Featured Image Credit: Kepler Interactive/Xbox Game Studios/Team Cherry
Topics: Xbox, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Microsoft
Topics: Xbox, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Microsoft
Xbox Game Pass is due a major overhaul in the coming months as Xbox embraces a more consumer-friendly way of doing business.
Following the arrival of new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma the company has made several small pivots to better the experience of its gamers.
The “This Is An Xbox” campaign for example has been shelved and there’s even talk of the backwards compatibility program being revived for Xbox’s 25th anniversary later this year.
Recently the company overhauled the way Achievements appear on your Xbox which is something fans have hoped to see happen for a long time.
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Xbox introduced the changes through its social media channels and stated it’ll be paying close attention to player feedback moving forward.
The move paid off and now it seems Microsoft is giving the company more leeway to make more meaningful changes that better the brand’s image.
Next on Xbox’s agenda is seemingly Xbox Game Pass, as Asha Sharma reportedly sent out a memo within the company detailing why it’s failing as a subscription service. Spoiler alert, it costs too much money.
Sharma, via Wario64 on X, said: “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.”
Over the past couple of years we’ve seen several price-hikes and none of them have gone down well amongst fans.
The most recent price increase was apparently done to reflect the Call of Duty games joining the service, which is great if you love Call of Duty but terrible if you have no interest in playing those games on Xbox.
So it sounds like one meaningful change Xbox plans on making is something to make Game Pass more affordable.
This could come in the form of a price drop, discounts for long-term subscribers, or in all likelihood new tiers that only feature games you’re actually interested in playing.
Sharma’s use of the word “equation” is particularly indicative of this as it’s clear the company is willing to try anything to bring value to the service, possibly increasing the amount of games it offers so its current price leaves less of a sting.
All of this is being done to make Xbox more consumer-friendly and for Xbox Game Pass in particular there’s no better time to be doing it.
PlayStation has received similar levels of criticism for its PlayStation Plus subscription prices, and Nintendo fans still believe the higher tiers of Nintendo Switch Online simply aren’t worth the money for how little they offer.
READ MORE: Xbox Getting Generational Update Soon, Achievements Just The Start
This puts Xbox in a unique position to make some strong decisions, especially when the company’s next console is right around the corner.
It’s unclear when Xbox Game Pass will see these changes or what form they’ll take but fans can rest easy knowing they have been heard, and Xbox is taking action.