Xbox users in the US face price increases up to 50 percent on their monthly gaming subscription, making it a great time to check if you're on the right tier or if you even need to subscribe at all. Like it or loathe it, we live in a subscription economy. Music, movies, meal boxes, and more are no longer things you buy once. Gaming is no exception, and while every major player in the sector has some form of sub for players--from PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Switch Online for consoles to Apple Arcade on phones--none of them offered quite as much for a modest monthly fee as Xbox Game Pass. Depending on the subscription tier, the service gave players access to a significant library of titles and was available on Xbox consoles, PC, or via cloud gaming.

Ahead of Microsoft finishing up its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it said bringing that publisher's titles to Xbox Game Pass might take some time. We've only seen one so far(Diablo IV), but the company now has added a notable one. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be available on Game Pass on its release day, later this year. Almost every year in recent memory, the latest Call of Duty release has been the best-selling game. Microsoft is relying on the debut of a new Call of Duty game to draw players to its Game Pass. 10 a month is cheaper than the price of the game, but it's also a subscription.

If you keep an eye on the gaming news at all, you might have heard about a strange little indie game in development over the last couple of years. Often stylized as "Pokemon with guns," Palworld is an odd Psyduck, a fusion of modern crafting games like Ark and Valheim with the familiar monster fighting of the world's most lucrative media franchise. Its launch this weekend was a shocking success, selling over five million copies, shooting it to the #3 concurrent player spot on Steam. No, Palworld gets the #1 spot with a bullet among recent releases. Only PUBG and Counter-Strike 2 have reached higher numbers. And that's apparently true despite the game being exclusive to Xbox and PC (missing the large PlayStation and Switch portions of the market) and being offered to millions of players for free via a day-one release on the Xbox Game Pass.

There are tons of great gaming deals floating around this Cyber Monday but few are better than one we've spotted for the Xbox Series X. After you apply a $49 coupon at Amazon, Microsoft's most powerful gaming console is available for $400. That's a record low price for the system -- you could even put the savings toward a few months of Game Pass access. You'll probably need to act quickly if you're interested, though. There's no telling when this deal will vanish.

Video games have been a massive part of my life for as long as I can remember. My love of games began with watching my mom traverse the lush and mysterious lands of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. From that point on, I was hooked. When it comes to games, I love having a wide array of game choices at my disposal. A big reason why I switched from Xbox to PlayStation was because of Xbox Game Pass being available on PC.

Yesterday's Xbox Developer Direct presentation was a bit of a staid affair. But there was one standout. Hi-Fi Rush is a pop-rock breath of fresh air, a rhythm-based beat-em-up with all the color and attitude of a post-Pokemon kid's anime. And you can play it…right now, on PC and Xbox. Hi-Fi Rush comes from Tango Gameworks, a Japanese studio best known for The Evil Within and Ghotswire: Tokyo.

The complexity of modern games can also make them more demanding gameplay wise, which serves as a deterrent from bouncing from one involved title to another. Take "Elden Ring," which isn't on either PlayStation's or Xbox's subscription service, but has been my main gaming side hustle this year. To pick up where I left off and fully enjoy the game, I have to recall what's happening in the story's plot, what the controls are (ARGH! I hit the square button and drank the Crimson Tears AGAIN!!!), what side quest I may or may not be in the middle of and, of course, the attack chain for Garth the Uncouth, Mildred the Overly Perspirant or whatever the name is of the boss that keeps beating me like a thumbtack under a sledgehammer.

Asian characters have a long history in video games, thanks to Japanese giants like Nintendo and Sony. Now, US-based Microsoft is taking pains to acquire, promote, and create more games with Asian characters -- as the industry responds to increased calls for diverse representation. The move fits in with Microsoft's larger strategy to acquire new content and expand their global reach. The company has been on a spending spree, buying up game companies to broaden their roster on services like the subscription-based Xbox Game Pass. Earlier this year, Microsoft purchased the beleaguered Activision Blizzard.

More than a month after revealing the revamped version of PlayStation Plus, Sony has shared the initial lineup of games heading to its new service, covering everything from original PlayStation classics and PlayStation Portable titles to modern hits. The new PlayStation Plus has three tiers, each at a discrete price point and offering varying levels of goodies, and it's all set to go live on June 13th in the Americas. Now that we know which games will be included in each tier -- PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra and Premium -- it's easier to directly compare Sony's service with that of its biggest competitor, Xbox Game Pass from Microsoft. Sony's subscription service is segmented into three parts, with different games and features available depending on how much you pay. PS Plus Essential costs $10 a month or $60 a year, and it's basically the Plus we know now, offering two games to download each month, access to online multiplayer features, cloud storage and discounts.

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below.This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Welcome back to Talking Tech. You likely heard me a couple days ago talking about Microsoft's huge deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, which is the video game publisher that makes a ton of big titles, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft through Blizzard, and a host of others. The big concern for some video game players, particularly owners of a PlayStation, is whether they should be worried that one of the industry's biggest games and Call of Duty may no longer be on the platform.