One of the hard choices Sharma might be referring to is her decision to decrease the price of Game Pass and pull Call of Duty out of the program. The recently revealed Modern Warfare 4 will not be available day-and-date on the service like last year’s Black Ops 7 was. “Growth slowed down and subscriber loss accelerated after the pricing and SKU changes last year,” Sharma said in her memo. “Since our price reduction we have seen acquisitions grow and retention improve, which is a good first step.”
That’s good news for the platform, even if it feels a bit like reversing an own goal. But what other hard choices might lie ahead? We’re almost a year out from from the last round of devastating Xbox cuts. In addition to those laid off, promising projects were also canceled. That included a long-in-the-making reboot of Perfect Dark that wowed fans in its 2024 showcase appearance, as well an ambitious new sci-fi MMO called Project Blackbird at Zenimax Online Studios.
It’s not yet clear if the cuts are done with or if Sharma is still evaluating out how to re-deploy resources across her division. Buried in her April memo to staff was a line about returning the “business to durable growth with strong cost discipline.” The CEO has continued to signal her commitment to Xbox’s most passionate fans in various ways, including by letting them vote on whether to make Xbox all caps or not. Time will tell what parts of the now-sprawling Xbox business she thinks those fans will care most about.