XBOX Game Pass Didn’t ‘Grow At The Pace’ Microsoft Had Planned

It’s been revealed that XBOX Game Pass has proven to be an underwhelming development for Microsoft, as the service didn’t “grow at the pace” that they had expected.

The news comes from XBOX CEO Asha Sharma, who’s just published a lengthy statement regarding the future of XBOX. Four studios are being sold off, with a 15% overall reduction in the XBOX workforce expected by the end of the financial year.

XBOX Bet On Game Pass & It Failed

In the statement, Sharma explained that the gaming industry is not in a healthy place, and that shouldn’t be a surprise to many. She mentions that Xbox is operating on margins 3-10x lower than those of comparable platforms and publishing businesses.

In a bid to grow the business and recoup those losses, XBOX “bet on Game Pass,” along with multi-platform games and a broader portfolio of content. Whilst Sharma suggests that those businesses “have created meaningful value,” she admits that they “did not grow at the pace [they] expected.”

At the same time, Microsoft’s core business was weakened as it added more teams and made investments in a bid to improve the situation. Partnered with what Sharma deems as the industry’s “most severe hardware crisis in its history,” it’s apparent that changes were needed, which ultimately has led to Asha’s reset of XBOX.

It’s an honest and frank statement from Asha Sharma, but it does paint a sorry picture for XBOX Game Pass. With the service just recently dropping its price, and new Call of Duty titles not arriving on day one, you have to wonder what the future looks like: are more changes on the way for Game Pass?

Time will surely tell, but it’s a damning day for XBOX and its associated studios. For a reminder of what they have in store, check out the XBOX Games Showcase below:

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For more information from Insider Gaming, read about Black Ops 6 being removed from Call of Duty HQ this week, and don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.