This is the non paywalled version. Full text for those who don’t want to click
> Microsoft’s 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 “Game Pass has become too expensive for players” and that Microsoft needs “a better value equation.”
>
> “Game Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox. It’s also clear that the current model isn’t the final one,” says Sharma. “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.”
>
> Microsoft hiked the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $29.99 per month last year, 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.
>
> I understand that part of the cost increase for Game Pass was down to Microsoft’s decision to add Call of Duty into the subscription service. I reported nearly two years ago 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 in the summer of 2024.
>
> Over the weekend, Windows Central’s Jez Corden hinted that Microsoft might be about to take Call of Duty out of Game Pass. “If they take Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year, which is a possibility from what I’ve heard, I think it will kind of reveal some of the cracks in the strategy, possibly,“ said Corden on the XB2+1 podcast.
>
> Sharma references the “online chatter” about rumors of Microsoft changing Game Pass pricing, and says she’ll “go deeper” with Xbox employees next week. I wouldn’t 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.
>
Embarrassed_Try9339 on
Lower price tier, remove COD and most big day 1 games.
That’s what they are going to do.
Prestigious_Wrap_932 on
Oh man, if only the CEO of Xbox knew somebody who could do something to lower the price of Game Pass! /s
SilentSasquatch2 on
If they drop it down to $20 and the next console/pc hybrid is legit, I’m back in
Capcom-Warrior on
It’s literally the worst deal of paid subscriptions on the market including music, TV streaming, and gaming.
darkdeath174 on
>We will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system
I wonder if it’s going base game pass with addons, letting user pick the features and prices they want.
You could still sell cards with Ultimate just being everything offered.
CrimsonGear80 on
They will lower the price…but take out day one call of duty.
XtremeWRATH360 on
It’s quite simple.
LOWER THE COST!
If it weren’t for my MS rewards I would have dropped Gamepass by now. It’s not with $30 and the very idea it went up because of the CoD bust will forever piss me off. I didnt want CoD and yet I as the consumer get punished because MS can’t figure shit out!
412raven on
Feel like the damage is already done. The game pass price hike is what finally convinced me to move to Steam and I highly doubt I’ll ever be back.
Harkoncito on
No shit, Sherlock!
BlazingProductions on
I wish this signaled to me that prices are going down. But usually when corporate starts saying something like this, it means the service is going to get a lot less useful so that it’s more cost effective for them, not the user base
Prestigious_Media887 on
I don’t know why they offer massive games for free that was never going to work long term, just make all AAA games like 50% off so the people who make the game still get a paid for every sale they make and make like 2 AA games free every month maybe and super reduced price for all the free arcade games they put on there, I’d still pay like £30-£35 for call of duty and bf if that’s all they charged
TwinkleTowez on
For me the trust is broken at this point. I was a day one Game pass subscriber, but I cancelled it after the price hike last year. The appeal of game pass was to get Xbox published games day one, so if they cut price the down but remove that day one access, at that point I’d be paying for a catalog of games I’m not especially interested in.
freakdahouse on
And that’s right, 27 euros is too expensive, especially on this times were everything is raising prices, I didn’t renewed mine since the price hike, that’s enough for me.
miglrah on
I dropped it after years and years due to price. They fix that I’ll reconsider.
TheBuckinator on
I am one person who would be thrilled if they removed cod and lowered the price.
The cod crew would continue to buy cod and those of us who loved gamepass for its variety and single player catalog would jump back in.
Global-Hold9615 on
Come on, drop the price down
WhiskeyRadio on
Yeah duh GamePass isn’t a good deal at $30 a month. I used it to try new releases that got added and if I liked the game enough I’d buy it on Steam.
Fleshfeast on
I dropped Game Pass when they hiked the price in October, and the only thing I miss is online play. The price hike taught me just how little I was using it. I guess my gaming tastes are particular enough that GP just doesn’t cover my interests much, and I wouldn’t even resub if Ultimate dropped back to $20.
azninvasion2000 on
They need to make gamepass more curated. I have GPU until next year, but I only play a handful of games on it.
They need to do a thing where you can rent games for a couple days for a small price, with an option to buy it at a discount.
Having access to 400 games is nice but I really only play 5, so buying those 5 is easily a better financial decision.
Ok-Confusion-202 on
Well… Yeah… When they put all these games into Gamepass they still said it was profitable though…
Oh… But I was also told it was all Sarah Bond by herself doing this, if they reduced the price, cool
But I just expect another price increase down the line and at that point it would probably be a price increase without the games being in there
Look I can give them a chance if in 5 years they have been doing some great stuff, but Phil was known to say a lot of go things and look where that ended,
Sneckster on
Too late to realise that methinks
udderlymoovelous on
There’s also the rumor going around that they’re adding WoW to the Ultimate subscription. So adding more value in addition to a price drop would be nice. I don’t think the price will go down much if at all though, the more likely scenario is that they make it similar to YouTube TV with a base subscription and various add-ons.
Shinobi_Dimsum on
Cheaper base Ultimate with the option to pick your own addition(s) like Fallout first, youbesoft+, EA play.. would be perfect.
