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    Xbox is cutting Game Pass prices and removing launch-day Call of Duty games

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    Xbox is cutting Game Pass prices and removing launch-day Call of Duty games

    Xbox has announced price cuts for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass and removed day-one Call of Duty game launches from the service.

    Starting today, Game Pass Ultimate will now cost $22.99 / £16.99 a month, as opposed to the previous price of $29.99 / £22.99 per month. PC Game Pass will now cost $13.99 / £10.99 a month, instead of $16.49 / £13.49 per month.

    Xbox stated that Call of Duty games will no longer be made available on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Games on day one, and will instead be added “during the holiday season (about a year later)”.

    Existing Call of Duty games already available on Game Pass will continue to be available.

    The price cut comes shortly after Microsoft’s newly appointed head of gaming, Asha Sharma, told employees that Game Pass had become too expensive for consumers. Just six months ago, Microsoft increased the price of its top Game Pass tier by 50% to $30 / £23 per month.

    Commenting on the news on Tuesday, Sharma wrote: “Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players… We’ll keep learning and evolving Game Pass to better match what matters to players.”

    Xbox is cutting Game Pass prices and removing launch-day Call of Duty games
    New Call of Duty titles will now arrive on Game Pass around a year after launch.

    According to a Bloomberg report, last year’s Game Pass price rises were partly influenced by lost premium sales of Call of Duty games. According to its sources, Xbox gave up “more than $300 million in sales” of Call of Duty on consoles and PCs last year.

    Commenting on Tuesday’s price cuts, The Game Business editor Christopher Dring said the decision was likely influenced by the upcoming release of Forza Horizon 6, which is launching first on Xbox consoles.

    “The racing title, from UK studio Playground Games, is currently the third most-wishlisted game on Steam with nearly 2.7 million wishlists. That looks set to be a key title,” he wrote.

    “But as I said last week, Xbox Game Pass is struggling for growth and it isn’t delivering on that initial dream Microsoft had back in 2018 when it started putting brand new titles into the service. This price drop is unlikely to solve that, and I fully expect bigger changes, and perhaps a more flexible service, to follow.”

    Game Pass’s Essential and Premium tiers of Game Pass will remain $9.99 / £6.99 and $14.99 / £10.99 respectively. The Essential tier offers more than 50 games, as well as online multiplayer and the cloud streaming.

    Premium offers more than 200 games, with new first-part games joining within 12 months of launch. Cloud streaming has shorter wait times too.

    The most expensive tier, Ultimate, offers more than 400 games with new first-party games available on day one, as well as subscriptions to Fortnite Crew, EA Play and Ubisoft+ Classics. Cloud streaming also has the shortest wait times and the best quality stream.

    The PC tier is a cut-down version of Ultimate which offers a PC-only library of “hundreds” of games, as well as EA Play membership and first-party games on day one.