Xbox Game Pass May Shift to Customizable À La Carte Tiers

Xbox may be preparing a fundamental restructuring of its Game Pass subscription service, with plans to let players assemble their own plans from a menu of features rather than choosing from fixed tiers. According to Gamekult, citing a Fortune profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, the overhaul would allow subscribers to select individual components such as console exclusives, cloud gaming, and multiplayer access, paying only for what they actually want.

What the Reported Redesign Looks Like

According to Gamekult, Fortune describes the plan as a tiered, modular system built around subscriber choice. Sources close to the matter told the publication that Xbox intends to let players combine features to match their budget and play style, rather than locking them into predetermined bundles. No launch window has been announced for the revamped service.

Sharma laid some groundwork for this direction in April 2026, stating that her community spans a wide range of regions, preferences, and play styles, and that no single model can serve everyone. That comment drew speculation at the time; Fortune now suggests the underlying plans are real.

A Turbulent Year for Game Pass

The reported redesign comes after a rocky stretch for the subscription. Gamekult notes that the Ultimate tier was priced at 26.99 euros at the start of 2026 following a steep increase in October 2025, before dropping back to 20.99 euros in April 2026 under Sharma’s leadership. That price cut came with a notable concession: Call of Duty titles would no longer be available day one through the subscription.

Subscriber numbers reflect the pressure the service is under. Game Pass had 34 million subscribers at its peak in February 2024, but that figure had slid to 30 million by July 2026, a drop of four million and well short of a previously stated target of 77 million subscribers by 2026. To limit further losses, Xbox also froze new third-party game signings, a move confirmed by developers including the CEO of Arrowhead, the studio behind Helldivers 2, and introduced caps on cloud gaming session time.

Internal Struggles Behind the Scenes

Fortune’s reporting, as relayed by Gamekult, also surfaces comments from former Xbox employees pointing to structural problems within the service. Among the concerns raised is sales cannibalization for first-party releases, particularly at launch, where Game Pass availability reduced direct purchase revenue. Former staff also described difficulty measuring a game’s performance because different internal teams tracked different success metrics, pitting subscription revenue against storefront revenue with no unified standard. Those accounts align with complaints from id Software lead programmer Chris Hays, who has spoken publicly about unclear internal evaluations affecting teams working on Xbox titles.

Sources: Gamekult