Microsoft announced Tuesday that subscribers to its Game Pass service will see significant price reductions starting today. But those subscribers will also be losing included day-one access to Activision’s popular Call of Duty series from now on.
In the US, the price of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription will drop to $22.99 a month (down from $29.99, down roughly 23 percent), while the more limited PC Game Pass will drop to $13.99 a month (from $16.49, down roughly 22 percent). Going forward, neither subscription will include launch day access to new Call of Duty games, which will not be available on Game Pass until the following holiday season. Previous Call of Duty games will continue to be available to Game Pass subscribers, though.
“Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players,” recently named Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in a social media post accompanying the announcement, echoing sentiments shared in an employee memo leaked to The Verge last week. “We’ll keep learning and evolving Game Pass to better match what matters to players.”
Splitting the baby
The price of a Game Pass subscription has risen steadily since the service launched as a $10 per month collection of about 100 console games in early 2017, including a whopping 50 percent price increase for Game Pass Ultimate last October. But the offerings included in a Game Pass Ultimate subscription have also expanded over time to include access to over 500 console games, Ubisoft+ Classics and EA Play subscriptions, downloadable PC games, streamable cloud games, and console multiplayer services that previously needed a separate Xbox Live Gold subscription.
Last year, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft estimated it had lost $300 million in direct sales of Call of Duty games due to the title’s inclusion in Game Pass, according to an anonymous employee. At the same time, Game Pass saw limited subscriber growth immediately following the addition of new Call of Duty games to the plan in 2024.
Today’s pricing and game availability adjustments could help remedy both problems, while still saving money for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers who buy Call of Duty separately.
When Microsoft raised the price of its Game Pass Ultimate subscription from $16.99 to $19.99 in 2024, the move drew an angry response from the Federal Trade Commission, which was at the time still appealing Microsoft’s merger with Activision on antitrust grounds. The FTC noted that the price increase—which came alongside the elimination of a cheaper $10.99 “Console” subscription tier—“coincide[s] with adding Call of Duty to Game Pass’s most expensive tier.” The FTC also noted at the time that Microsoft had promised Call of Duty’s Game Pass availability would come with “no price increase for the service based on the acquisition.”
Today’s Game Pass price reduction comes after entertainment subscriptions in general saw massive price increases well ahead of inflation in 2025, according to federal data. So far in 2026, we’ve also seen significant price increases for Netflix, Spotify, CrunchyRoll, YouTube Premium, and others.
