Curated RSS Brief
Xbox Game Pass ‘has become too expensive,’ says Microsoft’s new gaming chief in leaked memo
Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech Gaming Close Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Gaming Report Close Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Report Xbox Game Pass ‘has become too expensive,’ says Microsoft’s new gaming chief in leaked memo Microsoft is getting ready to address Game Pass pricing concerns. Microsoft is getting ready to address Game Pass pricing concerns. by Tom Warren Close Tom Warren Senior Correspondent Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Tom Warren Apr 13, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC Link Share Gift Asha Sharma. Image: The Verge, Microsoft Tom Warren Close Tom Warren Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Tom Warren is a senior correspondent and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. 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. Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Tom Warren Close Tom Warren Senior Correspondent Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Tom Warren Exclusive Close Exclusive Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Exclusive Gaming Close Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Gaming Microsoft Close Microsoft Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Microsoft Report Close Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Report Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech Xbox Close Xbox Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Xbox Most Popular Most Popular Xbox Game Pass ‘has become too expensive,’ says Microsoft’s new gaming chief in leaked memo Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly building an AI clone to replace him in meetings Huawei beats Apple and Samsung with new wide foldable Read OpenAI’s latest internal memo about beating the competition — including Anthropic Sam Altman reportedly targeted in second attack The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service appl
- Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
- Follow Follow See All Tech Gaming Close Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
- Follow Follow See All Gaming Report Close Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
- Follow Follow See All Report Xbox Game Pass ‘has become too expensive,’ says Microsoft’s new gaming chief in leaked memo Microsoft is getting ready to address Game Pass pricing concerns.
If you want the exact wording, examples, or full context from the publisher, open the original source article.
Open Original Article
Comments
Post a Comment