Xbox is teaming up with Discord again, and this time the collaboration is tied directly to Game Pass. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed the partnership on X on 22 April 2026, hinting that code could already be appearing in the wild for players to spot.

The tease landed just a day after Microsoft lowered the price of Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, adding another layer to what has quickly become a busy week for Xbox’s subscription service. Details are thin for now, but the direction is clear enough: Game Pass is being reshaped, and Discord is part of that plan.

What Asha Sharma Actually Said

Sharma’s post on X framed the collaboration as a continuation of the long-running relationship between Xbox and Discord, rather than a brand-new pairing. Her exact wording points to flexibility as the core goal.

Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy echoed the announcement in his own post, saying he’s “super excited to continue this journey” with Xbox and confirming the two companies are working together to make Game Pass more flexible. Neither executive has shared specifics on what the partnership will actually deliver, but the “code in the wild” line strongly suggests testing is already underway.

Super excited to continue this journey with @Xbox. We’ve built cool things for players together, and now we’re partnering to make Game Pass more flexible. Stay tuned! https://t.co/4DFig1g9o7

— Stanislav (@svishnevskiy) April 22, 2026

How Discord Nitro Could Fit Into Game Pass

The most obvious speculation so far is around Discord Nitro. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can currently claim a single month of Discord Nitro as a perk, and an expanded bundle feels like a natural next step. Options being floated by industry watchers include Nitro Basic being rolled directly into Ultimate, or select Nitro features becoming a standard part of certain Game Pass tiers.

This would slot neatly into a wider strategy Microsoft has been hinting at for months. Reporting earlier this year pointed to Microsoft actively exploring ways to bundle third-party services with Game Pass subscriptions, and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters previously mentioned to The Information that he and Sharma had “kicked around ideas” for subscription bundles between the two companies.

Read More: Xbox Games Showcase 2026 Set for June 7, Followed by Gears of War: E-Day Direct

Read More: Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Wave 2 – Vampire Crawlers, Aphelion, Final Fantasy V And Every New Game

The “Pick Your Own Plan” Game Pass Is Taking Shape

The Discord tease is arriving alongside reports that Microsoft is working toward a “pick your own plan” structure for Game Pass, a significant shift from the current rigid tier setup. Two internal tier experiments have been mentioned in recent reporting.

Triton Tier

A reported lower-cost tier focused on first-party Xbox titles only. This would give players access to Microsoft-published games without the full third-party library, likely aimed at subscribers who mainly want day-one Halo, Forza, and Bethesda releases.

Duet Tier

A bundled tier that could pair Game Pass with Netflix, giving subscribers both services under a single subscription. A Discord-flavoured equivalent would sit comfortably in this same bundling logic, pairing Game Pass with Nitro as a single flexible package.

None of these tiers have been officially confirmed by Microsoft, and the Discord partnership itself has not been tied explicitly to any of them. The common thread is the same: Game Pass moving away from a one-size-fits-all model toward something more modular.

A Partnership Built On Years Of Integration

Xbox and Discord first started working together in 2018, when Microsoft enabled linking between Xbox Live profiles and Discord accounts. That relationship deepened in 2022 with Discord voice chat arriving natively on Xbox consoles, letting players drop into Discord servers without needing a phone or PC nearby.

The most recent layer came in 2024, when Xbox added the ability to stream to Discord and watch Discord streams directly from a console. Each step has pushed Discord further into the Xbox dashboard, and a Game Pass tie-in would extend that presence from the console itself into the subscription that underpins most Xbox players’ libraries.

What The Timing Tells Us

The announcement landing one day after a Game Pass price cut is not a coincidence worth ignoring. Game Pass has faced ongoing criticism over price increases in recent tiers, and adding perks through partnerships is a fairly clean way to boost perceived value without reversing course on pricing strategy.

Competition in the subscription space is also sharpening. PlayStation Plus, Nintendo Switch Online, and various publisher-specific services are all jockeying for the same wallet share, and a Game Pass that bundles streaming, communication, and community tools under one subscription starts to look less like a games library and more like a full entertainment platform.

Whether that future includes a proper Nitro bundle, a lightweight perk upgrade, or something entirely different will come down to what that “code in the wild” actually reveals. For now, players hunting for easter eggs in the Xbox app or Discord client might be the first to find out.

The post Xbox Confirms New Discord Partnership To Make Game Pass More Flexible appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Microsoft has cut the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 to $22.99 per month, effective immediately, reversing a chunk of the steep increase that angered subscribers last year. PC Game Pass also drops from $16.49 to $13.99 per month. The trade-off, and there is one, is that new Call of Duty games will no longer land on Game Pass at launch starting this year.

The announcement came via a blog post on Xbox Wire from Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming, who stepped into the role after Phil Spencer retired in February. It is the first major consumer-facing move of her tenure, and it directly addresses feedback that Game Pass had simply become too expensive.

What Is Changing With Game Pass Pricing

The new pricing applies globally, although Microsoft notes figures may vary by region. Both reductions are live now, so existing subscribers should see the lower rate reflected on their next billing cycle.

