In one week, the new boss of Xbox lowered the prices of Game Pass, removed Call of Duty and announced a partnership with Discord. Difficult to keep up.
Asha Sharma took over as head of Xbox from Phil Spencer. Since then, the announcements have been coming one after the other at an unusual pace for Microsoft’s gaming division. Latest: an in-depth merger with Discord, announced on April 22 on X by Sharma herself. The day before, Xbox had lowered the price of Game Pass Ultimate, at the cost of a notable sacrifice: the removal of Call of Duty from day one releases.
Price drop, loss of Call of Duty and new deal with Discord
Sharma’s post is intentionally vague on details. Xbox and Discord are “teaming up again” to make the Game Pass « plus flexible » for the players. Code linked to the partnership would already be circulating “in the wild”. Stanislav Vishnevskiy, co-founder and CTO of Discord, confirmed the initiative on his own X account.
Discord is no stranger to Xbox. The voice platform has been available on consoles since 2022. Cross promotions followed. At the beginning of April 2026, Ultimate subscribers could get a month of free Discord Nitro. Existing Nitro subscribers were excluded, a detail that had annoyed.
Behind the teasing, a modular Game Pass is taking shape
The announcement takes on another dimension when we combine it with the rumors of recent weeks. According to journalist Jez Corden, Microsoft is exploring a model of Game Pass “à la carte”. Two codenames have been leaked in the platform’s code. “Triton” would designate a tier limited to first-party games. “Duet” could be a bundle with a third-party service.
Netflix is regularly cited in these speculations. Greg Peters, co-head of Netflix, confirmed to The Information having “exchanged ideas” with Sharma on possible subscription bundles. Discord Nitro could follow the same logic: an optional module that the player would add to their Game Pass, rather than a one-off promotion.
After years of bundling everything into a single, increasingly expensive subscription, Xbox dismantles the machine and bets on flexibility. It remains to be seen whether players prefer an a la carte menu or a less extensive fixed menu. For the moment, Sharma is multiplying the promises without delivering the instructions.
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Source :
Asha Sharma on X.com
