Microsoft recently reversed the sky-high Game Pass price increases it imposed in 2025, bringing them down to not quite where they were prior, but close enough to quell at least some of the complaints. The move came not long after Xbox CEO Asha Sharma admitted the prices were too high—but it sounds like the impact of those hiked-up prices was perhaps even bigger than most of us expected.
Matthew Ball, games industry analyst and newly-installed Xbox chief strategy officer, said during a Summer Game Fest interview with Game Business Live, reported by GameSpot, that Game Pass lost "millions" of subscribers over the months after the October 2025 price increase, which saw the top-end Game Pass Ultimate go up by 50%, from $19.99 to $29.99 per month.
