Xbox Game Pass May Be Heading for an A-La-Carte Overhaul

Xbox Game Pass could soon look very different. Kotaku reports, based on an article in Fortune, that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wants to move the subscription away from a single all-you-can-play price and toward a more modular, pick-what-you-need model. Kotaku was clear that it has not independently confirmed the plan, and Microsoft has not announced anything, so treat this as a report, not a decision.

What the report describes

Game Pass would stay tiered, but subscribers would be able to choose which add-ons they pay for. The examples mentioned are cloud gaming, online multiplayer and console-only games. The reported logic is straightforward: charge people for what they use, and stop subsidising features that a large share of members rarely touch.

The context around it

• Microsoft has been testing an ad-supported Game Pass tier aimed at casual players.
• Earlier in 2026, Game Pass dropped day-one access to new Call of Duty games in exchange for a lower price.
• Microsoft already sells $30 Premium Edition upgrades that give early access to games arriving on Game Pass a few days later.
• Leaked internal charts, according to the report, aimed for more than 100 million subscribers, while growth reportedly stalled around 35 million.

What it could mean for players

Done well, an a-la-carte model could lower the entry price for people who only want one thing, such as cloud streaming on a phone. Done badly, it could make a once-simple bundle feel like a menu of upsells, with heavy users paying more than they do today. Kotaku's own expectation is that Xbox's first-party games will eventually stop arriving on the service on day one, though that is the writer's speculation, not something Microsoft has said.

The next big Xbox release is Fable, slated for February 2027, so any shake-up would logically land before then. Until Microsoft says something official, the sensible move is to keep your subscription as it is and watch for announcements.