Microsoft cuts Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price from $29.99 to $22.99/month and PC Game Pass from $16.49 to $13.99, but both tiers won't get new Call of Duty games
After Xbox CEO Asha Sharma admitted last week that “Game Pass has become too expensive for players,” Microsoft is dropping …
The VergeTom Warren
Context & Ripple Effects
Game Pass Ultimate rose from its original $15 monthly launch price to $19.99 in 2024 and then $29.99 in 2025, while Microsoft also introduced tiers that withheld day-one releases. The new cuts follow an internal acknowledgment that the service’s value equation had worsened for players.
Related coverage also tied day-one availability of major Microsoft titles to foregone higher-margin game sales, including Call of Duty. This change makes that trade-off explicit: lower subscription pricing is paired with less access to a flagship new release.
First-order effects
Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers pay less per month, but neither tier includes new Call of Duty games; players wanting those releases must use another access route or buy them separately.
Microsoft broadens Xbox Cloud Gaming access beyond Ultimate, including Core and Standard subscribers, while testing access to more PC games through the cloud.
Second-order effects
The lower price can reduce cancellation pressure, but excluding new Call of Duty gives Microsoft a way to preserve direct-sales revenue from its largest releases rather than using them solely as subscription acquisition tools.
Cloud Gaming becomes less of an Ultimate-only differentiator, increasing the importance of catalog, release timing, and game entitlements in separating Game Pass tiers.
Third-order effects
If this structure persists, Game Pass is likely to operate less as an all-inclusive day-one bundle and more as a segmented access product that reserves the highest-value new games for separate monetization.
The move illustrates the recurring tension in subscription games: expanding recurring access can grow reach, but publishers may limit premium releases when inclusion erodes higher-margin individual sales.
The trend: Game subscriptions are shifting from broad day-one bundling toward tiered access models designed to balance subscriber affordability against the economics of blockbuster game sales.
Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players. Starting today, we're dropping the price from $29.99 to $22.99/month. Future Call of Duty titles will no longer join Game Pass Ultimate on day one. They will join this tier the following holiday after launch (about
Game Pass continues to be an awesome place for players to discover games, including Call of Duty. Our focus remains unchanged: to deliver the best possible Call of Duty game experience for players across every platform. We'll continue to support Game Pass through catalog titles
Microsoft just lowered Game Pass prices while quietly removing Call of Duty Day One launches. They're charging you less for a worse product and calling it ‘a response to feedback’. Don't fall for the trap. It's a downgrade disguised as marketing. [image]
BREAKING: Microsoft is dropping the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass today. Both subscriptions will no longer get new Call of Duty games at launch. Full details 👇https://www.theverge.com/ ...
Classic price anchoring tactics. Increase by a lot...then soon after reduce a little, while still keeping the price higher than what it used to be. And the consumer is supposed to feel grateful 😒 This is insulting. It won't change anything. Too little too late. [image]
Removing Call of Duty from Game Pass feels like Microsoft choosing to do what's best for Xbox as a whole. In the past, it felt like Microsoft chose to do what's best for Game Pass instead. Keeping COD a premium brand feels like it makes the most sense for Xbox.
I think this is amazing, in order for AAA games to be sustainable you can't launch them in a service like this 💯 Hopefully xbox goes back to having games exclusive and not in game pass 🔥
Asha is already doing much more for Xbox than Sarah Bond ever did. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate pricing is dropping from $29.99 to $22.99 a month PC Game Pass will also drop from $16.49 to $13.99 a month However, Game Pass Ultimate is losing COD day-one launches and it is still $3 [im…
Since Xbox is no longer adding new Call of Duty titles to Game Pass on day one, they should release all legacy Call of Duty games on game pass like today