Microsoft may already be putting pieces of its rumored Game Pass overhaul into place. A recent report claimed that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is planning a major rethink of the subscription service that could let players pay separately for features such as cloud gaming, multiplayer, and console-only games. Xbox has now started testing a pay-as-you-go […]
Xbox
Microsoft may already be putting pieces of its rumored Game Pass overhaul into place. A recent report claimed that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is planning a major rethink of the subscription service that could let players pay separately for features such as cloud gaming, multiplayer, and console-only games. Xbox has now started testing a pay-as-you-go version of Cloud Gaming that does not require a Game Pass subscription.
Xbox Cloud Gaming now has an hourly priceXbox Insiders without an active Game Pass subscription can buy 10 hours of cloud playtime for $3.99, 25 hours for $7.99, or 50 hours for $11.99. The packs are ad-free and promise shorter wait times and higher-quality streaming. More importantly, you are not buying a monthly allowance. Any unused hours stay on your account until you eventually use them, which makes the pay-as-you-go option more practical for someone who only jumps into cloud gaming occasionally.
Rockstar Games
Interestingly enough, as Tom Warren points out, Xbox has started testing this service suspiciously close to the launch window of GTA 6, which the company’s CSO, Matthew Ball, has already confirmed Xbox has obtained streaming rights to. In theory, anyone with an Xbox account, a copy of GTA 6, and enough cloud hours should be able to stream the game on a supported device, but the chances of that being possible are rather slim. Ball has already clarified that GTA 6 will not be streamed to PC, which likely rules out PC browsers as well, so the full picture is still a little unclear.
Billy Freeman / Unsplash
You still need to buy the games
Paying for cloud hours does not unlock the Game Pass catalog. Players still need to own a supported cloud-playable Xbox game, or choose an eligible free-to-play title. A copy purchased only through another PC storefront such as Steam does not appear to give you the Xbox entitlement required for cloud streaming. Xbox Insiders can now access the new pay-as-you-go packs at introductory prices, with the service scheduled to roll out more broadly in November.

Sudhanshu Kumar Manglam is a tech journalist at Digital Trends, where he covers consumer technology, science, and games.
BioWare is closing, and the next Mass Effect is going with it
The closure ends more than three decades of RPG history and follows years of troubled releases.

Electronic Arts is shutting down BioWare after more than three decades, bringing the curtain down on the studio behind Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Baldur’s Gate, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. EA also canceled the next Mass Effect in early development, and the closure is part of a wider restructuring that will reportedly eliminate around 400 jobs across EA.
Roughly 50 of those positions are reportedly at BioWare, and EA is also closing the studio’s Edmonton workspace. BioWare confirmed the news in its own farewell message, thanking the developers and players who helped build its games over the past 30 years.
We now have a phone with two active fans to keep it chill, and a ginormous battery too.
Two fans, a 185Hz display, and batteries so big that you won't need a power bank.

Putting an active cooling fan inside a gaming smartphone is not a revolutionary idea. Red Magic phones have done this for a while, but Honor apparently thinks a single fan isn't enough to cool the demanding Qualcomm flagship chip, so it included two in its new Win 2 gaming smartphone.
The Chinese company unveiled the device alongside the Honor Win RT2 and Win Turbo2, both of which come with a ridiculous 12,070mAh battery.
Xbox may finally be giving Game Pass the overhaul it badly needs
The planned overhaul could let players pay for individual Game Pass features instead of relying entirely on fixed subscription tiers.

Microsoft has spent years treating Game Pass as the centerpiece of Xbox, but the subscription service has become something of a problem for the company. Subscriber growth has fallen far short of internal expectations, while putting expensive first-party games on the service from day one has reportedly hurt the full-price sales Microsoft still relies on.
According to Fortune, Sharma is planning a major Game Pass overhaul that would let players choose some features à la carte, including add-ons for console-only games, cloud gaming, and multiplayer, while keeping a tiered subscription structure.
| # | Наименование новости | Тональность | Информативность | Дата публикации |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xbox may finally be giving Game Pass the overhaul it badly needs | 0 | 10.38 | 20-10-2026 |
| 2 | Xbox tests hourly Cloud Playtime packs without Game Pass starting at $3.99 | 0 | 16.78 | 21-10-2026 |
| 3 | Xbox CEO Asha Sharma insists "Xbox is not for sale" | 0 | 10.41 | 30-09-2026 |
| 4 | Xbox porta la pubblicità nel cloud, con i giochi che hai già pagato | 0 | 6.02 | 24-07-2026 |
| 5 | Xbox is trialing ad-supported streaming for owned games, but there are big limits | 0 | 16.66 | 23-07-2026 |
| 6 | Xbox CEO reportedly warns firm will "not survive" if it only relies on existing franchises | 0 | 9.88 | 14-10-2026 |
| 7 | Asha Sharma reportedly informs staff that Xbox has "started to return to growth" during internal town hall | 0 | 7.86 | 07-10-2026 |
| 8 | 👀Microsoft увольняет 4 800 сотрудников и фактически распускает четыре студии ... | -3 | 7 | 06-07-2026 |
| 9 | 💬По словам журналиста Джейсона Шрайера, внутри Xbox далеко не все ... | -2 | 7 | 19-07-2026 |
| 10 | Microsoft could let you transform your physical XBOX games into digital copies | 0 | 5 | 02-07-2026 |