Quiet_Yellow2000 on
Must be seeing people drop it. The last price rise was crazy, and was the straw that broke the camel back for a lot of people.
WickerMan22 on
The ultimate problem is that Microsoft never got close to their subscriber targets. They planned for 100 million. Unfortunately growth stagnated around 35 million. I suspected that the increase to $30 was the only way they felt they could maintain the status quo of day 1 games, including big AAA releases like Call of Duty.
As someone that has subscribed since Xbox Live launch, yes, ultimate no longer made sense financially for me at $30 per month. I feel I was getting value at $20, but not $30. Now I don’t subscribe at all unless it’s essential for a month to play a Diablo 4 season. I’ll happily buy Forza Horizon 6 and Fable.
npsage on
I mean; as soon as they bumped it up the $30; I went in and killed the auto renew; I think it expires sometimes in early 2027.
I’m sure I’m not alone. The day 1 games are what makes it a better value than PS Premium; but when the price difference is the full retail price of the 3-4 “Day 1” games you would probably be interested in; you might as well just buy those 4 games and packet the savings.
(Not to mention the fact that with a lot of MS games are recently not quite hitting the mark so they tend to go aggressively on sale not long after release anyway.)
rpglaster on
I was a big defender and enjoyer of Game Pass Ultimate, its hike to $30 made it not worth it for me and I changed my subscription to the lowest version. If they changed the price back to what it was or to like $22 I’d happily go back and support it. I have no interest in playing Call of Duty.
Hunk4thSurvivor on
Here’s my pitch, make a separate CALL OF DUTY subscription, 5 bucks a month and you get access to this year’s game multiplayer. Sell the campaign separetly for 40-50$. Remove COD, Fortnite Crew and other bullshit from Ultimate, and bring it back down to 20$.
Make a separete tier for cloud gaming only with day one drops for 12$.
TiredReader87 on
I’m glad she’s sensible
I’m also glad I stocked up at Costco for $500 less
Rabiddd on
$30 for Gamepass is what pushed me to move on to PC gaming
ActivateTheQuasars on
I have Game Pass Ultimate prepaid up until 2027 and I honestly wonder if I’ll stay subbed to that tier once my prepaid period is over. I have so many games in my backlog that I try to go through that day one releases aren’t that important anymore to me like they used to.
I think I’d be happy with the premium tier without cloud streaming
DoubletapKO on
Expect them to stop dropping games on Day 1
Greenzombie04 on
If I was in charge:
I would get rid of Ultimate, PC, Essential tiers. Dont need essential to play games online on console since its not required on PC.
Xbox Game Pass Premium just becomes Xbox Game Pass as the only tier.
No day 1 games (hurts profit margin which causes lay offs and closures) its $9.99 a month and cloud is free with ads or $5 extra for ad free cloud.
SkyWaxerr on
Remove COD and Fortnite and it will cost 18€ I think
35 Comments
This is the non paywalled version. Full text for those who don’t want to click
> Microsoft’s 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 “Game Pass has become too expensive for players” and that Microsoft needs “a better value equation.”
>
> “Game Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox. It’s also clear that the current model isn’t the final one,” says Sharma. “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.”
>
> Microsoft hiked the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $29.99 per month last year, 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.
>
> I understand that part of the cost increase for Game Pass was down to Microsoft’s decision to add Call of Duty into the subscription service. I reported nearly two years ago 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 in the summer of 2024.
>
> Over the weekend, Windows Central’s Jez Corden hinted that Microsoft might be about to take Call of Duty out of Game Pass. “If they take Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year, which is a possibility from what I’ve heard, I think it will kind of reveal some of the cracks in the strategy, possibly,“ said Corden on the XB2+1 podcast.
>
> Sharma references the “online chatter” about rumors of Microsoft changing Game Pass pricing, and says she’ll “go deeper” with Xbox employees next week. I wouldn’t 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.
>
Lower price tier, remove COD and most big day 1 games.
That’s what they are going to do.
Oh man, if only the CEO of Xbox knew somebody who could do something to lower the price of Game Pass! /s
If they drop it down to $20 and the next console/pc hybrid is legit, I’m back in
It’s literally the worst deal of paid subscriptions on the market including music, TV streaming, and gaming.
>We will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system
I wonder if it’s going base game pass with addons, letting user pick the features and prices they want.
You could still sell cards with Ultimate just being everything offered.
They will lower the price…but take out day one call of duty.
It’s quite simple.
LOWER THE COST!
If it weren’t for my MS rewards I would have dropped Gamepass by now. It’s not with $30 and the very idea it went up because of the CoD bust will forever piss me off. I didnt want CoD and yet I as the consumer get punished because MS can’t figure shit out!
Feel like the damage is already done. The game pass price hike is what finally convinced me to move to Steam and I highly doubt I’ll ever be back.
No shit, Sherlock!