For context, Microsoft pushed Ultimate up by $10 to $29.99 in October, a roughly 50% hike that landed badly with the community. The new $22.99 price still sits above the pre-October rate, but it claws back most of the gap.

Call Of Duty Is No Longer A Day-One Perk

The catch is tucked into the same announcement. Starting with this year’s release, new Call of Duty titles will not be included on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. Instead, they will be added roughly a year later, during the following holiday season.

Any Call of Duty titles currently in the Game Pass library are unaffected and remain playable for subscribers. If you want to play the newest entry on day one, you will need to buy it outright, presumably at the standard $69.99 price point.

That shift is significant because day-one Call of Duty access was one of the main selling points Microsoft leaned on after the Activision Blizzard acquisition closed in 2023. Removing it reshapes what Game Pass Ultimate actually offers at the top tier.

Read More: Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Wave 2 – Vampire Crawlers, Aphelion, Final Fantasy V And Every New Game

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Why Microsoft Is Pulling This Lever Now

The move lines up with internal messaging that leaked earlier this month. Sharma reportedly told Xbox staff in a memo that Game Pass had become too expensive for players, and that the team needed a better value equation. The same reporting flagged that leadership was weighing removing Call of Duty from day-one availability, which is exactly what has now happened.

It is also a response to the shape of Microsoft’s gaming business. Gaming made up 7% of total revenue in the company’s fourth quarter, and that unit’s revenue was down around 10% year over year while other divisions like Azure and Microsoft 365 grew by double digits. Hardware sales fell 32%, and the broader Xbox content and services line came in below internal projections. CFO Amy Hood also flagged an unspecified impairment charge tied to the gaming business on the earnings call.

In her blog post, Sharma framed the decision around player feedback rather than financials:

Our players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far. We’ll continue to listen and learn.

What Subscribers Still Get At The New Price

Even with Call of Duty pulled back from day-one, Ultimate keeps the rest of its feature set intact. That includes hundreds of games across Xbox console and PC, in-game benefits, online console multiplayer, unlimited Xbox Cloud Gaming, and major day-one releases from other first-party and third-party studios.

Game Pass had 34 million subscribers based on the last figure Microsoft shared in 2024, and the service still spans four tiers: Ultimate, Premium, Essential, and PC Game Pass. Only Ultimate and PC Game Pass have been repriced in this round.

Sharma’s Early Direction For Xbox

This is not Sharma‘s first visible course correction. Since taking over from Spencer, she has already wound down the “This is an Xbox” advertising campaign, saying it did not feel like Xbox. The Game Pass price cut pushes in the same direction, trying to rebuild goodwill with the core player base after a bruising year for the brand.

The Call of Duty trade-off is the part that will define how this announcement ages. For players who subscribed mainly to play the new Call of Duty on day one, the maths has changed. For everyone else, Ultimate just got cheaper without losing anything they already had access to.

Whether this brings lapsed subscribers back, or whether the holiday-season Call of Duty additions feel like enough of a headline draw a year from now, is the next thing worth watching. Microsoft has signalled it is willing to listen, and the pricing itself is clearly still a moving target.

The post Xbox Game Pass Price Drops by $7, But Call of Duty Loses Day One Access appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Xbox’s indie-focused showcase is back this week. The ID@Xbox April 2026 Showcase has been locked in for Thursday, April 23, with IGN once again hosting the livestream alongside Microsoft. The event will spotlight a fresh batch of indie titles heading to Xbox and PC, with a handful of games already confirmed and plenty more being kept under wraps until showtime.

It is the latest in a string of Xbox events the company has been lining up, sitting between the recently announced Xbox Games Showcase 2026 in June and the dedicated Gears of War: E-Day Direct that’s expected to follow. For indie fans, though, this Thursday is the one to circle.

When Is the ID@Xbox April 2026 Showcase

The showcase kicks off on Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 5pm GMT. For local audiences, that lands at 5am NZST on Friday, April 24, which is admittedly a rough one for anyone hoping to watch live in New Zealand. A daytime catch-up via VOD is the more realistic option for most Kiwi viewers.

Runtime hasn’t been officially confirmed, but ID@Xbox showcases have historically run somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, so expect a tight, trailer-heavy presentation rather than a sprawling Direct-style event.

How to Watch the ID@Xbox Showcase

The stream will be available across a wide range of platforms, with IGN leading the broadcast as the official partner. You can tune in via:

• IGN.com
• IGN’s YouTube channel
• IGN’s Twitch channel
• IGN’s Facebook page
• IGN on X (formerly Twitter)
• IGN mobile apps
• Eurogamer
• VG247
• GamesIndustry.biz
• Rock Paper Shotgun

Microsoft’s own Xbox channels are also expected to carry the broadcast, as they have for previous ID@Xbox events.

Confirmed Games at the ID@Xbox Showcase

Four titles have been officially confirmed for the April 23 lineup so far. The rest of the slate is being held back as a surprise reveal during the show itself, which is fairly standard for ID@Xbox presentations.

