Microsoft has revised its Xbox Game Pass plan by reducing monthly costs and shifting its content strategy, as it will no longer offer new Call of Duty games on launch day. The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price is dropping from $29.99 to $22.99 per month, while PC Game Pass goes down to $13.99 from $16.49. However, new Call of Duty titles will no longer launch on Game Pass immediately and will instead arrive about a year after release. This means players will now need to buy the latest Call of Duty games separately if they want them at launch.
For several years, Microsoft positioned Game Pass as a ‘day-one’service, promising access to major first-party releases immediately at launch. Call of Duty had become a particularly important part of that strategy after Microsoft completed its multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The franchise is one of the highest-selling entertainment properties globally, consistently generating massive annual revenue through premium game sales, downloadable content, and in-game purchases. Therefore, its inclusion in Game Pass at launch was initially seen as a major competitive advantage for the Satya Nadella-led firm.
However, the new structure marks a clear departure from that approach. Instead of making new Call of Duty releases available on Game Pass immediately, Microsoft will now delay their inclusion by around 12 months. This means that each year’s new installment will continue to rely primarily on direct sales during its launch window. And only after that initial commercial cycle will it be added to the subscription library. Despite this change, the company is not removing Call of Duty entirely from Game Pass. Existing titles already in the catalogue will remain available, ensuring that subscribers still have access to a large portion of the franchise’s back catalogue.
The decision to reduce Game Pass pricing at the same time suggests a balancing strategy rather than a simple cutback. By lowering the monthly cost of both Ultimate and PC tiers, Microsoft appears to be addressing concerns that the service had become too expensive following earlier price increases and tier restructuring. The Ultimate plan, which combines console, PC, and cloud gaming access, is particularly central to this adjustment, as it has been the primary subscription tier for high-engagement users.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
