Microsoft

Microsoft reverses Xbox Live Gold price hike after public outcry

Microsoft announced a price hike for Xbox Live Gold on Friday, raising the rates to $10.99 for one month, $29.99 for three months, and $59.99 for six months. Following a wave of public outcry, Microsoft reversed its decision less than 24 hours later, confirming that the price of Xbox Live Gold would not be changing…

Published 5 years ago in
Microsoft reverses Xbox Live Gold price hike after public outcry

Microsoft announced a price hike for Xbox Live Gold on Friday, raising the rates to $10.99 for one month, $29.99 for three months, and $59.99 for six months.
Following a wave of public outcry, Microsoft reversed its decision less than 24 hours later, confirming that the price of Xbox Live Gold would not be changing after all.
In addition to keeping Xbox Live Gold at the same price, Microsoft is also removing the Xbox Live Gold requirement for free-to-play games like Fortnite on Xbox consoles.

Microsoft made waves on Friday by announcing that it would be raising the price of Xbox Live Gold for the first time in a decade. Going forward, the paid membership required to play any Xbox One and Xbox Series X game online would cost $10.99 for one month, $29.99 for three months, and $59.99 for six months. In effect, the price of Xbox Live Gold was going to double overnight, as 12-month subscriptions were previously priced at $59.99.

Unsurprisingly, this didn’t go over well with Xbox owners, and the topic trended on social media throughout the day as word began to spread. Even a surprisingly robust selection of freebies as part of Games with Gold in February wasn’t enough to calm the furor, and by the end of the day, the company had heard enough. The blog post announcing the change was updated late at night to reveal that Microsoft had reversed its decision.

“We messed up today and you were right to let us know,” the Xbox Live Gold team wrote in an update. “Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day. As a result, we have decided not to change Xbox Live Gold pricing.”

In addition to leaving the prices at $9.99 for 1-month, $24.99 for 3-months, $39.99 for 6-months, and $59.99 for 12-months, the team also announced that it will no longer require Xbox owners to subscribe to Xbox Live Gold in order to play free-to-play games online. Today, you’ll need to have an Xbox Live Gold membership if you want to play Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, or Neverwinter, which is not the case on PlayStation, Switch, or PC. Microsoft never offered a sensible explanation for why this was the case, but “in the coming months,” you should be able to play free-to-play games on any Xbox console without having to pay for an additional online membership.

Considering that Microsoft spent an entire console generation playing catch up with Sony and Nintendo, it is honestly hard to fathom how such a wildly and inevitably unpopular move made it this far.

And to make the announcement in the middle of a viral pandemic — one which has taken an unfathomable physical, emotional, and financial toll on all but the richest of us — was truly stunning. Thankfully, the price hike did not actually come to pass. But Microsoft needs to get rid of Xbox Live Gold as soon as possible. An entire strategic decision was reversed after half a day of mean tweets. You can’t put this genie back in its bottle.
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Microsoft

Xbox Boss Asha Sharma Announces Leadership Reshuffle in Bid to ‘Move Faster,’ Bringing in Former Microsoft AI Colleagues

UPDATE: Xbox boss Asha Sharma has confirmed that Microsoft has stopped development of Copilot on console. In a tweet, Sharma said Microsoft will retire features “that don’t align with where we’re headed.” Gaming Copilot, which was in beta, was designed as “your personal gaming sidekick with Xbox.” The idea was that players could ask for

Published 2 weeks ago in
Xbox Boss Asha Sharma Announces Leadership Reshuffle in Bid to ‘Move Faster,’ Bringing in Former Microsoft AI Colleagues

UPDATE: Xbox boss Asha Sharma has confirmed that Microsoft has stopped development of Copilot on console.

In a tweet, Sharma said Microsoft will retire features “that don’t align with where we’re headed.”

Gaming Copilot, which was in beta, was designed as “your personal gaming sidekick with Xbox.” The idea was that players could ask for help anytime or anywhere while they were playing a game. “With in-game assistance, get unstuck, pass roadblocks, and level-up your gameplay,” Microsoft said. “The guide you want, when you want it. Brainstorm strategies and get tips or insights with personalized coaching.”

It would also provide users with gaming recommendations. Gaming Copilot is currently available in the Xbox mobile app, and on Game Bar for Windows 11, and on the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds.

“Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers,” Sharma said. “Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this shift, you’ll see us begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.”

ORIGINAL STORY: Newly-installed Xbox boss Asha Sharma has announced a major reshuffle of the company’s platform technology teams, as Microsoft’s gaming division seeks to rebuild its position and release Project Helix, its next-generation console.

In an internal memo shared with Xbox staff today, seen by IGN, Sharma stated that leadership change was needed to “begin building the capacity we need” to evolve the Xbox brand and “how we work.”

As part of the changes, Sharma is bringing four former colleagues from Microsoft’s CoreAI division, where she previously served, over to Xbox. IGN understands that Xbox’s previous stance on AI remains unchanged.

The 100 Best Xbox Games of All Time

“Right now, it is too hard to ship impact quickly,” Sharma wrote, adding: “we spend too much time inward instead of with the community; and we lack the capability we need in some key areas.”

