It is rare to see a company the size of Microsoft openly acknowledge a serious problem like this. Asha Sharma has only just taken over Xbox after the departure of Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond, yet it is already clear she did not arrive to tiptoe around the mess. After pulling the controversial This is Xbox campaign, she has now turned her attention to Game Pass, and all signs suggest that Xbox leadership is no longer comfortable with the service in its current form.

According to The Verge journalist Tom Warren, Sharma addressed Game Pass issues in an internal memo sent to employees, and in that message she made it clear that the subscription service has a pricing problem. She reportedly said that Game Pass remains central to the value proposition of gaming on Xbox, but that it is equally obvious the current model is not the final version. In the short term, the service has become too expensive for players, which means Microsoft needs to offer better value for money.

Over the longer term, Sharma is said to be looking toward a more flexible system, though she also made it clear that building one will take time, testing, and a willingness to learn from the results. She did not outline specific measures or future pricing, but the direction is already obvious: Xbox Game Pass may be heading for a substantial redesign. Only a few weeks ago, there was talk of a Netflix bundle as well, and Xbox leadership acknowledged that those conversations have taken place, even if both sides are still trying to determine how to make such a deal beneficial for everyone involved.

One of the most obvious possibilities would be a free, ad-supported version of Game Pass built around Xbox Cloud Gaming. Microsoft has floated that idea before, but it is still unclear whether it will ever become a concrete reality. Warren’s report also says Sharma is exploring strategic partnerships to add more flexibility to the service. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly likely that after two consecutive years of launching Call of Duty day one into Game Pass, Microsoft may eventually reverse course on that particular experiment.

Call of Duty Has Become Part of the Problem Too

One of the most sensitive questions surrounding Game Pass in recent years has been exactly what to do about Call of Duty. According to some reports, Microsoft has already discussed the possibility of not placing future entries into the subscription service on day one. Earlier claims suggested that launching Black Ops 6 into Game Pass cost Microsoft around $300 million in lost revenue, even though the game also delivered huge player numbers. With Black Ops 7, however, the performance reportedly fell off quite noticeably.

This debate has apparently been running inside Xbox for quite some time. The real question is whether putting Call of Duty into Game Pass is worth it if the franchise also needs to remain a massive standalone revenue engine. Microsoft is obviously not going to remove the older entries already included in the catalog, but before the next title arrives, the company will need to decide what direction it wants to take.

Warren’s report also points to another major option: a cheaper subscription tier that would only include games from Xbox’s own studios, while excluding third-party releases. In practice, that would mean a stripped-down version of Game Pass that could still preserve the Day One appeal for the most important first-party launches while offering a cheaper and clearer package. That would likely include titles from Xbox Game Studios, along with games from Activision Blizzard and Bethesda.

There is also a major technical problem sitting behind all of this. According to Warren, Xbox is still operating across multiple platforms and backend systems that do not share unified code or data, meaning different parts of the service function semi-independently. As a result, creating a new pricing structure, introducing differentiated tiers, or tailoring the catalog for different markets is not just a business decision, it also requires serious infrastructure work. Sharma reportedly wants to tackle that head-on and is willing to invest heavily so the Game Pass of the future is built on something more stable than a patchwork of disconnected systems.

That is also why dramatic changes are unlikely to happen overnight. Sharma herself made it clear that this process will require time, testing, and learning. With Project Helix looming and the entire technical foundation seemingly needing to be reconsidered, Xbox still has a lot of work ahead. What has already changed, however, is the tone: the company is finally admitting internally that the current form of Game Pass is a problem, and that it needs more than cosmetic fixes.

Source: 3DJuegos