Mistfall Hunter

An extraction-focused multiplayer title that has been building quiet momentum on the PC indie scene. Its inclusion suggests a console announcement or playable build update is on the cards.

There Are No Ghosts at the Grand

A narrative-leaning indie with a distinctive title that has been generating curiosity since its first reveal. Expect a deeper look at gameplay or a release window during the showcase.

Aphelion

Aphelion has already been confirmed as a Day One arrival on Xbox Game Pass as part of the April 2026 Wave 2 lineup, so a fresh trailer here would line up neatly with the launch push.

Solo Leveling Arise Overdrive

A console-flavoured spin on the wildly popular Solo Leveling: Arise mobile and PC action RPG. This one carries the most mainstream pull of the confirmed lineup, given the franchise’s anime crossover audience.

Read More: Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Wave 2 – Vampire Crawlers, Aphelion, Final Fantasy V And Every New Game

Read More: Xbox Games Showcase 2026 Set for June 7

What Else Could Be Featured

Beyond the four confirmed titles, ID@Xbox has a track record of using these showcases to surface games well outside the usual indie spotlight. The October 2025 event leaned on a mix of breakout hits and lower-profile reveals, with MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, Invincible VS, Vampire Survivors, TCG Pocket Simulator, and Sledding Game all featured. Several of those have since worked their way onto Game Pass.

That pattern is worth keeping in mind on Thursday. The unannounced portion of the lineup is usually where the more interesting reveals land, whether that’s a surprise shadow drop, a Game Pass announcement, or a first look at something genuinely new.

Where the Showcase Fits in Xbox’s 2026 Plans

This event sits at the lighter end of Xbox’s 2026 calendar, sandwiched between bigger beats. The Xbox Games Showcase 2026 is locked in for June and is expected to carry the major first-party reveals, while the Gears of War: E-Day Direct will follow with a focused look at one of the platform’s tentpole releases.

The ID@Xbox showcase is a deliberately smaller affair, but it’s also where Microsoft has historically used Game Pass leverage to sign Day One indie deals and surface games that might otherwise get lost in the noise. With Aphelion already confirmed for the Game Pass April Wave 2 drop, expect at least one or two more Day One announcements to land during the show.

The livestream goes live on Thursday, April 23 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 5pm GMT, which is 5am NZST on Friday, April 24 for New Zealand viewers.

The post ID@Xbox April 2026 Showcase Date, Time, How to Watch, and Confirmed Games appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Xbox has pulled back the curtain on the second half of April’s Game Pass drop, and it’s a mixed bag of cosy indies, a Vampire Survivors spin-off, a Don’t Nod sci-fi adventure, and a classic Final Fantasy landing on the service for the first time. Ten games are rolling in between 21 April and 5 May 2026, and another nine are heading out the door on 30 April.

Wave 2 isn’t quite the marquee lineup that kicked off the month with Hades 2 and Football Manager 26, but there are four Day One titles in here and a few genuinely interesting picks buried in the list. Here’s everything joining and leaving Xbox Game Pass for the rest of April 2026.

Every Game Coming To Xbox Game Pass In Late April 2026

The full wave spans Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Premium, with a handful of titles available Day One. Two games, Little Rocket Lab and Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato, are already on the service but are now expanding down to the Premium tier.

The Day One Highlights Worth Paying Attention To

Four of this wave’s titles arrive on Game Pass the same day they launch, and they cover a pretty wide stretch of genres. If you’re trying to figure out where to spend your time first, these are the ones doing the heaviest lifting.

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard From Vampire Survivors

Vampire Crawlers is the big draw of the wave. Poncle’s follow-up to the 2022 roguelike phenomenon ditches the bullet-heaven format and turns the same chaotic, build-obsessed energy into a turn-based, deck-driven first-person dungeon crawler. You still build broken combos and explore familiar dungeons, but now it’s served up one turn at a time, either slowly and tactically or as fast as your fingers can mash buttons.

Kiln

Kiln is the one almost nobody saw coming. It’s a pottery game where you sculpt ceramics and then throw those exact creations into online arena battles as your fighter. The studio is pitching it as a celebration of creativity and destruction in equal measure, and it’s the kind of weird, hook-first indie that Game Pass tends to surface well.

Aphelion

Don’t Nod, the studio behind Jusant and Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, is back with a third-person sci-fi adventure built in collaboration with the European Space Agency. You play as astronaut Ariane after a crash landing on a frozen planet, controlling both her and her injured partner Thomas as they push through shifting realities and grounded real-world science. It’s easily the most prestige-leaning entry in the wave.

Heroes Of Might & Magic: Olden Era

This one lands in Game Preview on PC only, and it’s the official prequel to the turn-based strategy series that basically invented its own subgenre. Expect grand armies, devastating spells, and both solo and multiplayer campaigns. A must-look for HOMM veterans, even in its preview state.

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Final Fantasy V Finally Joins Game Pass On 5 May

The one non-Day One headliner is Final Fantasy V, landing on 5 May via the Pixel Remaster version. It’s the first time the game has been available on Game Pass, and it arrives across Ultimate, Premium, and PC Game Pass at once. FFV has long been the cult-favourite entry of the classic run, mostly thanks to its Job system, which a lot of fans still point to as the best iteration Square Enix ever put together.

