to integrate AI into the operating system is not the only reason for rejection by the community. One of the most criticized points recently is that Microsoft forces that you can only use Windows 11 with an online account. The reason is obvious: trying to sell us services like OneDrive and Microsoft 365. Users also reproach Microsoft for first solving the problems. stability issues and constant updates. Decline. Windows continues to dominate the desktop operating system market, but Statcounter data They say there has been a decline. In September Windows had a 70.81% market share and in October the figure fell to 66.25%. We know where those users have gone: the drop coincides with a rebound in MacOS, which went from 8.33% in September to 14.07% in October. There have been other months with similar changes and it is not a very large variation, but perhaps those who talk about migrating to other systems are not so misguided. Image |Windows in Unsplash In Xataka | The unexpected return of Windows 7: it reaches almost 10% of the market when Microsoft prepares to retire Windows 10

Microsoft no longer sells software: it sells inevitability

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OpenAI is no longer an entity with hybrid control and is now a fully fledged company. That is, for profit. Microsoft, which had special rights and a seat on its board, give up that position in exchange for something more stable: Guaranteed and perpetual access to OpenAI models (current and future). Freedom to create your own foundational models without restrictions. Gain independence without losing technology. Why is it important. This does not make Microsoft the owner of OpenAI, but rather the platform that turns its AI into a mass product. OpenAI can continue investigating, but Microsoft remains the one who controls access to users and companies. Distribution defines power today, even above invention. The general overview. Microsoft has been transforming its business from selling licenses to selling continuous dependency for more than a decade: Office 365 eliminated or relegated the option to purchase the software only once. Windows 10 introduced mandatory updates that turned the operating system into permanent service. Azure has tied enterprise infrastructure to its cloud. The pattern is consistent: turning tools into platforms, products into subscriptions, and options into inevitabilities. The agreement with OpenAI is not an exception, it is the culmination. In detail. Microsoft maintains something that no other actor has: Direct integration of Copilot in Office, Teams, Outlook and Windows. Large-scale business contracts that turn AI into the structural cost of digital work. Control over the point of entry: the place where millions of people work every day. The new agreement ensures that OpenAI cannot turn off the tap, and that Microsoft can expand or replace its models without depending on third parties. The strategic background. Until now, Microsoft could not develop its own AGI. Now yes. This allows you two parallel routes: Use OpenAI models in your ecosystem. Develop your own (or integrate with others) if OpenAI gets sidetracked or delayed. Gain technological freedom and commercial stability. But above all, you gain something more valuable: the certainty that AI will not be optional in your software. Between the lines. The move consolidates Microsoft as the main consumer channel for AI at work. Not by contract, but by market position. Millions of users already pay for Copilot without expressly choosing it. Companies assume it as part of the normal cost of productivity. There is no real alternative: if you work in Word, you use Copilot. If you manage emails in Outlook, you use Copilot. If you coordinate teams in Teams, you use Copilot. Yes, but. This is not the traditional technological domain. Microsoft doesn’t need to have the best AI. You just need to have the most integrated one. OpenAI can be brighter, Google can be faster, Meta can be more open (or not so open). It doesn’t matter, because none of them are inside the software where the work is done. AI is no longer an add-on. It becomes invisible infrastructure. The contrast. Other technological giants continue to bet on the excellence of the model: Everyone competes to have the best technology, but Microsoft competes for something else: to be the place where that technology is used, regardless of who created it. In summary: OpenAI is freed to grow as a company. Microsoft makes sure that no matter what happens, AI runs through its software. The rest of the industry competes to invent. Microsoft has won by distributing. Does not sell AI. Sell ​​inevitability. In Xataka | AI works better if you are edge Featured image | Microsoft

Microsoft seemed to be the ‘paymaster’ of the AI ​​industry. His divorce from OpenAI is proving just the opposite

