A few weeks after reports suggested the new xbox executive director asha sharma was pushing for “lower price tiers” of Xbox Game Pass and He said the service “has become too expensive for players.” Xbox Game Pass Last Now it has gotten a considerable price cut. Originally $29.99/month, its price has now been reduced to $22.99/month, a big drop of $7.
It’s almost a complete reversal of the huge price hike that came last Octoberalthough it has not had a different cost for subscribers; new Obligations Titles will no longer be available on Ultimate Xbox Game Pass either PC Game Pass on day one and will instead arrive on Microsoft’s subscription service a year after launch. Still, the overall reception of this change so far has been positive.
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From a creative standpoint, it’s good for the CoD team and the quality of the game to know that people will buy it. It’s good to see the Xbox team following Sony’s model of putting a game on secondary mode after peak sales windows. https://t.co/UWCCw7Ll9QApril 21, 2026
The crux of Douse’s argument is that with Call of Duty out of Game Pass, its developers will hopefully be able to enjoy more creative freedom and less demand to deliver games that maximize profitability to a point that is detrimental to quality. It is worth noting that The availability of Game Pass cost Call of Duty hundreds of millions in saleswhich could have resulted in a general pressure to make future games sell more.
It’s a good point, although while this move may be better for the shooter franchise, some feel it could be worse for Microsoft and Xbox Game Pass. After all, day one availability for first-party Xbox games is one of the biggest advantages Game Pass has over something like PlayStation Plus, and the ability to offer that for a franchise as massive as Call of Duty was arguably one of the biggest wins Microsoft had from its Activision Blizzard merger for $69 billion.
That said, putting a series as massive as Call of Duty on Game Pass on day one was also undoubtedly a big reason why we saw the price increase we did last year, with many ending up canceling their membership due to the increase. By removing the FPS giant from Game Pass at launch, Microsoft will likely regain the aforementioned sales. and may attract players back to the service now that it’s almost as affordable as it was before.
Looked at that way, everyone wins and Game Pass users do Finally, you’ll also get access to Call of Duty a year after launch. But while Douse sees the series’ removal from the first-day catalog as a victory, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were against the price drop; reacted negatively to reports about Sharma’s plans to reduce the price of Game Passarguing that making the service too cheap threatens sustainability.
Do you agree with Michael Douse that it’s good that Call of Duty is out of Xbox Game Pass, or were you disappointed to see that news? Let me know below, both in the comments and in our survey.
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