Eurogamer Podcasts Eurogamer

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the downsides and upsides of the video game battle pass.
In a week where PlayStation live-service hopeful Concord trumpeted the fact it won't sell you a battle pass as a marketing beat, and Apex Legends dialled back (some of) its battle pass changes following fan fury, we consider the options available to video game makers hoping to ensure their latest releases keep being played - and paid for - well after release.
Would more people play Concord if it was a free-to-play title with a battle pass? Or is it better served by being a £40 launch? Not everyone can promise they'll never sell post-launch content, as Stardew Valley's creator did this week. But there's clearly a balance to be struck to ensure players don't feel fleeced, particularly when full-priced launches like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League are getting in on the act too. Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy to discuss.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss Microsoft's big changes to Xbox Game Pass.
Xbox Game Pass for console is gone, unless you subscribe already. In its place: Xbox Game Pass Standard, which will no longer include new day one games from Microsoft, Activision, Blizzard and Bethesda. Oh, and everything's going up in price.
Do these changes mark the end of Game Pass being a must-have subscription for Xbox owners? Or, after an impressive summer presentation painting a rosy picture of Microsoft's 2025 slate, are you now more likely to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, where day one launches will remain. Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy to discuss.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the cancelled Xbox project Keystone: Microsoft's plans to launch a relatively cheap streaming console.
Keystone popped up yesterday in an old patent which detailed the prospective hardware in fresh detail, though we have of course seen it in the wild before - on Xbox boss Phil Spencer's shelf. Spencer has addressed Keystone's cancellation, and blamed it being shelved (literally) on Microsoft not being able to make it a cheap enough proposition.
But does the end of Keystone mean Microsoft is abandoning its cloud gaming plans entirely? No, of course not - and Xbox Cloud Gaming remains. And in the future, as internet speeds improve and streaming games becomes more common, could we see Keystone Version 2? Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy to discuss.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss everything shown at the Xbox Showcase last night: one of the best summer preview events in recent years, and one of Microsoft's best ever.
On the one hand, perhaps the trove of upcoming titles should be expected. After all, this is what you should get when you spend nearly $100bn buying up swathes of the games industry. On the other, well, Microsoft has seemed to perenially exist on promising that next year's crop of first-party games will finally be where its acquisition spree pays off, where Game Pass truly hits the big time, and where it at last starts clawing back some market share.
After watching the avalanche of announcements last night (Doom! Gears! Perfect Dark!) alongside everything else we knew was coming (Fable! Indy! More Diablo!) it's hard to see how the next 12 months couldn't make an impact - let alone the boost of launching Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 into Xbox Game Pass. Could Xbox finally feel like it's hitting its stride this console generation, after numerous misfires? Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy to discuss.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we look back on the start of this year's June hype cycle, the period formerly known as E3, and now a potpourri of other events and announcement livestreams.
PlayStation got the ball rolling last night with a look ahead at its rather meagre first-party plans for the remainder of 2024: a moderately buffed-up port of Until Dawn, online shooter Concord, and the charming Astro Bot. But, as our Ian wrote earlier, even the cute robot has got some people (VR fans) disgruntled. Still, as a flat-screen game, surely more people will now play it?
And then there was Silent Hill Transmission or, this time around, basically just a longer look at the upcoming Silent Hill 2 and a chance for Konami to promote a load of tie-in tat. Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Victoria Kennedy and Vikki Blake to discuss.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the future of Xbox after the announcement Microsoft is shutting a swathe of Bethesda game studios. Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall once seemed primed to benefit from being available via Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's much-touted subscription service often seen as the best reason to own the company's console. Now, the studios behind both are gone forever.
Last year, Microsoft's marketing mouthpiece Aaron Greenberg declared Hi-Fi Rush "a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations". Redfall, meanwhile, despite being less-favourably received, had a multiplayer roadmap and a promise of single-player, with hope the Game Pass audience would still prop it up.
But Microsoft's reasoning for closing Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin - to focus on bigger bets - suggests Game Pass is no longer a place where creativity can reign without fear of being too niche, and where fun-if-a-bit-mid multiplayer games can't be supported long enough to receive updates just days from completion.
So where does this leave Xbox, and Game Pass, and studios like DoubleFine or Ninja Theory still making smaller-sized games? How secure does the team behind Hellblade 2 feel today, even if its game launches and is also dubbed a "break out hit"? I'm joined by Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy to discuss.
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