The Rest Of The Wave: Cosy Builders, FPS Throwbacks, And Multiplayer Chaos

The non-Day One additions lean heavily into comfort food and variety.

Little Rocket Lab is a cosy machine-building RPG where you play an aspiring engineer helping your family finish a rocket.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato is a narrative adventure set across a magical-realist South America.

TerraTech Legion takes the block-based vehicle builder formula and drops it into a bullet-heaven roguelite.

Sledding Game is a proximity-chat snow sports hangout with yetis, ragdolls, and custom animal avatars.

Trepang2 is probably the wildcard for shooter fans. It’s a gory, fast, genuinely hardcore FPS that flew under a lot of radars on release, and getting it in front of Game Pass’s audience should give it a proper second wind.

Every Game Leaving Xbox Game Pass On 30 April

Nine games are cycling out at the end of the month, so if you’ve been putting any of these off, now’s the time. Xbox is offering up to 20% off if you want to keep any of them in your library permanently.

• Citizen Sleeper (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Creatures of Ava (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Endless Legend 2 (PC)
• Goat Simulator (Cloud, Console)
• Goat Simulator Remastered (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Hunt Showdown 1896 (Cloud, Console, PC)
• NHL 24 via EA Play (Cloud, Console)
• Revenge of the Savage Planet (Cloud, Console, PC)

Citizen Sleeper is the standout departure for anyone who hasn’t played it yet. It’s one of the most acclaimed narrative RPGs of the last few years and genuinely worth clearing a weekend for before it vanishes.

What Wave 2 Says About Game Pass Right Now

Wave 1 carried the month on name recognition. Wave 2 is doing something different, stacking indies, one cult-classic JRPG, and a couple of strategic Day One bets, and letting the catalogue breadth speak for itself. With the rumoured first-party cloud-gaming tier and ongoing conversation around pricing, how Game Pass handles smaller, weirder releases like Kiln and Vampire Crawlers is arguably more revealing than which AAA names it can grab on launch day.

The post Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Wave 2 – Vampire Crawlers, Aphelion, Final Fantasy V And Every New Game appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Xbox has officially unveiled its Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition Xbox Wireless Controller and Wireless Headset, the two flagship accessories tied to the upcoming Japan-set entry in the Forza Horizon franchise. Both pieces are up for preorder now through Xbox.com and major retailers, priced at US$89.99 for the controller and US$134.99 for the headset.

The reveal lines up with what a reliable insider had teased earlier this month, but Xbox has now locked in the full design, pricing, and feature set, alongside a matching 8BitDo charging dock. The collection leans hard into the Horizon Festival’s new Japanese setting, with translucent shells, neon colour pops, and details pulled straight from the country’s street racing culture.

Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition Controller Design And Features

The controller is one of the boldest Xbox has put out in a while. Its transparent cyan blue top case fades into a metallic gradient, accented with volt green, hot pink, and silver. A silver metallic D-pad sits alongside two-tone rubberised diamond grips, and the Horizon Festival logo is printed on the battery door.

Xbox has confirmed the design draws from the Touge roads, the narrow mountain passes across Japan that are widely regarded as the birthplace of drifting. A top-down view of those winding routes is stretched across the body of the controller as a race track graphic.

On the functionality side, it keeps the standard Xbox Wireless Controller feature set: up to 40 hours of battery life, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and compatibility with Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, mobile, and cloud devices through Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth.

Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition Headset Design And Features

The headset carries the same colour palette, with transparent cyan, volt green, and hot pink accents. Pit crew aesthetics inform the hot pink logo, racetrack-inspired graphics are printed inside the ear cups, and a bold “HORIZON” graphic runs along the adjustable headband. The boom mic carries a Forza logo backed in hot pink metallic.

Where the headset really leans into the Forza fan service is with its custom sound effects. Turning the headset on and off, pairing, muting, and other actions trigger audio cues that blend a Japanese V8 engine note with the Forza Horizon 6 UI. It supports Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos, and DTS Headphone:X for spatial audio, and on Windows 11 PCs and handhelds, Bluetooth LE Audio enables richer stereo and super wideband stereo voice during party chat.

Battery life sits at up to 20 hours of rechargeable playtime, and like the controller, no dongle or base station is needed.

Read More: Forza Horizon 6 Japan Map Revealed, Spanning Tokyo to the Snow-Covered Alps

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Pricing, Preorders, And The 8BitDo Charging Dock

Both accessories are available to preorder from Xbox.com, the Microsoft Store, and local retailers. Alongside them, Xbox has confirmed a third piece rounding out the collection: the 8BitDo Charging Dock for Xbox Wireless Controllers, designed to match the Limited Edition set.

The dock is compatible with Xbox Series X|S controllers, ships with a 1100mAh rechargeable battery pack and battery door, and charges a controller in roughly three hours. Magnetic alignment handles placement, and built-in protection guards against overcharging and overheating.

