Microsoft’s subscription service isn’t growing enough (we’ve reported on this before), and the Redmond-based company wants to fix that by giving the non-paying public something and giving them something more.

On the Xbox Two podcast, an insider, Rand al Thor 19, said that Xbox Game Pass could take things to the next level. There are currently three tiers: there’s Core, which used to be called Xbox Live Gold (and Microsoft counted those subscribers in the 34 million subscribers…), the basic subscription model, and the more expensive Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which gives you the option to play from the cloud courtesy of Xbox Cloud Gaming. A fourth tier can be added to these.

According to Rand Al Thor, The Verge editor Tom Warren has also heard that Microsoft will follow up last year’s Game Pass price hikes, which skipped America, with another price hike. He knows that a fourth Game Pass tier is in the works, but he has no information on what’s in it. Since they can’t really offer anything better than Ultimate, they should definitely be preparing for the entry level.

🚨 RUMOUR & SPECULATION🚨

Rand al Thor 19 has heard that there is a new tier for Game Pass coming

“I think Tom (Warren) is reporting that there are price hikes coming for game pass, and I believe him and that actually is happening. I've even heard that there is a new tier of… pic.twitter.com/v4M1eBcD1I

— GPT: Game Pass Tracker (@GPTGamingNews) May 11, 2024

This would probably be a free or very cheap tier that Microsoft would load with ads. But this could be reversed and Microsoft could offer something extra beyond Ultimate. Perhaps the new Game Pass tier could be tied to the mobile Xbox Store, which will launch in web browsers in July. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess what Microsoft is planning, but it sounds a lot like the Redmond-based company is panicking that it spent $70 billion on Activision Blizzard King and hasn’t been able to make much money back yet.

None of this is official yet, but Microsoft really needs to change its strategy, and shutting down Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, for example, cannot be seen as a solution, but as a heartless move.

Source: Reddit