As we know, in 2025, Xbox Game Pass has been keeping gamer interest pretty close to the heart as many titles are rocking it on the service, most recently Hollow Knight: Silksong, and with this, more developers want to release their titles on the subscription service to add to the trend. Alongside many studios and partners lining up to deal with Microsoft, this coincides with 2025 being the biggest year of investment, as said by head of ID@Xbox Chris Charla.
Charla recently spoke in an interview with Eurogamer and spoke about the current ongoings over at Xbox regarding their faithful subscription service. Charla stated that a “majority of partners who’ve had a game on Game Pass want to bring their future titles to the service.” Charla also spoke to the outlet, where he went on to say, “As a result, we’ve signed deals with more than 150 partners to expand the catalogue,” He then added that “we continue to engage with hundreds of partners each year to review upcoming titles.”
If we look back to 2024 when the team at Xbox had just over 50 companies signed up to their first ever Game Pass deals, which seemed like quite a hefty bunch, now in 2025 there are 150 deals, signed, sealed and delivered, it’s shown that this is their “largest investment in Game Pass to date,” as our friend Charla said! With this, 2025 seems to be the year when Xbox Game Pass turns a leaf to become a major powerhouse and is giving players satisfaction in most aspects of their gaming adventures.
However, if we look back to one Shawn Layden, who called developers for the service “wage slaves” who essentially just pump out any old slop and collect their pay check, it seems that while Game Pass has major investment, it still draws on sour notes from some execs and studios. But if we look to the major pushback to the negativity, it tells us all here that it can’t be that bad as partners are actively agreeing to do business with Xbox and release their titles directly onto Game Pass for more fans to enjoy.
Adding back to the note of me mentioning that last year Xbox had over 50 partners in the bag, Charla mentioned, “Last year, we worked with over 50 teams to sign their first Game Pass deal. This year marks our largest investment in Game Pass to date, and we remain focused on delivering the most exciting and diverse catalogue in gaming.” So not only are gamers getting a larger library of games to choose from, we can also expect to see unique ideas and directions being brought to the forefront of Game Pass as Xbox and Microsoft alike look to heavily invest in the service. This comes off the back of a direct correlation to subscription services in the U.S. going in the right direction, as analyst firm Circana noted that overall non-mobile subscription spending went up 21% year after year in July.
Now I know what you’re saying, “Xbox Game Pass isn’t all that,” and you’d be correct, it certainly isn’t. However, it was indeed part of that analysis as Game Pass subs are rising with more people wanting ease of access to their favourite games. This comes with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently commenting that Xbox Game Pass’ annual revenue reached over $5 billion for the first time in 2025, tagging that with the major investment coming for the highly touted service in the same year, and you’re on to a winner.
With many first-party titles still to hit Xbox’s monster of a subscription service, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, The Outer Worlds 2, Gears of War E-Day and even potentially Fable, if and when that ever comes to fruition, we are certainly eating good. However, if you even look back to what has already come to the huge library of games available on Xbox, such as DOOM: The Dark Ages, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, A Plague Tale series and the most recent being Hollow Knight: Silksong, we have already been eating good!
With many games coming and titles that are already available, it wouldn’t surprise me if the subscription rates to Game Pass started fluctuating heavily, especially with the investment that Microsoft is putting into it. As for the doubters and people who throw around loose terms towards developers such as “wage slaves”, it seems that they are being proven wrong with many teams signing on with Xbox and many of those are first timers to the service.
Are you excited to see what’s to come for Xbox? Us guys here at Everything Nerd are, and boy are we looking forward to seeing what the new kids on the block are going to produce for Game Pass! Thus far, the current teams working towards putting their games to action for many subscribers are kicking butt, taking names and drinking milk as the legendary Duke Nukem would relate to. Now if you want to hear more about this content, and have a laugh at some delicious content, head over to our partnered Facebook page – Everything Xbox! See you there gamer!
