Nytt Xbox Game Pass-nivåprojekt Saluki riktar sig mot Kinas växande marknad

Microsoft is reportedly building a new Xbox Game Pass tier code-named Project Saluki, designed for the Chinese gaming market. The codename has been verified inside the latest Xbox Insider builds and aligns with earlier comments from new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma about expanding Microsoft's gaming presence in China. The same report flagged a second codename, "Positron," which sources describe as a possible disc-to-digital entitlement program tied to Microsoft's hardware roadmap.

According to Windows Central reporter Jez Corden, Saluki appears to cover several Game Pass tiers and reward structures rather than a single subscription level. The package is being tailored around China's regulatory environment and player preferences, with details about pricing, content libraries, and rollout timing still under wraps. The references appearing inside Xbox Insider builds line up with public comments Sharma made about a China expansion in her first weeks in the role, which started in February 2026 when she replaced Phil Spencer at the top of the division.

Why China Is the Right Bet for Saluki

China sits as one of the most lucrative and difficult markets for Western gaming companies to enter. Microsoft already operates inside the country through Activision-Blizzard, with partnerships covering NetEase and other Chinese gaming staples. A Saluki-style Game Pass offering is likely to revolve around titles cleared by Chinese regulators, alongside a heavier focus on in-game currencies and reward structures suited to local play patterns. The arrangement would build on existing infrastructure rather than starting from scratch, which has historically been the costliest part of breaking into the country for Western publishers. The Chinese market historically skewed mobile, but recent AAA breakout hits have shifted that balance. Black Myth Wukong, developed by Game Science, crossed 10 million sales across all platforms in short order. Analyst projections cited in the Corden report suggest China could surpass the United States as the world's largest gaming market in 2026, with growth already outpacing traditional Western regions.

For Microsoft, that math is becoming harder to ignore. Game Pass subscriber numbers and console hardware sales have both been under pressure in core Western markets, and Sharma has made geographic expansion a central element of her early agenda. I think the Saluki project reads less as an experiment and more as a structural bet that Game Pass's next major user base will not be found in North America or Western Europe. The open letter Sharma and content boss Matt Booty published on April 23 also flagged that developers outside Xbox's traditional markets are competing with the largest Western studios by combining speed, scale, and a willingness to reinvent familiar genres. The description fits the Chinese AAA scene almost exactly.

Game Pass Pricing and the Sharma Reset

Saluki arrives against significant changes to the existing Game Pass structure. Sharma's first 62 days at the head of the division moved at pace. On day 14, Microsoft announced Project Helix, the codename for its next-generation console. On day 35, the "This is an Xbox" ad campaign was retired. On day 60, the reduction of Xbox Game Pass price landed: Ultimate dropped from $29.99 to $22.99 per month starting April 21, while PC Game Pass fell from $16.49 to $13.99. The cut came with one notable policy change. New Call of Duty titles will no longer enter Game Pass on launch day, with subscribers waiting a year before those games arrive in the service. Sharma framed the price drop as the first concrete step under an affordability mandate she had been signaling since taking the role.

Sharma described the broader Game Pass plan in two parts during her 28-minute April 24 interview with reporter Stephen Totilo, published in the Game File newsletter. The first part was affordability. The second is a rethink of what the subscription offers eight years after launch, with the company exploring lower-cost tiers and bundled partnerships. The Verge later reported a leak of a "Starter Edition" Game Pass tier bundled with Discord's Nitro service, one of the explorations Sharma had referenced without naming.

"We've been thinking about Game Pass in two steps. One is just: let's make sure it's affordable, which we addressed. The second is: what does value look like eight years later after the advent of Game Pass and the world changing around us and the next generation coming online?"

— Asha Sharma

Project Saluki sits inside that second step. A China-specific tier with localized rewards and regulator-approved content would be a more targeted product than anything currently offered by Game Pass globally. Sharma also declined to rule out a return to Xbox exclusives during the Totilo interview, though she committed to no timeframe. The open letter she and Booty published stated that the division would reevaluate its approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI. Microsoft spent $68.7 billion acquiring Activision Blizzard King in 2023 and $7.5 billion buying ZeniMax Media in 2020, then released once-exclusive titles on rival hardware, with Starfield's PS5 release as the most recent example. Whether that calculus holds under Sharma is the largest unresolved question on her desk.

"We'll take a data-driven approach and a strategic-driven approach, and then we'll look at our principles and we'll make some calls."

— Asha Sharma

Positron, Helix, and the Diskless Future

The Positron codename in the Windows Central report points at the same broader transition. Corden describes it as a possible disc-to-digital entitlement program, with details still under investigation. The thinking behind it lines up with the direction of the Xbox hardware roadmap. PlayStation reported an 85 percent digital ratio in its most recent figures, and Microsoft's number is likely higher still. Both manufacturers' next-generation hardware, the PlayStation 6 and the Xbox Helix console-PC hybrid, could ship without disc drives by default. Microsoft proposed a similar disc-to-digital arrangement at the Xbox One reveal in 2012, but that model was scrapped after backlash over lending and resale restrictions.

For existing Xbox disc owners, the appeal of a working Positron program is direct. Disc-based licenses cannot be played through Xbox Cloud Gaming or used through Xbox Play Anywhere, the feature that lets digital buyers play the same title across Xbox consoles and Windows PC without paying twice. A program that converts physical entitlements to digital ones would let those owners carry their libraries onto a diskless Helix console and into the cloud ecosystem. Recent titles reinforce the appeal. IO Interactive confirmed in January that 007 First Light would support Xbox Play Anywhere when it releases on May 27, with cross-saves and cross-buy spanning Xbox Series X|S, Windows, Steam, and the Xbox Ally X handheld. The studio also recently announced 007 First Light and its golden status, removing the last realistic chance of further delays after the title slipped from a March release window earlier in development.

I see the wider direction Sharma described in her interview, daily active players replacing console unit sales as the headline metric, affordable entry points, and a more open platform stance, as the connective tissue between Saluki and Positron. Neither program serves Xbox's traditional console-hardware-first identity. Both target audiences the company has historically had a harder time reaching: Chinese gamers under a different regulatory regime, and disc-era owners whose collections sit outside the cloud and Play Anywhere services. Her commitment to Gen 9 stability, a dedicated team working on console features, performance, and reliability for current hardware, sits alongside those plans without contradicting them.

Xbox console sales have declined for years, and Microsoft's quarterly earnings have shown consistent hardware revenue drops across that period. Sharma acknowledged the trend during the Totilo interview and pointed at growth across the Xbox division overall as the target for the coming fiscal year. The 10 principles included in the open letter, Earn every player, Protect our art, Stay rebellious, Progress over perfection, Signal over ceremony, Core before more, Outwork the problem, Speed is learning, Makers over managers, Clarity is kindness, read as an internal restatement of priorities rather than a marketing exercise. The memo also restored the division's name. Microsoft Gaming is now simply Xbox again, the language that had carried the brand for 25 years before being quietly replaced. On hardware pricing specifically, Sharma said the company's approach historically had not been flexible enough, though she committed to no specific changes for future devices.

What Project Saluki will actually look like at launch is still unclear. Specific tier pricing, regional availability outside mainland China, the title library, and the in-game currency rewards mentioned by Corden are all to be confirmed. The next Xbox Games Showcase on June 7 is the most immediate window for further details, as is the period during which Sharma's exclusivity decisions are most likely to land. Until then, the existing facts, verified Xbox Insider build references, Sharma's stated intent to grow in China, and the rapid agenda she has run through inside her first two months, give the strongest picture of what the company has in mind.

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