Xbox Game Pass has kept gamers on their toes this year. The price hike from 2025 barely had time to settle before new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma rolled it back, and not long after that, Call of Duty quietly left the service. So when another round of rumors started spreading about a bigger shake-up coming in 2027, everyone became a little apprehensive.
Will Game Pass split into ad and ad-free tiers?
That’s one of the bigger claims floating around. The rumor mill suggests Microsoft could offer two separate plans: a cheaper option with ads running $12.99 monthly, and a pricier, ad-free version at $19.99 monthly or $239.99 for the year. On top of that, new releases would lose their day-one spot on Game Pass sometime between February and April 2027, with a $3 price cut offered as a trade-off.
Cloud streaming is rumored to be pulled from the main subscription and sold separately instead, priced at $5.99 for 25 hours of play. The Family plan could face a similar fate, becoming its own $5.99 add-on rather than staying bundled in. If true, it starts to feel less like a single subscription and more like a menu of options you build yourself.
So how much of this is confirmed?
Basically none of it, at least officially. Xbox gave Forbes writer 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.”
Windows Central also looked into this and found that the specific changes being passed around online don’t line up with any confirmed Microsoft roadmap, calling it speculation rather than fact. Still, that doesn’t mean nothing is happening behind the scenes. Change does appear to be coming to Game Pass in some form.
We might see more titles pulled from day-one availability, following in Call of Duty‘s footsteps, and possibly tucked behind a pricier tier or sold as their own separate add-on down the line.
