Xbox has just acknowledged what players have been saying for months. Its subscription service, Sport Pass, became too expensive. And the curious thing is that this time the criticism does not come from an angry user on Reddit, but from within Microsoft itself. An internal memo leaked to The Verge reveals that Asha Sharmathe new head of Xbox, told her team bluntly that the service “It has become too expensive for players” and they urgently need a solution.
This type of public recognition, even if it was through a leaked internal document, is extremely rare in a company the size of Microsoft. But here we are, and the truth is that it is not so surprising if you remember everything that happened with prices in the last year.
The new CEO of Xbox knows that Sport Pass has problems
Asha Sharma took the reins at Xbox just a few months ago as part of a broader leadership shakeup within Microsoft’s gaming division. And from the first moment he has given signs that his management style is different from that of his predecessors.
“Sport Pass is central to the value of gaming on Xbox. It’s also clear that the actual model is not definitive. In the short term, Sport Pass has become too expensive for gamers, so we need a better value equation. In the long term, we will evolve Sport Pass into a more flexible system, which will take time to test and learn”.
In short: he recognized the problem, promised a short-term solution and also showed that there is a more ambitious plan for the future. It’s no small thing. For an Xbox CEO to say publicly, even in an internal memo, that her flagship product is expensive, says a lot about the pressure the company is feeling.
Why did Sport Pass become so expensive? Blame has a name: Call of Accountability
To understand how we got here, we have to go back a little. Last year, Microsoft raised the price of the highest tier of Sport Pass Last to $30 dollars a monthwhich represented a 50% increase compared to the previous price. The official justification was that they were adding improvements to all levels of the service. But between the lines, the real reason has a name and surname: Call of Accountability.
Microsoft decided to include new Call of Accountability releases in Sport Pass starting in the summer of 2024. It sounds great for subscribers, but for the company it was a huge blow: according to a former employee cited by Bloomberg, Xbox stopped receiving more than 300 million dollars in sales of Call of Accountability on consoles and PC in just one year. That loss had to be compensated somehow, and users ended up footing the bill.
Now, as if that were not enough, Jez Corden of Home windows Central suggested on the XB2+1 podcast that Microsoft might be considering remove Call of Accountability from Sport Pass. And what’s shocking is that Sharma’s own memo acknowledges that there are “online discussions” about possible changes to Sport Pass, and he promised to delve deeper into the issue with the team next week.
What’s next for Sport Pass? Lower prices and a more flexible model
The big question is: what exactly is going to change? Although the memo does not give concrete details about new prices, the direction is clear. In the short term, price adjustments are expected to make the service more accessible. This is not expected to happen overnight, but Sharma has already put the issue on the table.
In the long term, the vision seems to point to a more flexible modelpossibly with new subscription levels at different prices. This would not be anything new in the industry: Netflix and Spotify already did it with cheaper plans with ads or with limited access. According to previous reports, Microsoft could be considering a ad-supported or restricted library access subscriptionwhich would lower the cost of entry for new users.
The strategy seems clear: attract more subscribers by lowering the entry barrierinstead of trying to squeeze the most out of those who are already there. It is an important change in mentality for a company that had bet everything on raising prices in the last two years.
What is evident is that Xbox is in a moment of reinvention. Sharma arrived with the task of turning around a division that has faced criticism for its business decisions, the closure of studios and precisely the increase in prices. This leaked memo may be uncomfortable for Microsoft, but it is also a sign that the new leader is willing to acknowledge mistakes and correct course.
Players, for their part, have been waiting for good news for a while. If Sport Pass drops in price or new, more accessible options appear, it could be the push that millions of users needed to (re)subscribe. And for Xbox, in an increasingly competitive market against PlayStation and PC gaming, that is not a luxury: It is a necessity.
Keep reading:
• Xbox Sport Pass Last: how to cancel your subscription step by step without losing a day of play
• Xbox could launch a Sport Pass bundle with Netflix to attract more subscribers
• Xbox increases the price of Sport Pass and unleashes the anger of users: How much will you have to pay starting in October?
