Microsoft cuts Game Pass prices as Call of Duty launch strategy shifts

Effective immediately, the cost of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate falls to $22.99 from $29.99, while the PC Game Pass subscription drops to $13.99 from $16.49. This adjustment follows a period of intense scrutiny regarding the service's value proposition, with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma conceding last week that the platform had become too expensive for the average player.

The shift in pricing is tied directly to the future of the Call of Duty franchise within the subscription ecosystem. Rather than offering day-one access, Microsoft confirmed that new entries will now arrive on Game Pass during the following holiday season, roughly a year after their retail release. This decision marks a retreat from the strategy of placing Activision’s most lucrative revenue driver into the subscription model, a move that internal debates had previously identified as a risk to traditional sales volume. While existing titles remain available, the company is recalibrating its approach to balance subscriber growth with the financial realities of high-budget game development.