Asha Sharma is already making moves to shake things up a bit as the new head of Microsoft Gaming. In a leaked internal memo sent to Microsoft staff, Sharma flatly says that Xbox Game Pass "has become too expensive for players."
The internal memo was leaked to The Verge. In it, Sharma says that in addition to being too expensive for players, the gaming side at Microsoft needs to find "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. 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 attempted to justify the price increases by claiming the inclusion of Ubisoft+ Classics alone was worth $15.98. They also added Fortnite Crew as a perk for Ultimate owners, which Epic Games just recently gutted to only reward 800 V-Bucks per month from the 1,000 per month it used to be. That's not even including the reduction in V-Bucks rewarded from the Battle Pass that Fortnite Crew subscribers also had access to.
Sharma's desire to reduce the cost of Game Pass could go hand-in-hand with a recent rumor that suggests Microsoft may pull Call of Duty titles out of Game Pass. Though that rumor seems to focus more on how the inclusion of Call of Duty in Game Pass may be reducing revenues from typical Call of Duty sales. Call of Duty titles started to appear day one on Game Pass with 2024's release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. In 2025, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was added as a day one release to Game Pass. While there may have been some reduced sales due to Game Pass, it's more than likely sales of Call of Duty declined due to Black Ops 7 being such a god awful game.