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OpenAI now has completed its transition to a for-profit organization after years after that, and Microsoft has in the process sealed the agreement that redefines their relationship. It maintains a 27% stake (valued at $135 billion) and also gains something potentially more valuable: autonomy to develop AGI on your own. Why is it important. Microsoft has gone from being a kind of AI “pagafantasy”, seeing how OpenAI was the one who took the spotlight day in and day out, with the only benefit of Azure rise; to become the player best positioned to dominate its infrastructure, its models and its commercial application. You have paid for access… and you have ended up buying independence. In detail. The new framework extends Microsoft’s intellectual property rights until 2032, including on post-AGI models. You will also be able to use some of OpenAI’s intellectual property to advance your own projects—albeit with computational limits—and collaborate with third parties. Before I couldn’t. Now yes. The panoramic. Microsoft stops depending on the rhythms, decisions and crises of OpenAI. It remains its main infrastructure partner (with an additional contract of 250,000 million in Azure, a quarter of a billion with a ‘b’ for ‘barbarism’), but it no longer needs to wait for Sam Altman to declare that it has reached the AGI. You can do it on your own. Or better yet: with others. The pact buries the clause that most irritated Satya Nadella: the one that prevented him from competing for the AGI. That limitation turned Microsoft into a kind of patron with its hands tied. It is now a co-owner, supplier and potential competitor. In perspective. The turn does not break the alliance, in fact it consolidates it: OpenAI gains freedom to raise capital, essential to finance his 1.4 billion plan in data centers. And Microsoft maintains preferential access to its models until 2032. Both companies, in any case, are preparing for the phase in which AI stops being software and definitively becomes infrastructure. In Xataka | OpenAI started out as open and non-profit. That company no longer exists, and Microsoft has gained from it Featured image | Xataka

Bill Gates was obsessed with knowing how long his Microsoft employees worked. So I looked at the parking lot

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All the millionaires who have triumphed in the field of technology They tend to be people of remarkable intelligence, who over time have developed skills that, to the rest of humanity, They seem curious to us at the very least. Jeff Bezos developed an almost unhealthy obsession with optimize time in meetings and Elon Musk He can’t stand anyone opposing him when he has made a decision. Bill Gates, for his part, is known for being especially inquisitive with his employees, developing his own techniques that bordered on toxic to control whether his employees were in the office or already they had gone home. If the boss doesn’t leave, neither will the employees.. In 2016, the founder of Microsoft made some surprising statements on the BBC about how it controlled which employees worked the most hours. One of the things Gates valued most when he ran Microsoft was the commitment and dedication of his employees. “At that time I was quite extreme with work. I worked on weekends. I didn’t really believe in vacations,” he told the British network. The millionaire has an excellent memory for data, which is why he was able to memorize the license plates of his employees’ cars and relate them to their owners to know who was in the offices when he arrived and who had left before him. His partner Paul Allen corroborated Gates’ confession in an interview with Vanity Fair. “Microsoft was a high-stress environment because Bill drove others as hard as he drove himself. He was becoming the foreman who hung around the parking lot on weekends to see who had arrived.” In-person presence is not enough. In addition to being a somewhat toxic attitude towards their employeesGates soon realized that this was not the most effective system to monitor your staff. Verifying the unreliability of this system helped Gates to recognize that presence is not the best indicator for measure employee performance. An approach that, perhaps, the current managers of some companies should review when it comes to design return to office policies. “The Fireproof” Gates. Paul Allen tells in his interview with Vanity Fair a Gates anecdote with an employee who had worked 81 hours in four days to get a project done: “Toward the end of the work week, Gates asked Greenberg what he would be working on the next day. Greenberg notified Gates that he planned to take the next day off, to which Gates responded, ‘Why would you want to do that?’ Gates couldn’t understand it. “He never seemed to need to recharge his batteries.” However, as Gates himself acknowledged when analyzing his own behavior, Working long hours has nothing to do with being more productive. Burnout takes a toll on productivity and can end up being counterproductive to your company’s interests. Furthermore, the company grew so much that it was increasingly difficult to learn all the car license plates. ”In the end, I had to relax when the company reached a reasonable size.” Burned worker syndrome. Overloading employees in this way with eternal hours is one of the main causes of sick leave and resignation among employees. The World Health Organization (WHO) includes the Burnout worker syndrome in your International Classification of Diseases This syndrome affects 10% of workers and in its most severe forms can cause more serious disorders in between 2% and 5% of workers, leading to depression and anxiety. The 2022 Labor Market Guide prepared by Hays detected that more than 30% of the workers surveyed stated that, after the pandemic, the feeling of burnout among employees had increased, being one of the main reasons for many of them to join the company. silent resignation. Take care of employees to improve productivity. Work culture has evolved significantly since the days when Gates was at the helm of Microsoft. Companies increasingly value work-life balanceand they recognize that employees need time to rest and recharge. Even Gates himself has changed his stance on vacations, recognizing the importance of rest for mental and physical health, as he stated in a talk about Alzheimer’s in your YouTube channel. In Xataka | Bill Gates has been a famous “workaholic” but he knew who to hire to solve problems: the lazy ones In Xataka | Bill Gates liked to step on him: his Porsche 911 discovered him on a 2,000 kilometer trip and the police also discovered him Image | Commons

