Significant changes may be coming to Xbox Game Pass and its steadily rising prices, as the new Xbox CEO mentions promising plans for the service in a leaked internal memo.
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Xbox Boss thinks Game Pass is too expensive
Last year, Xbox gamers were subject to a massive shake-up to the platform’s long-running video game subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, which resulted in the service’s Ultimate tier leaping up to $30 per month. The price hike sent shockwaves through the Xbox community as upset subscribers voiced their displeasure at the $10 price increase, up from an already alarming $20 per month. Some theorized that the increase was a result of not only the wealth of new first-party Xbox releases that have hit the service day one in recent years, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, and The Outer Worlds 2, among many others, but specifically the day one releases of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 onto the service.
2026 is looking like another massive year for Game Pass, with Forza Horizon 6 around the corner next month and Gears of War: E-Day, Halo: Campaign Evolved, and Fable all looming large over the rest of Xbox’s 2026 release calendar. Not to mention other promising titles like Double Fine’s Kiln and GameFreak’s Beast of Reincarnation looking to fill in the gaps. All this is to say that Xbox isn’t slowing down anytime soon, which is great for fans of its games, but doesn’t bode as well for the prospect of Game Pass getting cheaper.
Asha Sharma plans to lower the price of Xbox Game Pass
Asha Sharma took over as the CEO of Microsoft Gaming just a few months ago and she already seems to be looking out for Xbox fans. In an internal memo reported on by The Verge, Sharma expresses dissatisfaction with Xbox Game Pass’ current prices, calling the service “too expensive.” In the brief memo, Sharma makes it clear that she wants to rework the subscription service in order to make it more affordable for Xbox gamers once again.
“Game Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox. It’s also clear that the current model isn’t the final one…Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation. Long term, we will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system which will take time to test and learn around.”
It’s evident that whatever Asha Sharma is planning for Game Pass is some time away, though one can’t help but think about what these changes may look like. Sharma mentioned short-term and a long-term goals, and that in the short-term, she’s seeking ways to implement a “better value equation.” It’s hard to know exactly what Sharma means by this. Whether she’s considering more ways to add value to the service in order to justify the current price, or thinking about dropping the price of the tiers altogether, is a mystery. However, the latter possibility seems like the more attractive one to Xbox fans who feel burned by the rising costs of the service.
As for Sharma’s long-term goal for Game Pass, she mentions a more drastic “evolution” of the service and brought up the need for more “flexibility.” This reads like Sharma is looking to implement some sort of wide-sweeping fundamental changes, like perhaps increasing the number of available tiers being offered, giving subscribers more pricing options. According to Sharma, these are changes that will need to be tested over a longer period of time, making them seem more structural than simple price changes.
Recent reports have indicated that Xbox is weighing the option of removing Call of Duty games from Game Pass entirely, meaning that future releases would no longer be included in the service on day one, a practice that began two years ago with Black Ops 6. Such a move would be surprising, considering the ability to add Call of Duty to Game Pass was likely one of many driving factors behind Xbox’s long and arduous Activision buyout. Removing Call of Duty from Game Pass would be a bold move for Sharma, but one in-line with these recent comments about the service’s exorbitant prices. Ending Call of Duty‘s day one Game Pass releases would very likely allow Xbox to lower the price of Game Pass.
As Sharma’s memo is brief and quite vague, it’s near impossible to know exactly what’s on the table for her and the Game Pass team at Xbox. Hopefully, whatever it is she ends up changing about the service leads to a more affordable Game Pass for all Xbox gamers.
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