Xbox Game Pass Could Lose Day-One Releases in 2027, Leak Claims
Xbox Game Pass might lose day-one game releases starting in 2027, according to a new leak about a major shakeup to the subscription service.
What is the leak actually saying?
The rumor comes from ResetEra user Slayven, who has a decent track record when it comes to Game Pass leaks. As per the claims, Microsoft is planning to break its current Game Pass structure into several smaller pieces. Instead of one tier giving you everything, players could soon be picking and choosing what they actually want to pay for.
Here's what's reportedly on the table for 2027:
New games will no longer launch on Game Pass on day one
Day-one titles will be phased out sometime between February and April 2027
An ad-supported Game Pass tier will cost $12.99 per month
An ad-free version will run $19.99 monthly or $239.99 annually
A separate library tier with online multiplayer will cost $14.99 per month
Online multiplayer alone will be available for $10.99 per month
Cloud gaming will no longer come bundled with standard Game Pass
Cloud streaming becomes a $5.99 add-on with 25 hours of playtime included
A family plan will cost an extra $5.99 per month
The base Game Pass price will reportedly drop by $3 once day-one games are removed
Basically, instead of paying one price for everything, Xbox would let you build your own subscription depending on what you actually care about.
Why would Microsoft do this?
Day-one access has been the biggest reason people subscribe to Game Pass in the first place. It's what made the service stand out, especially after Microsoft picked up big publishers like Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. Taking that away sounds like a strange move on paper.
But there's context here. Call of Duty already lost its day-one spot on Game Pass back in April 2026, when Ultimate dropped to $22.99. Those titles will still show up eventually, just later, joining the library each holiday season instead of launching alongside the game itself.
Analyst Piers Harding-Rolls from Ampere Analysis had flagged this shift earlier in the year too. He pointed out that Microsoft was likely "leaving a substantial amount of revenue on the table" by skipping individual game sales for new Call of Duty releases. One earlier estimate even put Xbox's lost sales from Call of Duty's day-one Game Pass launches at around $300 million. That's not pocket change, even for a company the size of Microsoft.
Journalist Jason Schreier has also mentioned in past reporting that some Xbox studio leadership isn't thrilled with how Game Pass affects full-price sales of their own games. So the reasoning tracks, even if it stings for subscribers.
Some even think this move was inevitable given how Game Pass subscriber growth has stalled out.
Fable, expected in late February 2027, is being pointed to as a possible last big first-party day-one release before this shift kicks in. Gears of War: E-Day is confirmed to launch day one next month.
An Xbox spokesperson gave Forbes journalist Paul Tassi a statement addressing the rumors directly:
"We regularly test different Game Pass offerings and look at what works best for players in different markets. We don't have any changes to announce today or plans that have been finalized. There are no changes to previously announced games coming to Game Pass Ultimate on day one."
So for now, nothing is locked in.
Comments