Microsoft is killing Xbox for Excel

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Microsoft has imposed a profit margin target of 30% on its Xbox division, a figure much higher than the average usually obtained in the video game industry, according to reveals Bloomberg. This guideline would explain many of the controversial decisions that Xbox has taken in recent years, especially in terms of project cancellations, massive layoffs and price increases are concerned. a goal to leagues. The average profit margin in the video game industry has ranged between 17% and 22% in recent years, according to share Jason Schreier in his article, based on estimates from S&P Global Market Intelligence. As the journalist states, on Xbox, that figure was between 10% and 20% over the last six years. On the other hand, court documents from 2023 revealed that Microsoft’s gaming business had a margin of 12% in the first nine months of fiscal year 2022. S&P Global analyst Neil Barbour affirms that “a margin of 30% or higher is usually reserved for a company that is really nailing it.” To give an example, look at Capcom right now, which is practically in its golden age and which in recent reports operating margins were seen that were close to 40%. Who is behind the change? According to According to Schreier, this goal was implemented in the fall of 2023 by Amy Hood, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, whose team has assumed a much more relevant role in the gaming business in recent years. According to sources As cited by Bloomberg, previously Xbox developers did not have to meet specific numerical targets and were asked to focus on making the best games possible without worrying too much about finances. The practical consequences. To achieve that margin, Xbox has had to take drastic measures. In 2024 it announced that it would release most of its games on Nintendo and Sony consoles for the first time. In July we discovered that canceled several expensive projects that had been in development for more than seven years, such as Everwild, Perfect Dark or Project Blackbird. Also has laid off thousands of employees and Game Pass prices have increased and of the consoles. To go up, they have even increased the price of your development kits. According to the sources of the reportlooking to the future, games that are cheap to produce or with high income expectations will be prioritized over riskier bets. The Game Pass dilemma. The strategy of including all Xbox games in Game Pass on launch day has hurt direct game sales, according to they point Schreier’s sources. And just as share In the middle, to compensate for these losses, Xbox offers its developers a credit calculated using an opaque formula that seems to favor games in which players spend more hours, such as online multiplayer titles. This makes it even more difficult to achieve that 30% margin. The next hardware bet. Sarah Bond, president of Xbox, has declared recently told Mashable that the company’s next console will be “a very premium, very high-end and polished experience,” suggesting a change in strategy compared to previous generations and, predictably, a significantly higher price. There are already voices that point to a console much more similar to a PC, a concept similar to what we have seen with the ROG Xbox Ally. However, there is no official information yet, so we will have to wait to find out more details. The official response. An Xbox spokesperson has declared that the company “has a long-term vision” for its business and that success “does not look the same in every project or priority.” He added that they evaluate “the business as a whole, balancing creativity, innovation and sustainability across a diverse portfolio of offerings.” Just like account Bloomberg, in July, Amy Hood said in a call with investors that the Xbox division’s operating income had grown 34% in the quarter ended in June thanks to “continued prioritization of higher margin opportunities.” Decisions. Xbox has been losing market share to PlayStation and Nintendo for years. Microsoft no longer discloses Xbox hardware sales, but analysts estimate PlayStation 5 has sold more than double of units than the Xbox Series the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in 2023, the largest acquisition in the history of gaming. However, it seems that for Microsoft it is not enough, and everything indicates that the company will be much more aware of its gaming division than ever, a struggle between executives and senior managers that no one knows where it will end. In Xataka | There is a clear beneficiary of the success of Microsoft and AI: Satya Nadella, who pockets a bonus of $96.5 million

