Game Pass Doubled to $30 in a Year. Xbox Says Oops

"Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation." That's new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma, in an internal memo to staff obtained by The Verge. After a year of relentless price increases that took Game Pass Ultimate from $15 to $30 a month, Xbox's own leadership is now saying out loud what every subscriber has been screaming since October.

I don't know how else you'd describe doubling the price of a subscription service in roughly twelve months other than "too expensive." Sharma's memo, which frames Game Pass as "central to gaming value on Xbox," also concedes that "the current model isn't the final one" and promises a long-term shift toward something "more flexible." That's corporate-speak, but at least it's honest corporate-speak. The previous regime just kept raising prices and adding bullet points like Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew to the feature list, as if bundling extras nobody asked for justified a 50% hike.

The Call of Duty Problem

A huge part of why Game Pass got so expensive in the first place was Call of Duty. After acquiring Activision Blizzard, Microsoft started putting new Call of Duty releases on Game Pass at launch, and according to a Bloomberg report, the company gave up more than $300 million in potential sales on console and PC as a result. The October 2025 price increase to $29.99 was Microsoft's attempt to claw some of that back from subscribers. It backfired spectacularly. When the hike was announced, so many people tried to cancel their plans that the Game Pass website reportedly kept crashing.

Now there are rumblings that Call of Duty might leave Game Pass entirely. Windows Central's Jez Corden speculated over the weekend that Microsoft could pull the series from the service as early as this year. "If they take Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year, which is a possibility from what I've heard, I think it'll reveal some of the cracks in the strategy," Corden said. Sharma acknowledged the "online chatter" in her memo and told staff she'd "go deeper" on the topic in the coming weeks.

Removing Call of Duty and lowering the price would be the obvious move, and frankly, it's what should have happened instead of the October hike. Most Game Pass subscribers weren't subscribing because of Call of Duty. They were subscribing for the breadth of the library and day-one access to Xbox first-party titles. Charging everyone $30 to subsidize one franchise's inclusion was always going to alienate the broader base.

Other options are reportedly on the table too. An ad-supported tier, modeled after what Netflix and other streaming services offer, is apparently under consideration. Sharma herself met with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters last month to discuss what a Game Pass and Netflix bundle might look like. Peters confirmed the conversations happened but was measured about it: "You would have to do it in a way that works for the consumer and works for both companies. Microsoft's still trying to figure out how to make the Game Pass bundle work for Microsoft."

Right now, Game Pass sits at $29.99 for Ultimate, $14.99 for Premium, $9.99 for Essential, and $16.49 for PC Game Pass. No immediate price cuts have been announced. But with Halo, Gears of War, and Fable all expected later this year, Microsoft has a narrow window to reset the value proposition before it needs subscribers to care about Xbox again. Sharma saying the quiet part out loud is a start, but subscribers who watched their bill double in a year are going to need more than a memo before they feel like Xbox is back on their side.