It’s been a rough couple of years to be an Xbox fan. Since 2024, when Microsoft announced it would begin porting first-party titles to PlayStation and Nintendo, the identity crisis has only deepened. The strategy sounds good on paper: more players, more sales, more revenue. But on the ground, it gutted one of the last compelling reasons to actually own an Xbox console. Why buy the hardware when the software is showing up on the competition’s doorstep?
Then came 2025, where things continued spiral downward. Xbox hit its fanbase with not one but two console price increases, followed by a staggering 50% hike to Game Pass Ultimate—jumping from $19.99/month to $29.99/month. Layer on top of that the tone-deaf “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign and you had a brand that looked like it was in freefall.
But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and her team appear to have acknowledged that the current trajectory isn’t sustainable. Based on recent reports, the conversations happening behind closed doors at Microsoft might signal a real change in direction.
Actions Speak Louder
When Sharma was appointed in February, the reaction from the gaming community was largely skeptical. She had no prior experience in the games industry, and her background as president of Microsoft’s CoreAI division only fueled fears that Xbox was about to become a testing ground for AI integration rather than a platform focused on delivering great games. But in a relatively short window, Sharma has managed to shift the conversation in her favor through action rather than corporate platitudes.
Early wins like targeting fan-requested console updates—including the well-received Quick Resume and Xbox Achievements overhauls—showed that they’re trying to make a statement. Her public reveal of Project Helix and its console-first messaging gave Xbox fans something tangible to rally around for the first time in years. And when she personally directed the scrubbing of the “This is an Xbox” campaign from Xbox Wire and other official channels, it sent a clear message. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the move, stating that it “didn’t feel like Xbox” and that Sharma is “personally leading a reset of how we show up as a brand.”
Even the small moments have resonated. When a fan urged her on social media to bring back console exclusives, her two-word reply—”Hear you”—sent the Xbox community into a frenzy. She’s since assembled a team specifically dedicated to listening to and acting on player feedback, which tracks with the tone she’s set from day one. For a CEO who was initially met with doubt, Sharma has earned a surprising amount of goodwill in a short period of time.
The Exclusivity Discussion
According to Windows Central’s Jez Corden on the latest episode of the XB2 podcast, there are currently massive internal discussions happening at Xbox about the future of game exclusivity. Corden didn’t go into deep specifics about what he’s heard, but he did acknowledge that the team recognizes the value that exclusive titles bring to a platform. The central tension comes down to what kind of company Xbox wants to be: an ecosystem-first company, or a publisher-first one.
That’s a question Xbox has been fumbling for years now. The multiplatform approach undeniably brought in revenue. Games like Forza Horizon 5 and Sea of Thieves found massive new audiences on PlayStation and, in some cases, Nintendo hardware. But in doing so, Xbox effectively told its own console base that owning an Xbox wasn’t necessary anymore. That’s a hard bell to un-ring.
You can’t really do both well. If Xbox tries to be everything to everyone, the hardware side of the business risks shrinking into irrelevance. And with Project Helix, Xbox’s next-generation console, confirmed for the near future, that’s a risk the company can’t afford to take. Only time will tell whether this leads to a full return of console exclusivity, some form of timed exclusivity, or simply a more deliberate approach to which games go multiplatform and when.
A Game Pass Overhaul is Needed
On the Game Pass front, the news is equally encouraging. In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Sharma told Xbox employees in no uncertain terms that Game Pass has become “too expensive for players.” She wrote that while Game Pass remains central to Xbox’s value proposition, “the current model isn’t the final one.”
In the short term, Sharma wants to find “a better value equation.” In the long term, she envisions evolving Game Pass into “a more flexible system,” though she noted that kind of structural change will take time to test and iterate on.
This is music to the ears of anyone burned by the October 2025 price hike: A full 50% jump, taking the subscription from $19.99 to $29.99 per month. PC Game Pass also rose roughly 37%, going from $11.99 to $16.49. Microsoft tried to justify the increases by bundling in extras like Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew. And a lot of people overlooked the ambitious promise of 75+ day-one releases per year. But for a large portion of subscribers, those additions didn’t come close to justifying the cost.
What exactly “a better value equation” looks like is still anyone’s guess. There’s been speculation about new, lower-priced tiers, including a rumored “Triton” tier, reportedly focused on first-party Xbox titles only. Reports have also floated an ad-supported option and even discussions between Microsoft and Netflix about potential bundling. Nothing has raised more eyebrows than the rumor that Call of Duty could leave Game Pass entirely—a stunning reversal given that many saw Activision Blizzard’s flagship franchise as a key justification for the $69 billion acquisition.
Sharma mentioned in her memo that she plans to “go deeper” with the Xbox team in the coming weeks, so more concrete details could surface soon.
Final Thoughts
None of this means Xbox is going to flip a switch overnight and go back to the way things were during the Xbox 360 era. The multiplatform genie is out of the bottle, and walking that back entirely wouldn’t be an immediate change. But there’s a meaningful difference between “every game goes everywhere immediately” and a more strategic, deliberate approach to platform availability.
What’s clear is that Sharma is at least asking the right questions. The exclusivity discussions, the acknowledgment that Game Pass pricing has gotten out of hand, the removal of the “This is an Xbox” branding, and the renewed focus on Project Helix as a console-first piece of hardware all point to an Xbox that is actively trying to course-correct.
The Xbox community has been patient through years of mixed messaging, leadership changes, and strategic pivots that often felt reactive rather than intentional. If Sharma can turn these internal conversations into tangible action, she might just be the leader Xbox has needed. But talk is cheap, and Xbox has burned its fans before. The Xbox Games Showcase in June and beyond will be the real test.
For now, though, cautious optimism doesn’t feel unreasonable. And that alone is a step up from where things were six months ago.