For Xbox fans, likely the most widely-known name among the list of today’s changes is that of Jason Ronald, the Microsoft veteran with more than 20 years of experience building Xbox. Ronald has now been elevated to a position where he is accountable for Project Helix and the Xbox platform.

Elsewhere on the company’s hardware team, Roanne Sones, a corporate vice president for Xbox devices and ecosystem, will take a long-planned leave of absence later this year and return as an Xbox advisor.

CoreAI vice president of product Jared Palmer, will join Xbox’s platform-level content push “investing in the systems that make it easy to build, submit and scale high-quality games,” with a focus on “developer tooling, taste and infrastructure.” Tim Allen, another key CoreAI staff member, will join Xbox to lead experience design, in a role that merges “product design, design engineering, research, and creative with a fan-first focus.”

Jonathan McKay will become Xbox’s head of growth. Evan Chaki will run a new engineering group focused on removing repetitive work and simplifying development. Both are also moving over from Microsoft’s CoreAI division.

Other changes will see David Schloss, a former colleague of Sharma’s at Instacart, lead the Xbox subscription and cloud business. Kevin Gammill, a 20-year Microsoft veteran who has worked on the Xbox user experience, will meanwhile leave the company.

Tier List

Xbox Games Series Tier List

Xbox Games Series Tier List

 
 
 
 
 

While the quartet of additions to Xbox from CoreAI will likely raise eyebrows — as Sharma’s own move did earlier this year — the changes are believed to be positioned internally as simply about bringing in the best talent, with experience working in Microsoft’s AI division seen as just another part of the company.

The changes follow another bruising quarter for Microsoft’s gaming division. In the three months ending March 31, 2026, Microsoft’s Gaming revenue decreased 7%, Xbox content and services revenue decreased 5%, and Xbox hardware revenue (money made from the sale of Xbox consoles) declined 33%.

“While we have made progress expanding the business and our margins, player and revenue growth has not yet met our ambition,” Sharma wrote last week via a post on social media. “We know we have work to do to earn every player today and into the future.”

Last month brought a new mission statement from Sharma an

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Microsoft

Microsoft Edge stores your passwords in plaintext RAM… on purpose

If you tend to save your passwords in your browser, you need to be more careful. A security researcher from Norway has uncovered a serious vulnerability in Microsoft Edge that shows passwords are stored in memory as plaintext, as shown in this social media post. Any malicious user with local access could easily intercept all

Published 2 weeks ago in
Microsoft Edge stores your passwords in plaintext RAM… on purpose

If you tend to save your passwords in your browser, you need to be more careful. A security researcher from Norway has uncovered a serious vulnerability in Microsoft Edge that shows passwords are stored in memory as plaintext, as shown in this social media post.

Any malicious user with local access could easily intercept all your stored passwords…
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Microsoft

Xbox “has work to do”, but is “recommitting” to core fans following hardware revenue drop of 33% year-on-year

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Home News Xbox “has work to do”, but is “recommitting” to core fans following hardware revenue drop of 33% year-on-year Player growth has “not yet met our ambition”. Image credit: Xbox News by Victoria Phillips

Published 4 weeks ago in
Xbox “has work to do”, but is “recommitting” to core fans following hardware revenue drop of 33% year-on-year

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Xbox “has work to do”, but is “recommitting” to core fans following hardware revenue drop of 33% year-on-year

Player growth has “not yet met our ambition”.


green Xbox logo on a dark background
Image credit: Xbox


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by Victoria Phillips Kennedy
News Reporter

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Earlier today, Microsoft shared its earnings results Q3 FY2026, covering for the period between 1st January and 31st March. Microsoft’s revenue is up 18 percent, at $82.9bn, though gaming revenue fell seven percent. Xbox content and services also saw a drop of five percent year on year. Microsoft attributed this to “a prior year comparable that benefited from strong first-party performance”.

Meanwhile, Xbox hardware revenue dropped 33 percent. This follows a price rise for Xbox Series X/S consoles in the US towards the end of last year, the consoles’ second in six months. In November, Microsoft said this price increase was due to “changes in the macroeconomic environment”. Despite this, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company had “set new records for monthly Xbox active users in the quarter, as well as game streaming hours”.

A little teaser for Xbox’s Project Helix.Watch on YouTube

Writing on social media platform X, Microsoft’s newly-appointed Xbox boss Asha Sharma said “while we have made progress expanding the business and our margins

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Microsoft

IREN Doubles Down on AI Cloud Pivot as Bernstein Cuts Target but Keeps Top Pick Rating

IREN stayed Bernstein’s top AI-focused Bitcoin miner after a target cut to $100, as Microsoft-backed GPU expansion keeps its $3.7 billion cloud revenue target central to the stock story. The post IREN Doubles Down on AI Cloud Pivot as Bernstein Cuts Target but Keeps Top Pick Rating appeared first on Crypto News Australia…

Published 4 weeks ago in
IREN Doubles Down on AI Cloud Pivot as Bernstein Cuts Target but Keeps Top Pick Rating

IREN stayed Bernstein’s top AI-focused Bitcoin miner after a target cut to $100, as Microsoft-backed GPU expansion keeps its $3.7 billion cloud revenue target central to the stock story.
The post IREN Doubles Down on AI Cloud Pivot as Bernstein Cuts Target but Keeps Top Pick Rating appeared first on Crypto News Australia…
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