Thomas Mahler compared Game Pass incentives to communism
A hot potato: Things aren't going well for Xbox right now. With the massive changes, studios closing, and the future of the brand itself being questioned, Game Pass has also found itself under the spotlight. According to the director of the Ori games, the subscription service would be much more successful if studios weren't incentivized to "slop out mediocre content like a factory."
Facepalm: If there's a sure way to lose a huge number of subscribers to your successful service, it's implementing a massive price hike. It seems Microsoft was unaware of this obvious fact when it increased Game Pass prices last year, only now admitting that "millions" of people left as a result. It wasn't long before Microsoft reversed this (under new leadership), lowering prices closer to their original levels.
A hot potato: For more than a decade, the Xbox One stood as a remarkable exception in console security – a machine long considered impervious to hacking attempts. That reputation is now over. At the RE//verse 2026 conference, security researcher Markus "Doom" Gaasedelen unveiled what he calls the "Bliss" double glitch, a voltage-based exploit that entirely undermines Microsoft's most fortified console platform.