Shortly before he was on his way out, one of the final decisions made by Phil Spencer and his regime at Xbox was to give Xbox Game Pass a massive 50% price hike. Users rushed to cancel their subscriptions so quickly and in such high droves in response that it crashed the cancel page on Xbox's website, so it's no surprise to hear the new strategy chief Matthew Ball admit that the company lost "millions" of subscribers due to the increase.
This comes from Ball while speaking at The Game Business Live during Summer Game Fest 2026, first shared by The Game Business partner Geoff Keighley. Ball doesn't say just how many subscribers, but it's not surprising in the least that a massive chunk decided they didn't want to pay $30 a month for Game Pass Ultimate.
Of course, the new regime under Asha Sharma has since clawed back that price hike somewhat, which also significantly changed the service with its removal of new Call of Duty games. But it's not like lowering the price suddenly made those millions of players who probably enjoyed not seeing Game Pass on their monthly bills, turned around and signed up again.
Sharma has made it clear she is personally leading the charge to make Xbox a competitive platform again, and that means making Xbox hardware viable for players to consider again. Exclusive games are part of that strategy, as we officially learned during the Xbox Games Showcase, and Ball also added further clarification on Xbox's strategy with exclusives going forward.
After Matt Booty said future exclusives will be chosen on a "case-by-case" basis and that multiplayer games would remain multiplatform, Ball reaffirmed that, and added that that this strategy is still just beginning.
"This is the start of a program. And players can expect a reliable pipeline that validates their historical investment in the Xbox platform, keeps them as Xbox players going forward, and everyone in the industry understands that exclusives are important to the growth and branding of that platform," said Ball.
Everything that Sharma, Ball, and the rest of the new leadership suite is doing now seems to be getting the stamp of approval from Xbox fans, but it'll be interesting to see if it actually does pave a path towards Xbox hardware being popular again and platform exclusives pulling people towards Xbox the way it used to, two console generations ago.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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