Major Changes Coming to Xbox Game Pass

It seems Microsoft is gearing up for some significant changes to its subscription service. Xbox Game Pass recently lost day-one access to Call of Duty in exchange for a price reduction, but reports suggest an even more substantial transformation is on the horizon.

According to sources, CEO Asha Sharma aims to shift Game Pass from a flat-rate, all-you-can-play model to a more customizable à la carte system. While the service will still have tiers, players will have the flexibility to choose which add-ons they want to pay for. Options like cloud gaming, multiplayer access, and console-exclusive titles could be among the selections available.

This approach could help manage costs and attract more subscribers by eliminating features that many users don’t utilize, while also allowing those who do to pay a bit more. This aligns with Microsoft’s ongoing experiments with an ad-supported tier of Game Pass, designed to make the service more accessible to casual gamers.

However, it seems likely that Xbox’s first-party titles will gradually be removed from the day-one lineup. The company has been inching toward this change for years, introducing Premium Edition Upgrades that charge players $30 for early access to games that become available at no extra cost shortly after through Game Pass.

Internal documents have hinted that Microsoft initially aimed for over 100 million subscribers, but growth has stagnated around 35 million, leading to challenges in the overall Xbox business model this console generation. The next wave of major Xbox titles kicks off in February 2027 with Fable, and it’s reasonable to expect that this rumored Game Pass revamp will be officially launched before then.