With AI, Microsoft has once again insisted that we talk to our computer: experience says that we don’t feel like it

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You get up in the morning, go to work and sit in front of the computer, but the first thing you do is not pick up the mouse and keyboard, but say “Hey, Copilot”. Can you imagine it? Me neither, completely, but that is Microsoft’s clear obsession: to get us to talk to our PC instead of using the usual peripherals. That futuristic vision is striking, but it faces several enormous challenges. what memories. The thing about Microsoft and other technology companies with their intention for us to talk to machines goes back a long way. The first generation of voice assistants precisely pursued that goal. There we saw how Alexa, Google Assistant and of course Cortana tried to make us talk much more with our devices. We were not prepared to talk to machines. Its success was rather limited, and even Nadella himself admitted in 2023 that, for example, those “smart” speakers They were “dumber than a stone”. In Xataka Voice assistants and the fight to gain our trust Cortana tried. The Redmond company certainly tried to make Cortana successful. It offered it on both Windows 10 and on Android and iOS…and even the sadly defunct Windows Phone. Over time the company realized that that assistant was not a good fit, and was killing him little by little. The launch of ChatGPT was used by Microsoft to raise your new assistant powered by AI and definitely kill to his first assistant: Copilot wants to be what Cortana could never be. Who asked for this? With that “Hey, Copilot” the same thing is happening as with Cortana: did someone ask Microsoft to integrate a voice assistant into Windows? The voice assistants of that first generation were relegated to residual use, and Amazon suffered this problem firsthand. He bet billions of dollars that Echos would become devices we wouldn’t stop talking about, but most people I just used them to set timers and music. AI promises to go much further. But in spring 2024 we live in a hopeful moment for this type of technology. OpenAI launched GPT-4o and demonstrated that natural conversations with a mobile phone were not only possible, but also They were very powerful. AI could be ours confidant and companion -with controversy included— or our private teacherand as others later wanted to demonstrate, it could also do things for us just by talking to her. Let them tell you to the vibe coders. But we still have a hard time talking to the PC. Since then it certainly seems that we have become a little more accustomed to talking with our smartphone, but things seem to be different on the PC. The statistics reflect that 77% of young people use their voice on their smartphone, while only 38% of them do so on the PC. “But everyone on the PC listens to me”. There is also a sociological component in this use of voice on the PC. The mobile phone is more intimate and personal, while the PC is often used in a static setting in which there are people around who can capture what we say. Furthermore, in the physical context, the unspoken rules of coexistence—do not disturb, do not invade others’ acoustic space—outweigh the promise of comfort. And then there is distrust. Microsoft is not helped by its recent history, especially with Recall, that option that seemed really striking and ingenious but ended up being delayed to generate a great controversy regarding privacy. The launch of the new Windows 11 options, with “Hey, Copilot” as the main protagonist, does not seem to have been received with too much enthusiasm, and the tone, for example, of the comments from this long thread It is skepticism. Rivals focus on mobile phones and speakers, not the PC. The truth is that the adoption of voice as a way to interact with our devices does not seem to be particularly viral. The erratic launch of Alexa+ does not seem to be providing great advantages, Apple continues to make itself wait with its renewed version of Siri, and only Google has taken a step forward with Geminialthough not clearly on the desktop. Talking to machines works, but not as much on the PC as on the mobile. {“videoId”:”x9jvzns”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Project Astra Exploring the Capabilities of a Universal AI Assistant”, “tag”:”Project Astra”, “duration”:”116″} A triumph for accessibility. Where there is a clear use scenario for this technology is in the area of ​​accessibility. For users with reduced mobility, the ability to dictate or control the device with their voice can be transformative. This need is concrete and well defined, however: it does not justify a general redesign of the interaction or a marketing campaign that tries to get us all to talk to the computer. The voice should solve things, not be a fair trick. Microsoft’s real challenge is not technical — the technology is there — but human. The company must convince people that talking to the PC makes sense. To do this, it must address three fronts: privacy, the social context—that you don’t mind talking to your PC—and of course, that said interaction has practical use and works. For example, they come in there Copilot Actionswho will have to demonstrate – like everything else – that Microft is on the right path here. Otherwise, “Hey, Copilot” could become the new Cortana. In Xataka | Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google) believes that ‘Her’ is inevitable: “there will be people who fall in love with an AI and we should prepare ourselves” (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); } })(); – The news With AI, Microsoft has once again insisted that we talk to our computer: experience says that we don’t feel like it was originally published in Xataka by Javier Pastor .

