Xbox Boss Promises Changes: Game Pass Costs Too Much—and That’s Just the Start, with big updates hinted at for pricing, dashboard features, PC integration, and Xbox’s overall platform experience.
New Xbox Game Pass Game
Asha Sharma, the new head of Xbox, isn’t sugarcoating anything. Big changes are coming, and she says they’ll hit everything from Game Pass pricing to the backbone of the Xbox system itself.
In a recent memo to employees, which The Verge got their hands on, Sharma admitted what a lot of people already know: Game Pass just costs too much right now.
“Game Pass is central to the value we offer,” she wrote, “but the current setup isn’t the finish line,” Sharma explained that, for now, Game Pass feels too expensive, so the team needs to rethink what people are getting for their money. Long term, she’s planning a total overhaul, making Game Pass way more flexible—though she says that kind of shift will take time to get right.
That’s a big statement. She’s basically saying the price is likely coming down, but that’s only part of the story.
Game Pass Changes May Be Just the Beginning
Sharma doesn’t just want to tinker with price tags. She’s got bigger plans. There’s talk that she’ll end the “This is an Xbox” marketing push and make Game Pass more affordable, but she’s also looking much deeper.
In her memo, Sharma said the foundation behind Xbox—the tech running it all—needs a lot of work. Some parts of the system slow everything down, making it tough to test new ideas, push updates, and keep things running smoothly.
She’s also thinking a lot about the player experience. Sharma sees room for improvement in basic stuff like finding new games, making recommendations feel meaningful, and bringing people together more easily online.
Put simply, she’s not just promising lower prices. She wants the whole Xbox experience to feel sharper, smarter, and more social—and she’s not wasting any time getting started.
Quality and Speed Depend on Heroics
“It’s obvious we need to invest a lot more in the core Xbox platform. Right now, we’re spread out across so many tools, systems, and release processes, without a shared codebase or single data set. Because of that, speed and quality rely too much on people going above and beyond, instead of having strong systems in place.
We don’t have a unified setup for testing, tracking, or learning from what we do either, so it’s tough to see what’s actually working and to fix things fast. On top of that, our front end is all over the place — the way people discover games, what shows up as relevant, and all the social stuff just isn’t good enough. Players end up working way too hard to find new games or teammates.”
To break it down, Sharma’s basically admitting Xbox’s internal tools are messy and disconnected, slowing down new ideas and improvements.
She’s also pointing out that finding games or friends, or just figuring out what to play, is harder than it should be.
PC Improvements Are Also Part of the Plan
The Verge added that Sharma specifically called out PC gaming. She wants people using Xbox on PC to jump between games and devices with less hassle than they do now.
That points to Microsoft aiming for easier switching between console, PC, and even cloud gaming — basically, a more seamless, unified experience across the whole Xbox ecosystem.
Big Changes Are Coming
Sharma clearly thinks it’s time for Xbox to overhaul what’s under the hood if they want to work faster and smarter going forward.
For players, that could mean things like:
– More flexible Game Pass choices
– Potential tweaks to pricing
– A smoother Xbox dashboard
– Easier ways to find new games
– Better social features
– Improved integration for PC users
She didn’t mince words: discovery, relevance, and social connections just aren’t a priority right now, but that’s going to change. Xbox’s interface and overall user experience could get a significant upgrade.
How all this rolls out isn’t totally clear yet. But one thing’s for sure: Xbox is planning some major changes behind the scenes.
If Sharma gets her way, the next version of Xbox could feel like a whole new platform compared to what players are used to now.