I wish this signaled to me that prices are going down. But usually when corporate starts saying something like this, it means the service is going to get a lot less useful so that it’s more cost effective for them, not the user base
I don’t know why they offer massive games for free that was never going to work long term, just make all AAA games like 50% off so the people who make the game still get a paid for every sale they make and make like 2 AA games free every month maybe and super reduced price for all the free arcade games they put on there, I’d still pay like £30-£35 for call of duty and bf if that’s all they charged
For me the trust is broken at this point. I was a day one Game pass subscriber, but I cancelled it after the price hike last year. The appeal of game pass was to get Xbox published games day one, so if they cut price the down but remove that day one access, at that point I’d be paying for a catalog of games I’m not especially interested in.
And that’s right, 27 euros is too expensive, especially on this times were everything is raising prices, I didn’t renewed mine since the price hike, that’s enough for me.
I dropped it after years and years due to price. They fix that I’ll reconsider.
I am one person who would be thrilled if they removed cod and lowered the price.
The cod crew would continue to buy cod and those of us who loved gamepass for its variety and single player catalog would jump back in.
Come on, drop the price down
Yeah duh GamePass isn’t a good deal at $30 a month. I used it to try new releases that got added and if I liked the game enough I’d buy it on Steam.
I dropped Game Pass when they hiked the price in October, and the only thing I miss is online play. The price hike taught me just how little I was using it. I guess my gaming tastes are particular enough that GP just doesn’t cover my interests much, and I wouldn’t even resub if Ultimate dropped back to $20.
They need to make gamepass more curated. I have GPU until next year, but I only play a handful of games on it.
They need to do a thing where you can rent games for a couple days for a small price, with an option to buy it at a discount.
Having access to 400 games is nice but I really only play 5, so buying those 5 is easily a better financial decision.
Well… Yeah… When they put all these games into Gamepass they still said it was profitable though…
Oh… But I was also told it was all Sarah Bond by herself doing this, if they reduced the price, cool
But I just expect another price increase down the line and at that point it would probably be a price increase without the games being in there
Look I can give them a chance if in 5 years they have been doing some great stuff, but Phil was known to say a lot of go things and look where that ended,
Too late to realise that methinks
There’s also the rumor going around that they’re adding WoW to the Ultimate subscription. So adding more value in addition to a price drop would be nice. I don’t think the price will go down much if at all though, the more likely scenario is that they make it similar to YouTube TV with a base subscription and various add-ons.
Cheaper base Ultimate with the option to pick your own addition(s) like Fallout first, youbesoft+, EA play.. would be perfect.
Must be seeing people drop it. The last price rise was crazy, and was the straw that broke the camel back for a lot of people.
The ultimate problem is that Microsoft never got close to their subscriber targets. They planned for 100 million. Unfortunately growth stagnated around 35 million. I suspected that the increase to $30 was the only way they felt they could maintain the status quo of day 1 games, including big AAA releases like Call of Duty.
As someone that has subscribed since Xbox Live launch, yes, ultimate no longer made sense financially for me at $30 per month. I feel I was getting value at $20, but not $30. Now I don’t subscribe at all unless it’s essential for a month to play a Diablo 4 season. I’ll happily buy Forza Horizon 6 and Fable.
I mean; as soon as they bumped it up the $30; I went in and killed the auto renew; I think it expires sometimes in early 2027.
I’m sure I’m not alone. The day 1 games are what makes it a better value than PS Premium; but when the price difference is the full retail price of the 3-4 “Day 1” games you would probably be interested in; you might as well just buy those 4 games and packet the savings.
(Not to mention the fact that with a lot of MS games are recently not quite hitting the mark so they tend to go aggressively on sale not long after release anyway.)
I was a big defender and enjoyer of Game Pass Ultimate, its hike to $30 made it not worth it for me and I changed my subscription to the lowest version. If they changed the price back to what it was or to like $22 I’d happily go back and support it. I have no interest in playing Call of Duty.
Here’s my pitch, make a separate CALL OF DUTY subscription, 5 bucks a month and you get access to this year’s game multiplayer. Sell the campaign separetly for 40-50$. Remove COD, Fortnite Crew and other bullshit from Ultimate, and bring it back down to 20$.
Make a separete tier for cloud gaming only with day one drops for 12$.
I’m glad she’s sensible
I’m also glad I stocked up at Costco for $500 less
$30 for Gamepass is what pushed me to move on to PC gaming
I have Game Pass Ultimate prepaid up until 2027 and I honestly wonder if I’ll stay subbed to that tier once my prepaid period is over. I have so many games in my backlog that I try to go through that day one releases aren’t that important anymore to me like they used to.
I think I’d be happy with the premium tier without cloud streaming
Expect them to stop dropping games on Day 1
If I was in charge:
I would get rid of Ultimate, PC, Essential tiers. Dont need essential to play games online on console since its not required on PC.
Xbox Game Pass Premium just becomes Xbox Game Pass as the only tier.
No day 1 games (hurts profit margin which causes lay offs and closures) its $9.99 a month and cloud is free with ads or $5 extra for ad free cloud.
Remove COD and Fortnite and it will cost 18€ I think