Finally delivering on a change that has been heavily rumored recently, Xbox just announced that Game Pass prices are dropping, effective immediately. The change sees Game Pass Ultimate drop to $22.99 instead of $29.99, and PC Game Pass is slashed down to $13.99 from $16.49. However, to coincide with these changes, Call of Duty will no longer be receiving day one launches in Game Pass.
Microsoft set a clear boundary here, saying that Call of Duty games will only join Game Pass Ultimate and PC tiers the following holiday season after they launch. This follows the recent launch of Black Ops 7 which considerably underperformed for the Activision owners, and now allows Microsoft to cash in on all the fully-priced sales for gaming’s biggest shooter series.
Reassuring players in their announcement post, Microsoft say “Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will continue to have access to hundreds of games”, continuing on to clarify that “major day one releases” are also continuing as part of their plans – just not for the Call of Duty series.
Xbox have been taking a pivot under the new leadership of Asha Sharma to “pivot and learn” in response to their player base. However, these demands can sometimes be conflicting. Whilst Game Pass players surely love getting Call of Duty on day one, the cash sales of fully-priced games is a huge benefit for both Activision and Microsoft.
The same conundrum can be seen in exclusivity conversations, with many fans pushing for Xbox-only release, but the company seeing big success with their multi-platform strategy. Bethesda’s Starfield just became a best-seller on the U.S. sales charts, and it was thanks to the PS5 launch.
Dropping prices is sure to please Xbox gamers though, with all Game Pass Ultimate subscribers now saving $7 overnight on their monthly subscription. How Microsoft will manage Xbox going forwards with their Game Pass, multi-platform and PC-hybrid approaches remains to be seen, but we’ll be reporting on it all here at GameObserver.