Xbox has not publicly confirmed a price for the 8BitDo dock at the time of the announcement.

Asha Shar Comments On The Collection

Xbox CEO Asha Shar spoke to the reveal on X, saying, “Everything about Forza Horizon 6 is beautiful. The accessories had to be too.” The quote frames the accessories as an extension of the game’s visual identity rather than a standard tie-in product, which tracks with how much the controller and headset lean on the Japan setting for design cues.

Everything about Forza Horizon 6 is beautiful. The accessories had to be too. pic.twitter.com/q7ATs9wdRL

— Asha (@asha_shar) April 20, 2026

How The Collection Fits Into Forza Horizon 6

Forza Horizon 6 is taking the Horizon Festival to Japan for the first time, and the accessory line reads as a direct extension of that setting. The Touge road graphic on the controller, the V8 engine sound effects on the headset, and the overall neon Japanese street racing palette give the collection a clearer narrative hook than previous Limited Edition Horizon accessories, which have typically leaned on regional colours alone.

For collectors who have picked up previous Horizon accessories across the franchise’s run through Colorado, Australia, the UK, and Mexico, this release continues the pattern of tying hardware design to each game’s host country, and it arrives ahead of the game’s launch to give fans a reason to jump in early.

The post Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition Xbox Controller and Headset Revealed With Preorders Live Now appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

New Xbox chief Asha Sharma has openly acknowledged what subscribers have been saying for months: Game Pass costs too much. In an internal memo to Xbox staff, Sharma confirmed that Microsoft is actively looking at reworking its subscription model, describing the current pricing as unsustainable and promising a “more flexible system” down the line.

What The Leaked Memo Actually Says

The memo, obtained by The Verge, lays out Sharma’s position on Game Pass in surprisingly direct terms. “Game Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox. It’s also clear that the current model isn’t the final one,” she wrote. “Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation. Long term, we will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system which will take time to test and learn around.”

Sharma also acknowledged the “online chatter” surrounding rumours of Game Pass pricing changes, telling employees she would “go deeper” on the topic in the coming week. No specific pricing adjustments or structural changes were outlined in the memo itself, but the tone suggests Microsoft is past the denial stage and actively working on solutions.

How Game Pass Got This Expensive

Game Pass has come a long way from its 2017 launch, when US$9.99 per month got you access to the full library. Today, the service is split across Ultimate, Premium, and Essential tiers, each with different content access, and the pricing reflects that fragmentation. Game Pass Ultimate currently sits at US$29.99 per month following a 50 percent price hike last year, while PC Game Pass jumped from US$11.99 to US$16.49.

A significant factor behind the cost increase was Microsoft’s decision to fold Call of Duty into the subscription. The Verge’s Tom Warren reported nearly two years ago that Microsoft had internally debated whether adding new Call of Duty releases to Game Pass would cannibalise the franchise’s retail revenue. Microsoft went ahead with it in mid-2024, and the subscription price climbed accordingly.

Microsoft attempted to soften the blow of the latest increase by bundling additional perks like Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft Classics into higher tiers. But the value proposition has clearly not landed with everyone, and Microsoft does not publicly share subscriber numbers to gauge the real impact.

Call Of Duty Could Be On The Chopping Block

One of the more notable rumours circling right now is that Microsoft might pull Call of Duty from Game Pass entirely. Windows Central’s Jez Corden raised the possibility on the XB2+1 podcast over the weekend, saying it would “reveal some of the cracks in the strategy” if it happened this year.

Beyond the Call of Duty question, there have been whispers about new Game Pass tiers, including one that would focus exclusively on first-party titles. A straightforward price reduction has not been widely speculated on, though it remains the most obvious lever Microsoft could pull.

Read More: Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Reveals Hades II, Oblivion Remastered, and Every New Game This Month

Read More: Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition Xbox Controller and Headset Leaked With Prices

The Broader Industry Problem With Pricing

Sharma’s admission does not exist in a vacuum. The wider games industry is grappling with the same tension between rising costs and consumer tolerance. Sony has been experimenting with personalised dynamic pricing to tempt PS5 owners with tailored discounts. Nintendo recently announced it would sell digital versions of first-party titles at a lower price than their physical counterparts, starting with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Epic Games also drew criticism for increasing the cost of V-Bucks in Fortnite.

The subscription model itself has also faced growing scepticism from developers. The director of Revenge of the Savage Planet noted that the game performed well on Game Pass but failed to generate meaningful revenue, arguing that giving content away for free trains players not to pay for it. Former Bethesda VP Pete Hines similarly acknowledged that most Game Pass adoption comes at the expense of retail sales.

What Comes Next For Game Pass

Sharma’s memo does not commit to a timeline or a specific plan, but the language strongly suggests changes are being shaped internally. Immediate price drops in the coming days seem unlikely, though a restructuring of tiers or content access could materialise in the weeks ahead.

The stakes are high for Sharma personally. She faced criticism from parts of the Xbox community over her perceived lack of gaming credentials when she was appointed, and delivering a tangible improvement to Game Pass value would go a long way toward building trust with the player base. Under her leadership, Xbox also appears to be refocusing on console hardware, having quietly shelved the “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign while confirming its next-generation console effort, Project Helix.

