'Wizard101' Dev Explains Why Console Release Won't Include Xbox Game Pass

Family-friendly MMO Wizard101 was announced for consoles back in August 2024, including Xbox One & Series X|S - and in a new chat on Discord, a member of the development team has explained why Kingisle Entertainment is skipping a Game Pass launch, at least for now.

Basically, the studio behind Wizard101 believes that Microsoft's subscription service "is a double-edge sword" - because it gives teams "a lot of exposure, but potentially could massively eat into your profits".

Following on from giving their reasons behind this Game Pass developer dilemma, the Kingisle rep added that the base version of Wizard101 will be free-to-play on Xbox anyway - which also gives the team less of a reason to include a premium version on the subscription service.

At the time of posting, Wizard101 doesn't have a release date on console just yet, but we'd expect the MMORPG to arrive on the platform sometime this year. Just don't expect an Xbox Game Pass release, given this fresh Discord explanation from the developer.