Pure Xbox is now at the center of a reported Microsoft plan to overhaul Game Pass with à la carte add-ons for console-only games, cloud gaming, and multiplayer. The shift would turn a single subscription into a set of choices. That matters because the service has been a big part of Xbox's business, while also putting pressure on how the company sells higher-priced first-party games.
Asha Sharma and Game Pass
Fortune tied the reported overhaul to a profile of Asha Sharma, who has been on the job barely six months. He has already cut the price of Game Pass Ultimate. He also signed Hideo Kojima's next-gen Metal Gear Solid spiritual successor project Physint, started two new verticals within Xbox, and handed development of Halo to Activision.
How the tiered system works
Fortune said the new system would use a tiered structure with add-ons for console-only games, cloud gaming, and multiplayer. That would let subscribers pay for the pieces they want instead of buying everything inside one package. Ryan McCaffrey, IGN's executive editor of previews and host of Podcast Unlocked and Next-Gen Console Watch, has described himself as a North Jersey guy, and his audience has long tracked this kind of subscription split closely.
Xbox's subscription trade-off
The same Fortune profile said Game Pass helped Xbox build a subscription business, but it also led to cannibalization of sales for higher-priced first-party titles, especially during the critical launch period. Former employees said subscription revenue and store revenue created competing internal metrics inside different teams. That conflict explains why a smaller menu of add-ons could matter more than a simple price change.
What Microsoft has not put on the record is the pricing for each tier. The structure could be a clean way to separate console access, cloud play, and multiplayer, or it could end up costing close to the current bundle if the add-ons stack too high.