The post Xbox CEO Admits Game Pass Is ‘Too Expensive’, Signals Pricing Overhaul appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Xbox has locked in the date for its biggest broadcast of the year. The Xbox Games Showcase 2026 will air on Sunday, June 7, with a dedicated Gears of War: E-Day Direct rolling straight into the back half of the broadcast. It is shaping up to be a packed afternoon for anyone keeping tabs on what is coming out of Microsoft’s first-party stable, especially with the publisher’s 25th anniversary giving the whole event some extra weight.

The double feature kicks off at 10am Pacific, with The Coalition’s deep dive into the Gears of War prequel landing immediately afterwards. Xbox has also confirmed that FanFest is returning to coincide with the showcase, marking a quarter century of the brand.

When The Xbox Games Showcase 2026 Airs In Your Region

The showcase begins at 10am Pacific on June 7, and the Gears of War: E-Day Direct follows on immediately after the main broadcast wraps. For viewers in Asia and Oceania, that means an early morning watch on June 8.

Where To Watch The Broadcast

Xbox is streaming the double feature across its usual platforms, and it will be available in more than 40 languages, plus American Sign Language, British Sign Language, and English Audio Descriptions. The official channels confirmed for the broadcast include YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook, with a dedicated ASL stream running on a separate Twitch channel.

• YouTube.com/Xbox
• Twitch.tv/Xbox
• Twitch.tv/XboxASL
• Facebook.com/Xbox

What To Expect From The Main Showcase

The main event is positioned as the annual look at Xbox’s first-party slate, with Microsoft promising first gameplay reveals and major announcements from studios across the Xbox family. Third-party partners will also be part of the lineup, spanning what Xbox describes as the biggest franchises down to upcoming indie releases.

The April Xbox Partner Preview earlier this month already cleared a few games out of the pipeline, including new looks at Stalker 2, Dispatch, and Hades 2, which suggests the June showcase will lean harder on heavy hitters and previously unannounced projects rather than recycling recent reveals.

Gears of War: E-Day Direct Closes The Show

The Coalition is taking the spotlight straight after the main showcase with a dedicated deep dive into Gears of War: E-Day. The prequel covers the start of Emergence Day, the Locust invasion that kicked off the original Gears timeline, and the Direct is expected to deliver new gameplay footage alongside fresh details about the origin story.

This is the most substantial look fans have been promised since the project was first announced, and given the game is targeted for release later this year, the Direct is likely where Xbox lays out a firmer release window and shows off how The Coalition is handling the franchise’s reboot.

Xbox FanFest Returns For The 25th Anniversary

FanFest is being brought back to run alongside the showcase as part of Xbox’s 25th anniversary celebrations. The event combines a retrospective on the brand’s history with a look ahead at what is coming next, and Xbox is running a sweepstakes for free tickets through the official FanFest page at xbox.com/fanfest. Entry is open to US residents 18 and over, and the giveaway closes on April 12.

A Week Of Follow-Up Coverage

The June 7 broadcast is the start of a wider rollout rather than a one-off. Xbox has confirmed that the showcase kicks off a full week of coverage across Xbox Wire, the Official Xbox Podcast, and the Xbox YouTube channel, with deeper looks at individual games announced during the show. That suggests several titles will get standalone trailers, developer interviews, or extended gameplay segments in the days following the main event, which is a pattern Xbox has leaned into for previous showcases.

The post Xbox Games Showcase 2026 Set for June 7, Followed by Gears of War: E-Day Direct appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Forza Horizon 6 is just over a month away, and it looks like Xbox is preparing some themed hardware to go alongside the launch. A new leak has revealed that a limited-edition Xbox Wireless Controller and a limited-edition Xbox Wireless Headset, both styled after Forza Horizon 6, are set to arrive on the same day as the game itself.

What Leaked And Where It Came From

The details come from billbil-kun via Dealabs, a leaker with an extremely strong track record when it comes to Xbox and PlayStation hardware reveals. According to the leak, Xbox is preparing two accessories for the Forza Horizon 6 launch: a themed wireless controller and a themed wireless headset. No official images have surfaced yet, but pricing and availability details were included.

Both accessories are expected to launch on 19 May 2026, the same day Forza Horizon 6 releases on Xbox Series X|S and PC. They will be sold through the Microsoft Store and authorised retailers. Xbox has not yet announced these products, and no date for a formal reveal has been shared.

Forza Horizon 6 Controller And Headset Pricing

Those prices represent a noticeable bump compared to recent limited-edition Xbox accessories. The DOOM: The Dark Ages controller, which launched in April 2025, was priced at €79.99 in Europe, making the Forza Horizon 6 controller roughly €10 more expensive. It is unclear whether this reflects a broader price increase for Xbox’s limited-edition line or is specific to this release.

