Microsoft\u2019s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, has signaled that Xbox Game Pass pricing is about to change. In an internal memo to Xbox employees, obtained by The Verge, Sharma admits that \u201cGame Pass has become too expensive for players\u201d and that Microsoft needs \u201ca better value equation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGame Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox. It\u2019s also clear that the current model isn\u2019t the final one,\u201d says Sharma. \u201cShort 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Microsoft hiked the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $29.99 per month last year<\/a>, a massive 50 percent hike. The company tried to justify the price hike with a variety of upgrades across all of its Xbox Game Pass tiers, but the cost increase has clearly taken its toll on Game Pass.<\/p>\n I understand that part of the cost increase for Game Pass was down to Microsoft\u2019s decision to add Call of Duty into the subscription service. I reported nearly two years ago<\/a> that Microsoft had been debating whether to put new releases of Call of Duty into Game Pass, with concerns from some at the company at the time that the revenue generated from typical Call of Duty sales would be undermined by Game Pass. Microsoft went on to add Call of Duty to Game Pass <\/a>in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n Over the weekend, Windows Central\u2019s Jez Corden hinted that Microsoft might be about to take Call of Duty out of Game Pass. \u201cIf they take Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year, which is a possibility from what I\u2019ve heard, I think it will kind of reveal some of the cracks in the strategy, possibly,\u201d said Corden on the XB2+1 podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sharma references the \u201conline chatter\u201d about rumors of Microsoft changing Game Pass pricing, and says she\u2019ll \u201cgo deeper\u201d with Xbox employees next week. I wouldn\u2019t expect any immediate price changes in the coming days, but it certainly seems that Sharma is aware of the Game Pass pricing issues and is getting ready to address them in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft\u2019s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, has signaled that Xbox Game Pass pricing is about to change. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1345,205,59,696,1058,227,86,56,54,55,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-529262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-exclusive","9":"tag-gaming","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-microsoft","12":"tag-report","13":"tag-tech","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom","18":"tag-xbox"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}