Microsoft has cut the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 to $22.99 per month, effective immediately, reversing a chunk of the steep increase that angered subscribers last year. PC Game Pass also drops from $16.49 to $13.99 per month. The trade-off, and there is one, is that new Call of Duty games will no longer land on Game Pass at launch starting this year.

The announcement came via a blog post on Xbox Wire from Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming, who stepped into the role after Phil Spencer retired in February. It is the first major consumer-facing move of her tenure, and it directly addresses feedback that Game Pass had simply become too expensive.

What Is Changing With Game Pass Pricing

The new pricing applies globally, although Microsoft notes figures may vary by region. Both reductions are live now, so existing subscribers should see the lower rate reflected on their next billing cycle.

For context, Microsoft pushed Ultimate up by $10 to $29.99 in October, a roughly 50% hike that landed badly with the community. The new $22.99 price still sits above the pre-October rate, but it claws back most of the gap.

Call Of Duty Is No Longer A Day-One Perk

The catch is tucked into the same announcement. Starting with this year’s release, new Call of Duty titles will not be included on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. Instead, they will be added roughly a year later, during the following holiday season.

Any Call of Duty titles currently in the Game Pass library are unaffected and remain playable for subscribers. If you want to play the newest entry on day one, you will need to buy it outright, presumably at the standard $69.99 price point.

That shift is significant because day-one Call of Duty access was one of the main selling points Microsoft leaned on after the Activision Blizzard acquisition closed in 2023. Removing it reshapes what Game Pass Ultimate actually offers at the top tier.

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Why Microsoft Is Pulling This Lever Now

The move lines up with internal messaging that leaked earlier this month. Sharma reportedly told Xbox staff in a memo that Game Pass had become too expensive for players, and that the team needed a better value equation. The same reporting flagged that leadership was weighing removing Call of Duty from day-one availability, which is exactly what has now happened.

It is also a response to the shape of Microsoft’s gaming business. Gaming made up 7% of total revenue in the company’s fourth quarter, and that unit’s revenue was down around 10% year over year while other divisions like Azure and Microsoft 365 grew by double digits. Hardware sales fell 32%, and the broader Xbox content and services line came in below internal projections. CFO Amy Hood also flagged an unspecified impairment charge tied to the gaming business on the earnings call.

In her blog post, Sharma framed the decision around player feedback rather than financials:

Our players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far. We’ll continue to listen and learn.

What Subscribers Still Get At The New Price

Even with Call of Duty pulled back from day-one, Ultimate keeps the rest of its feature set intact. That includes hundreds of games across Xbox console and PC, in-game benefits, online console multiplayer, unlimited Xbox Cloud Gaming, and major day-one releases from other first-party and third-party studios.

Game Pass had 34 million subscribers based on the last figure Microsoft shared in 2024, and the service still spans four tiers: Ultimate, Premium, Essential, and PC Game Pass. Only Ultimate and PC Game Pass have been repriced in this round.

Sharma’s Early Direction For Xbox

This is not Sharma‘s first visible course correction. Since taking over from Spencer, she has already wound down the “This is an Xbox” advertising campaign, saying it did not feel like Xbox. The Game Pass price cut pushes in the same direction, trying to rebuild goodwill with the core player base after a bruising year for the brand.

The Call of Duty trade-off is the part that will define how this announcement ages. For players who subscribed mainly to play the new Call of Duty on day one, the maths has changed. For everyone else, Ultimate just got cheaper without losing anything they already had access to.

Whether this brings lapsed subscribers back, or whether the holiday-season Call of Duty additions feel like enough of a headline draw a year from now, is the next thing worth watching. Microsoft has signalled it is willing to listen, and the pricing itself is clearly still a moving target.

The post Xbox Game Pass Price Drops by $7, But Call of Duty Loses Day One Access appeared first on Shane the Gamer.