The First Xbox Tie-In Headset Since Starfield

The headset is arguably the bigger story here. Xbox has only released one other limited-edition wireless headset during the entire Xbox Series generation, and that was the Starfield headset back in June 2023. Despite releasing several major first-party titles through 2024 and 2025, Microsoft did not produce another themed headset until now.

That scarcity could make the Forza Horizon 6 headset a hot item for collectors and fans of the series. Given that there is still no word on what the accessories actually look like, the full reveal should generate plenty of interest when it eventually drops.

Read More: Forza Horizon 6 Japan Map Revealed

Read More: Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Reveals Hades II, Oblivion Remastered

Could More Accessories Be On The Way?

Billbil-kun noted that additional accessories could still be in the pipeline, potentially as Microsoft Store exclusives. Xbox has done this before with past launches, offering extras like console skins or special bundles only through its own storefront. Nothing beyond the controller and headset has been confirmed so far, though.

With the game launching on 19 May and no official announcement yet, Xbox is likely to reveal these accessories fairly soon. Forza Horizon 6 will take players to a fully mapped recreation of Japan with over 550 cars at launch, and having matching hardware on day one is a solid way to mark the occasion.

The post Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition Xbox Controller and Headset Leaked With Prices appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Playground Games has pulled back the curtain on the full Forza Horizon 6 map, and it’s a sprawling slice of Japan that stretches from the neon-lit streets of Tokyo City all the way up to the snowy peaks of the Japanese Alps.

This is Horizon Japan! From the iconic downtown streets of Tokyo City all the way to the snowy Japanese Alps, #ForzaHorizon6 introduces our most dense and vertical map yet.

Which roads are you most excited to cruise and drift with your friends? pic.twitter.com/78GmkqzsWt

— Forza Horizon (@ForzaHorizon) April 8, 2026

The map was shared on the official Forza Horizon X (formerly Twitter) account, giving players their first proper look at the terrain they’ll be tearing through when the game launches on 19 May 2026.

What The Full Map Looks Like

The revealed image shows the map in its Summer Season variant, covering a massive spread of environments. Tokyo City dominates the eastern portion as the largest urban area ever featured in a Forza Horizon game, reportedly five times bigger than Forza Horizon 5’s Guanajuato. Beyond the city, the map fans out into coastal roads, rural countryside, and mountainous terrain capped with snow in the Alps region.

Playground Games described it as their “most dense and vertical map yet,” which lines up with what we can see. The verticality is a big deal here, as Japan’s geography naturally lends itself to elevation changes, tight mountain passes, and layered city streets that previous Horizon maps haven’t really explored to this degree.

Seasonal Changes Will Reshape The Map

One detail worth paying attention to is that the map is specifically labelled “Summer Season.” This strongly suggests that the terrain, road conditions, and points of interest will shift as the seasons rotate, much like the system in Forza Horizon 4 and Forza Horizon 5. Playground Games has confirmed that seasonal changes will “truly inform the world,” affecting how spring, summer, autumn, and winter alter the tone, activity, and sound of the environment.

In practical terms, that means the Alpine roads blanketed in snow during summer could look and drive very differently come winter, and areas like Tokyo’s cherry blossom-lined streets will likely transform during the Sakura season. How exactly points of interest and available routes change with each rotation is something players will have to discover at launch.

Mount Fuji Is Visible But Not Driveable

For anyone hoping to send a Nissan Skyline up the slopes of Mount Fuji, you’re out of luck. While the iconic volcano has appeared prominently in promotional material and trailers, it has been confirmed that Mount Fuji will not be an explorable part of the map. It’ll serve as a backdrop rather than a destination, which may disappoint some fans but isn’t entirely surprising given the scale challenges involved.

Tokyo City As The Centrepiece

Tokyo City is clearly the flagship area of the map. The urban zone includes multiple distinct districts, each with their own identity, from the neon-lit downtown core featuring landmarks like Shibuya Crossing and Tokyo Tower, through to the suburbs, docklands, and industrial zones. Art director Don Arceta has described the city as “one of our most detailed and layered environments to date,” and it’s designed to reward exploration with shortcuts, hidden routes, and varied driving experiences across different density levels.

Outside the city, the map transitions into coastal stretches, lowland countryside, and the Alpine region. The contrast between tight urban drifting and open mountain touge runs is exactly the kind of variety that Japan’s geography makes possible, and it looks like Playground Games has leaned into that hard.

Launch Details And Early Access

Forza Horizon 6 launches on 19 May 2026 for Xbox Series X|S and PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam. Premium Edition owners get four days of early access starting 15 May. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play the Standard Edition from day one at no extra cost, with the option to purchase the Premium Upgrade for early access. A PlayStation 5 version is confirmed for later in 2026, though no specific date has been announced.

The game ships with over 550 cars, a heavy emphasis on JDM classics, and new features like Touge Battles and cooperative building through the upgraded CoLab toolset. With the map now out in the open, expect Playground Games to ramp up the reveals as we get closer to launch.

