Microsoft is reportedly planning a substantial revamp of Xbox Game Pass that will allow subscribers to choose the features they want in an à la carte fashion. The report comes by way of a new Fortune profile piece on Xbox CEO Asha Sharma.
“Xbox is planning a major overhaul of Game Pass that would have players choose features à la carte,” Fortune wrote, “including add-ons for console-only games, cloud gaming, and multiplayer, with the system operating on a tiered structure, according to people familiar with the strategy.”
The piece dug in on Xbox’s controversial subscription gaming purchase, noting the challenges faced about the service internally: “Game Pass, a Netflix-style monthly gaming service, helped Xbox build a subscription business. But it also led to a cannibalization of sales for the company’s higher-priced first-party game titles, especially during the critical launch period. And competing internal metrics within different teams — such as subscription revenue versus store revenue — exacerbated the problem, said former employees.”
Fortune’s piece also addresses a next-gen Xbox handheld as well as the next-gen Project Helix console, suggesting that, as rumored, it won’t be cheap — unless Microsoft chooses to subsidize any of the cost.
A Game Pass revamp would be only the latest in a series of bold moves by Sharma, who has been on the job barely six months and has already cut the price of Game Pass Ultimate, signed Hideo Kojima’s next-gen Metal Gear Solid spiritual successor project Physint, started two new verticals within Xbox, and handed development of Halo to Activision, to name a few. She’s even found time to personally respond to customer support tickets and check out the latest build of The Elder Scrolls 6.
