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According to a new report from Tom Warren, a well-known and reliable Xbox insider, Microsoft is looking to “expand” Xbox Game Pass in 2026. To do this, it is looking at bundling other services into the subscription service, like it has done in the past with EA Play. Of course, this — along with rising development costs, inflation, and the very expensive Activision-Blizzard acquisition — is a key contributor to price increases in the past. To this end, Microsoft is not going to expand the subscription service for free. Rather, it is going to use it as an opportunity to increase prices.
Xbox Game Pass Becoming Like Cable TV
If this strategy sounds familiar, it is because it is what cable TV did for years. It bundled in a bunch of things you didn’t want and made you pay a premium for it. Of course, this proved ultimately to be an unviable strategy and a very unpopular one as well, so it is unclear why Microsoft would go this route unless it is desperate to increase the price of the subscription service, presumably to make up for the lack of subscription growth. That said, the price increase to $30 has proven a breaking point for many, so it’s hard to imagine subscribers being willing to pay more than this, at least anytime soon.