The post Forza Horizon 6 Japan Map Revealed, Spanning Tokyo to the Snow-Covered Alps appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Xbox Game Pass is stacking April 2026 with one of its strongest monthly lineups in recent memory. Headlined by Hades II finally arriving on Xbox alongside a remastered Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the service is adding over 20 titles across its various tiers this month, with a mix of heavy hitters, day one indie launches, and a few beloved classics making their Game Pass debut.

The Headline Additions

Supergiant Games’ Hades II lands on Game Pass on 14 April after spending six months as a Switch console exclusive following its full launch. The roguelike sequel, widely considered a 2025 Game of the Year contender, is now making the jump to Xbox Series X|S, Cloud, Handheld, and PC through Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass. If you missed it on Switch or PC Early Access, this is arguably the single best reason to fire up your Game Pass subscription this month.

Two days later, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered arrives on 16 April, modernising the 2006 Game of the Year with completely overhauled visuals and refined gameplay. It joins Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, with Game Pass Premium subscribers gaining access at the same time. For anyone who has been itching to revisit Cyrodiil (or experience it for the first time), this is a significant get.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) rounds out the big three on 17 April, joining Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass across Cloud, Console, and PC. The 2019 reboot remains one of the most acclaimed entries in the franchise, with its grounded campaign and fluid gunplay still holding up well.

Day One Launches Worth Watching

Beyond the marquee names, April’s lineup includes three day one Game Pass launches that deserve attention. Replaced (14 April) is a long-awaited HD-2D pixel art cyberpunk thriller set in an alternate 1980s America, blending cinematic 2.5D platforming with free-flow combat. You play as an AI trapped inside a human body, which is exactly as unsettling as it sounds.

Vampire Crawlers (21 April) comes from the creators of Vampire Survivors and reimagines that formula as a hyper turn-based, card-driven dungeon crawler. Early demo impressions suggest it is dangerously addictive, leaning into busted deck-building and world-ending combos while letting you play at whatever pace suits you.

Kiln (23 April) is Double Fine’s pottery-themed party game where you sculpt ceramic creations and then bring them into online arena battles. It is a bizarre concept that sits right in Double Fine’s wheelhouse of creative, offbeat game design.

Read More: PlayStation Plus April 2026 Monthly Games Lords of the Fallen, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream

Read More: Hades 2 Global Launch and Review: Melinoë’s Roguelike Adventure Awaits

Read More: Plants vs. Zombies 3 Evolved Hits Early Access on Mobile

Every Game Coming To Xbox Game Pass In April 2026

Game Pass Essential Additions

Game Pass Essential subscribers are not left out entirely. On 8 April, Warhammer Vermintide 2 joins the Essential tier on Cloud and Console, offering four-player co-op combat against the forces of Chaos and Skaven. DayZ also becomes available on PC for Essential subscribers on the same date.

The Other Highlights You Should Not Sleep On

Tiny Bookshop (10 April) is a cosy narrative management game about running a second-hand bookshop by the sea. It originally launched on PC and Switch last August and is now making its way to Xbox. If you are after something low-stakes and charming between bigger sessions, this is the one.

The Thaumaturge (14 April) is a character-driven RPG set in a city on the brink of change, with morally ambiguous choices and turn-based combat. You use mystical powers to read emotions, command folklore-inspired demons, and navigate a story that rewards careful decision-making.

Football Manager 26 (13 April) is the first entry in the series built on the Unity engine, promising a redesigned interface and a more immersive matchday experience. Both the PC and Console versions arrive on the same day, each tailored to their respective control schemes.

FBC: Firebreak (8 April) is a cooperative first-person shooter set within the world of Control, tasking players with plunging into the Federal Bureau of Control’s strangest crises to contain otherworldly chaos.

Notable Game Updates And In-Game Benefits

Dome Keeper receives its multiplayer update on 13 April, adding four-player co-op to the tower-defence roguelike. You can now defend your dome with friends or go head-to-head in versus modes focused on survival and resource delivery.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Season 03 is live now, adding new maps (Beacon and Abyss), new weapons, and the Ashwood Survival Map for Zombies. EA Sports NHL 26 arrives via EA Play on 16 April, and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can claim an EA Play Supercharge Bundle until 16 May alongside a 10% discount on EA digital purchases.

Albion Online also expands to Cloud and Console on 21 April, with Game Pass subscribers unlocking an exclusive Green Knight vanity set, mount, 100,000 Fame, three days of Premium status, and 3,000 Victory Emote charges.

Games Leaving Game Pass On 15 April

As always, some titles are rotating out. Grand Theft Auto V, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, Ashen, My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery, and the Game Preview build of Terra Invicta all leave the library on 15 April. GTA V leaving is a notable loss, and Terra Invicta is worth a look for 4X strategy fans before it goes. All departing titles are available at up to 20% off for those who want to keep them permanently.

A Month That Sets A High Bar

April 2026 is shaping up as one of Game Pass’s most compelling months in a long time. Between Hades II, Oblivion Remastered, and a string of creative indie day one launches, there is something here for practically every type of player. The real challenge this month is not finding something to play, it is finding the time.

The post Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Reveals Hades II, Oblivion Remastered, and Every New Game This Month appeared first on Shane the Gamer.