Diablo 4 Cow Level Found, Xbox Game Pass Price Cut & Project Helix Explained

GZ Chop Shop | Episode Recap

Welcome back, everyone. This week's episode was packed — we cracked open Diablo 4's long-hidden secret after three years of community hunting, broke down exactly what new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has done since taking over, such as cutting Xbox Game Pass prices, and laid out everything we know about Project Helix, Microsoft's next-gen console. If you haven't listened yet, catch up here: [Diablo 4's Secret Cow Level FOUND After 3 Years + Asha Sharma Rebuilds Xbox + GTA 6's Ticking Clock].

Let's get into it.

After Three Years, Diablo 4's Secret Cow Level Has Finally Been Found

This one is for the community. Since Diablo 4 launched, players have been convinced a secret cow level existed — a nod to the legendary easter egg from Diablo 2. Blizzard stayed silent. And then, in early May 2026, it was finally cracked open.

Player xGarbett on X and YouTuber LoatheBurger were the ones who broke it. The discovery was confirmed between May 4–7, 2026, and the kicker? It requires the newest expansion — which is exactly why nobody found it until now.

How to unlock it

The process is multi-step and intentionally grueling:

• Kill 666 cows
• Use the Horadric Cube
• Collect relics spread across all three expansions

Once you've done all that, a secret island off the Skovos coast unlocks. A boat appears on the coastline and takes you there.

What's waiting on the island

Inside, you'll face the Cow King, returning as a Lightning Enchanted Elite. Defeat him and you'll earn a new Mythic unique — The Cow King's Helm — which comes with day-of-the-week comedy buffs. Very Blizzard.

The mystery doesn't stop there. The Cow King also drops an item called "Prime Rib" with cryptic flavor text that seems to hint at a god. The community is already deep in the rabbit hole.

The controversy

Not everyone is celebrating. Players who put in the grind are speaking up — the loot payoff doesn't feel proportionate to the years of hunting and the effort required to unlock it. Is this the right reward for one of gaming's longest-running easter egg hunts? We dig into that in the episode.

⚠️ Editorial note: The expansion required to unlock the cow level may be listed incorrectly in some early coverage. Cross-reference with official Blizzard sources before publishing expansion-specific details.

Asha Sharma Is Rebuilding Xbox — And She's Already Making Big Moves

New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma hasn't wasted any time. Since taking over, she's made a string of concrete, newsworthy decisions — and the picture they paint is of someone who wants to reset the Xbox brand from the ground up.

Game Pass prices are going DOWN, not up

Let's be direct about this, because it's the headline: Game Pass prices have been cut. While not a major price cut from where it used to be, it's still something, and something is better than nothing at all.

• Game Pass Ultimate: $29.99 → $22.99/month (permanent)
• PC Game Pass: $16.49 → $13.99/month (permanent)

This is a deliberate reversal of last year's 50% price hike and a clear signal that Sharma is prioritizing subscriber growth over short-term revenue.

The catch: New Call of Duty titles are no longer hitting Game Pass day one (sorry, COD fans). Going forward, they'll join the service roughly a year after launch. That's a real trade-off, and it's worth watching how subscribers respond.

There's also a leaked Game Pass Starter Edition in the mix — bundled with Discord Nitro for $9.99/month, offering 50+ games and 10 hours of cloud gaming per month, aimed at PC players. This appears to be Sharma's play for a lower-cost entry point.

Cleaning house on the brand

Beyond pricing, Sharma has moved quickly to reshape how Xbox presents itself:

• Killed the "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign — gone
• Dropped "Microsoft Gaming" — the division is just Xbox again
• Shut down the Copilot AI integration on Xbox consoles and the Xbox app
• Brought back Xbox Fan Fest, with a renewed commitment to the core console community
• Overhauled leadership, bringing in four executives from CoreAI, including heads of design and growth

The new definition of success

Perhaps the most telling shift: Sharma has publicly stated that daily active player engagement — not hardware unit sales — is now Xbox's primary success metric. That's a fundamental change in how the division measures whether it's winning.

Is it enough?

The moves are real and they're substantive. But the CoD day-one caveat on the price cut is a genuine compromise, and the leadership overhaul means the team is still finding its footing. We debate whether this is a true turnaround or a honeymoon phase in the episode.

Project Helix: Everything We Know About Xbox's Next Console

Project Helix is the next-gen Xbox, and it's shaping up to be something genuinely different.

The core idea: a PC-console hybrid

Helix isn't just a more powerful Xbox. The pitch is a unified device that bridges Xbox and Windows gaming — one platform, one ecosystem. And here's what makes it interesting: the AMD Magnus APU powering Helix will also be available in Windows machines from OEMs like Asus. That means the hardware ecosystem extends well beyond the Xbox box itself.

What we know about the timeline

• Dev kits begin shipping to studios in 2027
• Release window: Sometime in late 2027
• Next major reveal: Xbox Games Showcase on June 7, 2026 — the most likely destination for new Helix news
• Other possible reveal windows: Gamescom (August), Xbox's 25th Anniversary (November), The Game Awards (December)

The big open questions

The Helix story still has a few unresolved threads:

• Exclusivity — Sharma has said she's reviewing the "everything goes to PC and PlayStation too" approach and hasn't ruled out reversing it. Fans want actual exclusives, and this is the question that will define Helix's identity.
• Pricing — Nothing confirmed yet, and comments from industry figures have left room for a premium price tier.
• Console identity — If Helix runs Windows and its APU also ships in Asus laptops, what exactly makes it an Xbox? That's not a gotcha question — it's the creative tension at the heart of the whole pitch, and Sharma's team needs a clear answer for June 7.

The console is already warping the 2026 calendar. Other publishers are actively moving release windows away from the Helix reveal period. The stakes are real.

Hot Takes (From the Episode)

We kept it quick and fun in the rapid-fire segment:

• Was the D4 cow level a worthwhile payoff? Three years of hunting for a Mythic helm with joke buffs — you tell us.
• Will Sharma's changes actually save Xbox? The moves are good, but the CoD caveat and leadership reset leave uncertainty.
• Will Helix shake up the console industry? The PC-console hybrid idea is interesting — but does it make the Xbox identity even blurrier?

The Bottom Line

This week had a little bit of everything — a community win with genuine controversy baked in, a brand overhaul that's more substantive than most Xbox resets in recent memory, and a next-gen console reveal that's building toward a big June moment.

Subscribe so you don't miss the follow-up when June 7 hits. And if you're not already on the Press Play Gaming newsletter, get on it — that's where we go deeper between episodes.

Until next week — keep gaming. 🎮