Microsoft believed that the purchase of Activision was a round business. A year later I lost 300 million for ‘Call of Duty’

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The clients of Game Pass They are still trying to recover from the impressive 50% rise of the Ultimate mode rate in the service. A spectacular climb that moves Microsoft’s proposal away from that buffet Economic games of all kinds That once it was, and that he has his clients since then circling a single question: why? And although Microsoft has not yet made anything clear, there are some issues that already have an answer. 300 million. Game Pass had rare He arrived at the service on day onesomething only possible thanks to the purchase of activation by Microsoft. However, it was still extraordinary: ‘Call of Duty’ was, thanks to that acquisition, The most valuable property that Xbox had in its portfolio. And now it was available for all Game Pass users without additional cost. According to Bloombergthe experiment cost Microsoft 300 million dollars. Internal affairs. This movement is the last and most striking of this type that Xbox has given, determined to drown its rivals with strategies that meant a high cost in sales. Bloomberg states That, as seven anonymous informants have told the environment, getting as powerful as powerful as’Forza Horizon 5‘ either ‘Halo infinite‘Internal fractures already supposed due to the important sales that were lost by placing these games available to all Game Pass subscribers. According to The Vergethe discussion about ‘Black Ops 6’ was even greater, and it was not for less. In An interview with Windows CentralBobby Kotick, an Activision Ex-Cecement, already claimed that due to having spent his career in Los Angeles, he had seen with disgust how “large media companies had transferred their contents to these subscription streaming services, which had negatively affected business results.” The story was repeated. It was clear. Ign counted at the time That the movement triggered the subscriptions to Game Pass, as expected, and the ‘Cod’ itself went up: 23% more than the previous delivery, ‘Modern Warfare 3’. But there is an important nuance: 82% of those sales were in PlayStation, in opposition to Xbox and PC. Yes, subscriptions had risen, as expected, but not enough: just 16%. According to The calculations that Kotaku doesto compensate for the 300 million copies of the game that Activision (and therefore, Microsoft) did not sell, it would have needed an impossible: 15 million new monthly subscribers to Game Pass (or 1.25 per year). Drink for pain. Again, according to Kotaku calculations, the remarkable price increase in the Ultimate rate relieves these numbers for Microsoft: it would need 10 million new subscribers to compensate for those losses. Something that, without a doubt, is far from the possibilities of the service, but we get an idea of ​​to what extent the climb was an urgent need for Microsoft. Bloomberg states that Microsoft Amy Hood’s CFO has asked the division of games to find more ways to raise benefits, so new increases are not ruled out at all, inclusion of advertising or limitations in the characteristics of the Tiers cheaper to encourage subscribers to pass to Ultimate. A purchase at all. Everything summarizes well in the statements of the specialized analyst Joost Van Dreunen: “Game Pass has not provided the explosive growth that Microsoft anticipated in the post-Compra of Activision era, and they have realized that their structural costs do not align with their pricing model.” That is, Microsoft foresaw a notable impulse of subscriptions thanks to blows to the table such as the arrival of ‘Black Ops 6’, and it has not been so. Crisis policy is approaching in Microsoft (which, by the way, states that He does not leave his plans to continue in the hardware business) and, without a doubt, it will have an impact on our pocket. In Xataka | The portable Xbox is finally a reality. The only unimportant detail is that it is not exactly an xbox

