Xbox Drops Game Pass Prices, But Ends Day One Call of Duty Releases

Microsoft is making moves to redeem its standing with the gaming community. After a series of stumbles that have drawn criticism toward both the Xbox division and Microsoft as a whole, the company has announced a major restructuring of its flagship subscription service. In an effort to re-establish Game Pass as “the best value in gaming,” Xbox is dropping the price of its highest tiers—but it comes at the cost of its biggest blockbuster franchise.

Trade-off: A Holiday Delay for Call of Duty

While hefty price cuts are a welcome surprise for subscribers, there is a significant trade-off. Beginning this year, future Call of Duty titles will no longer join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. Instead, new entries in the juggernaut shooter franchise will be added to the service during the following holiday season, roughly one year after their initial retail release.

Xbox was quick to clarify that existing Call of Duty titles already available in the Game Pass library will not be removed, and subscribers will still retain all of their current perks, including online console multiplayer, unlimited Xbox Cloud Gaming, in-game benefits, and access to other major day-one releases from Xbox’s first-party studios.

A Strategy for Redemption?

The decision to alter the Call of Duty rollout is a massive shift, as the promise of day-one access to Activision’s biggest IP was long touted as the ultimate justification for the service’s existence following Microsoft’s historic acquisition. The update also briefly named new tier structures, including “Game Pass Premium” and “Game Pass Essential”, suggesting a wider reorganization of the Xbox ecosystem.

However, the company cited player feedback and a diverse global audience as the driving factors behind the change. By lowering the monthly barrier to entry across PC and console, Microsoft seems to be gambling that a cheaper subscription will retain and attract more players than a more expensive tier reliant on a single, albeit massive, annual shooter. Whether this olive branch is enough to smooth over Microsoft’s recent PR struggles remains to be seen, but it undeniably makes Game Pass much lighter on the wallet.