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 6 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

Windows XP’s most famous pirated key wasn’t a hack. It was a leak

About a year ago, in a social media post, long-time Microsoft veteran Dave Plummer (who worked on Windows Task Manager) recounted the story of what’s now known as the most iconic Windows product key. We’re talking about FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8. This product key for Windows XP—which is now celebrating its 25th anniversary—made the rounds in the early

Published 1 week ago in
Windows XP’s most famous pirated key wasn’t a hack. It was a leak

About a year ago, in a social media post, long-time Microsoft veteran Dave Plummer (who worked on Windows Task Manager) recounted the story of what’s now known as the most iconic Windows product key.

We’re talking about FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8. This product key for Windows XP—which is now celebrating its 25th anniversary—made the rounds in the early 2000s…
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Microsoft

GTA 6 Leaker Releases More Gameplay Videos Despite Rockstar Owner Take-Two’s Microsoft and Discord Subpoenas

UPDATE AUGUST 24, 2026: The GTA 6 leaker has continued to release new gameplay clips, and is even running a poll to decide which video to leak next despite Rockstar parent company Take-Two’s ongoing hunt for people responsible. A tenth leaked GTA 6 video was released last night, this time showing plane at night gameplay.

Published 3 weeks ago in
GTA 6 Leaker Releases More Gameplay Videos Despite Rockstar Owner Take-Two’s Microsoft and Discord Subpoenas

UPDATE AUGUST 24, 2026: The GTA 6 leaker has continued to release new gameplay clips, and is even running a poll to decide which video to leak next despite Rockstar parent company Take-Two’s ongoing hunt for people responsible.

A tenth leaked GTA 6 video was released last night, this time showing plane at night gameplay. There is no cutscene footage this time.

The watermarks are the same as those on the previous video, advertising the ‘CyberLeek’ token at the heart of the cryptocurrency scheme that is believed to be the motivating factor behind all this. Another watermark doubles down on the anti-all-digital future manifesto that formed part of the initial CyberLeek website. It reads: “They want to take your right to resell. The peaceful route got us nowhere. This was plotted by them for years. It is time to fight now or never.”

Meanwhile, CyberLeek has a new poll available on its website with a number of gameplay video choices people can vote on by sending tokens. People are currently spending hundreds of dollars’ worth of the token to vote.

This poll ends today, August 24, which suggests the leaker or leakers intend to continue to release gameplay videos even in the face of Take-Two’s subpoenas of Microsoft, Discord, and X / Twitter as part of the company’s hunt for identifying information.

We are now into the sixth consecutive day of CyberLeek releases in what has been one of the most remarkable video game leaks of all time. It is now just a few days until Rockstar’s official GTA 6 reveal, exclusive to Netflix for six hours.

UPDATE AUGUST 23, 2026: The GTA 6 leaks have stretched into a sixth consecutive day, as the person or group responsible shows no sign of slowing down even in the face of court action from Rockstar parent company Take-Two.

The latest leak is the ninth GTA 6 gameplay video to emerge this week from the ‘CyberLeek’ persona. It shows one of the two protagonists, Jason, driving to a gas station to cause havoc. There he steals a pickup truck from a conspiracy theorist. The video ends with another brief look at the same cutscene shown in the gameplay videos that were leaked yesterday.

And, as with all the leaked GTA 6 videos, this “gas” clip advertises the ‘CyberLeek’ token at the heart of the cryptocurrency scheme that is believed to be the motivating factor behind all this. A new watermark doubles down on the anti-all-digital future manifesto that formed part of the initial CyberLeek website. It reads: “They want to take your right to resell. The peaceful route got us nowhere. This was plotted by them for years. It is time to fight now or never.”

In other related news. Take-Two lawyers have issued a subpoena to X / Twitter to identify the person or persons behind three accounts that contain ‘CyberLeak’ within them. This subpoena follows two filed earlier this week requesting information from Microsoft and Discord.

ORIGINAL STORY AUGUST 22, 2026: The alleged GTA 6 leaker has released two further gameplay videos despite Rockstar owner Take-Two’s subpoenas requesting identifying information from Microsoft and Discord.

The ‘CyberLeek’ person or group released two new videos today, August 22, one showing more supercar gameplay and an armed robbery, the other strip club gameplay. The latter appears to taunt Take-Two and Rockstar by showing a snippet of a cutscene in which a character says they need to take “a leak.” This is the second cutscene to emerge this week, and there is growing concern that the leaker has access to a build of the game and may post significant story spoilers.

These new videos are the seventh and eighth to leak this week. And, like all the others, they advertise the ‘CyberLeek’ memecoin as part of what is widely considered to be a crypto scheme.

Every Detail in the GTA 6 Cover Art Explained

On August 20, Take-Two issued Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) subpoenas in a federal court requesting information from both Microsoft and Discord as part of its hunt for the leaker or leakers behind the recent spate of GTA 6 gameplay videos. Take-Two wants identifying information associated with user accounts that were members of a number of Discord servers, including one relating to Australian GTA content cr

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Microsoft

Microsoft and Valve sued, PlayStation’s first party downturn, and could a UK social media ban impact games? – Patch Notes #55

Plus: Atari acquires Hipster Whale and Mina the Hollower hits 300,000 sales…

Published 2 months ago in
Microsoft and Valve sued, PlayStation’s first party downturn, and could a UK social media ban impact games? – Patch Notes #55

Plus: Atari acquires Hipster Whale and Mina the Hollower hits 300,000 sales…
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Microsoft

Nvidia and Microsoft drop cryptic coordinates pointing to an ARM powered PC revolution at GTC Taipei 2026

This morning I woke to social media teasers from both Nvidia and Microsoft, which seen many on social media speculating about it’s meaning. The identical posts feature a simple message – a new era of PC is coming. This isn’t jsut a new generation of an existing architecture…

Published 2 months ago in
Nvidia and Microsoft drop cryptic coordinates pointing to an ARM powered PC revolution at GTC Taipei 2026

This morning I woke to social media teasers from both Nvidia and Microsoft, which seen many on social media speculating about it’s meaning. The identical posts feature a simple message – a new era of PC is coming. This isn’t jsut a new generation of an existing architecture…
Read More

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