It reaches almost 10% of the market when Microsoft prepares to retire Windows 10

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Microsoft prepares to close the Windows 10 cycle. On October 14, 2025 will stop receiving security updatesa decision that places Millions of teams In a vulnerable scenario. Without those patches, any discovered failure could be exploited, something that worries both in the domestic and business. We do not talk about a minor recommendation, but about a change that affects the installed base of more numerous computers on the planet. The movement has put many users in the face of a complex dilemma. Migrate to Windows 11 It seems the logical path, but it is not always possible without going through the box. The system requires hardware compatible with technologies such as TPM 2.0 and a generation of relatively modern processors. Those who do not meet these criteria are forced to maintain Windows 10 No support or directly renew your PC, Although in some Microsoft markets have enabled exceptions that allow to extend one more year the reception of updates if certain conditions are met. What is happening with Windows 7 in the middle of 2025 September 2025 He brought an unexpected surprise. According to Statcounter records, Windows 10 decreased to 40.5% of the market, its lowest level since November 2017. At the same time, Windows 11 was headed with 48.9%confirming that the generational relief is underway. So far, evolution seems logical, except for a detail that especially caught attention. That detail is Windows 7. The system that was left without support in 2020 and that he even saw his update program extended in 2023 reappeared strongly. In a matter of weeks, it went from fees close to 3% to register 9.61% in September. The magnitude of the jump makes it difficult to imagine mass migrations towards such an old software, but the numbers are there. Before drawing precipitated conclusions, remember how these statistics are built. Statcounter does not access the Microsoft telemetrythe only one capable of offering exact figures. Your methodology is based In a code installed by more than 1.5 million web pages distributed throughout the world. Each visit counts which operating and browser system has been used, so that the percentages result from millions of daily interactions with third -party sites. This is an approach offers a very wide sample, but it is still a sampling. Statcounter ensures that it eliminates bots traffic and adjusts certain technical parameters such as Chrome pre -demand. The September graph leaves an obvious unknown. Windows 7 suddenly appears with a weight that I did not have in the previous months, which breaks the descending trajectory that It seemed definitive. What is behind that change? With the information available, it should only be recognized that there is no clear response and that any attempt of explanation would be speculative. The transition to Windows 11 is marked by security, and in that field the nuances matter. Microsoft repeats that maintaining a system without support is an exhibition, although it is also aware that the change is not always immediate. Therefore, together with the announcement of the end of Windows 10, it introduced mechanisms to give users a margin. Consequently, two ways have been established. For domestic users, At least in the European Unionthere is the possibility of receiving for a year more security updates when associating the equipment With a Microsoft account. Both in the particular and business field, the option of subscribing to the program of Extended security updateswhich guarantees up to three additional years of patches. These measures do not change the final horizon, but allow migration to a supported version. Ultimately, it is the users themselves who must assess what to do with their teams. Some will stretch Windows 10 as long as that extension lasts, others will make the leap to Windows 11 and there will be those who even consider alternatives outside the Microsoft ecosystem. Statistics offer a global photograph, but each case has its own nuances. The question is open: how will you manage the end of Windows 10? Images | Mendhak In Xataka | Google believes to have the key to compete with Windows, Linux and macOS in laptops. That key is called Android

Game Pass was too cheap for everything he offered. The problem is that Microsoft thought the same

