With new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma recently having said that the company’s Game Pass subscription service is “too expensive for players” these days, a new report has indicated that she might be working on a new tier of the service. According to IGN, this tier would focus on only including first-party Microsoft-published games.
Earlier this week, an internal memo was discovered that revealed that Sharma is focusing her efforts on improving Game Pass in general, thanks to it being “central” to Xbox’s gaming value.
“Game Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox,” reads the memo. “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.”
Rumors of this new tier of Game Pass featuring only games under the Xbox Game Studios banner have been flying around for some time. Back in March, a datamine indicated that the tier would include titles like DOOM 64, Psychonauts, Retro Classics, DOOM Eternal, Dishonored 2, Fable Anniversary, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Gears 5, Halo 5: Guardians, Halo Wars 2, Hellblade, Ori and the Blind Forest, State of Decay 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online. The fact that there weren’t any third-party titles in the list lends credence to the idea that the tier would focus on first-party releases.
Another report from last month had indicated that Sharma might be working on revamping the Game Pass subscription services, including bringing the various tiers’ prices down. This is due to her ambitions to make “future consoles and products like Game Pass more enticing to a broader range of customers.”
As part of these moves, Sharma has also been in talks with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters about a potential partnership where the two companies could offer a bundled subscription for their respective services at lower prices.
“You would have to do it in a way that works for the consumer and works for both companies, and frankly, I think Microsoft’s still trying to figure out how to make the Game Pass bundle work for Microsoft,” said Peters. “But what I like about Asha’s thinking is, it’s all about, ‘How do we do more?’ And it’s already been exciting to watch.”
Game Pass saw major price increases back in October with the introduction of its three new tiers: Essential, Premium, and Ultimate. While Essential and Premium are basically rebrandings of the previous Core and Standard plans, Ultimate got a large jump in price, now costing $29.99 per month.
The move had been widely criticized by many, including one of the co-founders of Microsoft Game Studios, Laura Fryer. In a video, she spoke out against the company favoring “greed over gaming,” and noted that its leadership was out of touch with the Xbox fan base.
“I’m not sure that their leadership understands what makes Xbox great,” she said. “I’m not sure that they’re listening to their fans. They keep doubling down on decisions that make it clear that they’ve been in a bubble, and all this feedback doesn’t seem to reach them anymore.”