Microsoft is reportedly planning yet another major overhaul of Xbox Game Pass, with the subscription service potentially moving toward a more flexible model where players can pick and choose the features they actually want rather than paying for a bundle of everything.
The information comes courtesy of Fortune, which has been digging into the changes happening at Xbox under its new CEO, Asha Sharma. Writer Sebastian Herrera says that according to Fortune’s various sources, Microsoft is planning to introduce an à la carte approach to Game Pass, offering different features as optional extras. According to Fortune, those add-ons could include access to console games, cloud gaming and online multiplayer.
PC Game Pass already separates PC games, but the higher tiers of Game Pass such as Ultimate, include both PC and console by default, so under the new system you could maybe drop the price by opting out if PC releases. This would bring it closer to the existing PC Game Pass tier, which still gets day-1 releases like Gears of War: E-Day while also being considerably cheaper than Ultimate. Perhaps a new system would have a console equivalent, with Ultimate still existing for players who use both platforms? or maybe they’ll just drop the different names and have a universal Game Pass where you
As for Cloud Gaming, we already know Xbox intends to sell that as a separate service. They announced it just a few weeks ago when they also announced changes to streaming limits for Game Pass members.
As for multiplayer, it’s built into most Game Pass subs by default, but being able to ditch it to reduce the cost could be quite appealing to a lot of folk, myself included.
Of course, there’s a rather important question hanging over the entire thing: will this make Game Pass cheaper, or simply provide Microsoft with new ways to charge for features that used to be included? We don’t know yet. Fortune doesn’t provide any details about pricing, how the tiers would be structured, or what features would be included as standard. It also doesn’t establish what would happen to day-one first-party releases, one of Game Pass’s biggest selling points. Presumably that would become an optional extra, and probably the priciest one of the bunch. Hell, Call of Duty might even become its own option.
In theory, a more modular system could be beneficial. Somebody who only plays games on their Xbox console and wants day-1 releases might not have a PC, so why pay for Ultimate, which gives you something you cannot use? Meanwhile, somebody who primarily uses Game Pass on PC might not need console multiplayer functionality. Allowing those customers to pay only for what they actually use sounds fairly reasonable on paper.
But the opposite could be true as well. If Microsoft starts separating features that are currently bundled together, subscribers who want the full experience could find themselves paying more once all the extras are added up.
There’s another intriguing aspect to Fortune’s report, though, which backs up what most of us already knew and have been openly discussing: Game Pass also causes a lot of headaches for Xbox. According to former Xbox employees who spoke to the publication, Game Pass has created significant problems for Microsoft’s traditional game sales. While the subscription service helped Xbox establish a substantial recurring revenue stream, it has also reportedly cannibalised sales of premium first-party games, particularly during those crucial opening weeks.
Gears of War: E-Day is a good example of this. According to the sales data from Alinea Analytics, E-Day has not sold very well, with the vast majority of players being on Game Pass.
The report also describes competing priorities within Xbox itself, with different teams focused on metrics such as subscription revenue and sales through the Xbox Store.
So buckle up everyone; it looks like we are in for another round of big changes at Xbox. What’s that? Like, the 20th big change in the past few years? I’m losing count.