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Microsoft has just confirmed what many players were smelling us: GAME PASS RAISES PRICE. It has not been an anecdotal increase or first in the United States to tote the land, How do other streaming platforms do: Game Pass has arrived (almost) Without warning. The XBOX subscription game service has been segmented for some time in three categories that give us access to different services and a variable number of games and, after the increase that We already experienced a year agoMicrosoft has raised the price again. The problem is that if in 2024 Game Pass Ultimate, which is the subscription that gives us access to more content, It rose from 14.99 euros to 17.99 euros, now it goes from that amount to 26.99 euros. It is an appreciable climb, as if Microsoft had realized that the service was too “cheap.” Game Pass Ultimate rises 50% “The Netflix of Video Games.” Since Microsoft launched Game Pass, many of us described it that way. Although now we can play directly for streaming in almost any devicein its beginnings we had to download the games. There was a catalog that opened through the subscription, but it was not really the ‘netflix of video games’. Over the years, Microsoft was adding services such as cloud game, Game Pass for PC or streaming transmission of some games on our property. Apart from being able to access their games from the launch without additional cost, they began to launch games from other publishers and companies, also without an added cost. This year, two heavyweights like ‘Silksong‘ either ‘Clair Oscur: Expedition 33‘They launched from the first day in Game Pass. The service became increasingly round and the price did not increase or did it very little. It was a service too good to be trueespecially seeing competition limitations (PlayStation Plus) or the price of a GeForce Now that gives access to a cloud hardware, but that demands that we buy each game individually. In 2023, Xbox ended with Xbox Live Gold To integrate your online game system in Game Pass, creating divisions within the service: Game Pass Core for 6.99 euros – online game and a small selection of accessible games. Game Pass Standard for 10.99 euros – online game and a wide selection of games (more than 300 titles) Game Pass Ultimate For 14.99 euros – online game, more than 500 games in console, Game Pass of PC and launches from day 1 Although last year prices rose At 12.99 euros for Standard and 17.99 euros for Ultimate, Microsoft seems to have realized that it was offering an excellent service at an price that did not square with the market. And that’s over. In that table we can see the updated prices with an essential – he substitutes the core – which is what, now, goes up two euros; A premium that remains and an ultimate that is the one that experiences the biggest climb: nine euros. Until before writing these lines, the 18 euros of Game Pass contrasted with what we see in one of the main services of the competition: GeForce Now. There are some Newssuch as the addition of Ubisoft+ Classics to the ‘Tier’ ultimate or that the players who pay the most will have a better quality when playing for streaming, a difference with premium that did not exist before. Also more advantages in Microsoft Rewards. All of that is an Xbox now In the Nvidia service we have a great streaming game experience, but at a price of 21.99 euros and having to buy games on platforms like Steam. The great game of Game Pass Ultimate was that you paid those 18 euros and you could play for streaming to the available games, but also download them on your console or PC without paying anything else. Game Pass Essential Game Pass Premium Game Pass Ultimate Game Pass for PC available games More than 50 More than 200 More than 400 “Hundreds of games” for PC Cloud streaming Yeah Includes own games Yeah Shorter waiting times Includes own games Yeah “With the best quality” With shorter waiting times Includes own games No available games day one No No, they join up to 12 months Yeah Yeah Online multiplayer Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Rewards points Up to 25,000 a year Up to 50,000 a year Up to 100,000 a year Up to 50,000 a year Advantages in games Yes, in ‘League of Legends’ and ‘Cod: Warzone’ Yes, in ‘League of Legends’ and ‘Cod: Warzone’ Yes, in ‘League of Legends’ and ‘Cod: Warzone’ Yes, in ‘League of Legends’ and ‘Cod: Warzone’ others – – EA play and ubisoft+ included EA play included price 8.99 euros 12.99 euros Free 14 -day test 26.99 euros 14.99 euros With the new price of 26.99 euros, Game Pass Ultimate becomes the most premium option, far from the proposal of Nvidia or the most expensive subscription of PlayStation Plusthat of 16.99 euros, and definitely the culmination of the dreaded “is so good that it seems a lie.” In fact, the increase of three euros a year ago seemed to little taking into account that they were going to start putting everything they had bought from Activision-Blizzard, The macrooperation of 68.7 billion dollars. The Great “But” is Game Pass’s hook Despite the remarkable increase of nine euros per Game Pass UltimateMicrosoft has an ace in the sleeve (which, in turn, is what makes this change possible). Game Pass Ultimate is a service that has no competitionprecisely, for everything we have commented: Contending games to be the best of the year from day one and without additional cost. Games developed by Microsoft, such as’Indiana Jones and the big circle‘or the future’ Forza Horizon 6 ‘. Online game. Download games or streaming game without having an Xbox (on TV, the Fire TV Stick, the PC, the Tablet or on the mobile). There is no service that offers that variety and newly launched games, and it is what allows Microsoft to … Read more

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