In a move that perfectly encapsulates the modern subscription experience, Microsoft announced Tuesday that it is lowering the price of its Game Pass service while simultaneously removing the juicy center of its offering: day-one access to new Call of Duty games. Subscribers can now pay less for the privilege of getting less.
Specifically, the price of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription in the US will drop to $22.99 a month from $29.99, a roughly 23 percent decrease. The more limited PC Game Pass will fall to $13.99 a month from $16.49, down about 22 percent. The catch? New Call of Duty titles will no longer be available on Game Pass at launch, instead arriving the following holiday season. Previous entries in the series will remain.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, in a social media post, stated, “Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players,” a sentiment that conveniently echoed a leaked internal memo from last week. She promised the company would “keep learning and evolving Game Pass,” a process that apparently involves removing one of its most expensive-to-provide blockbusters.
This price adjustment is a notable reversal from the service's trajectory. Since its 2017 launch as a $10-per-month collection of about 100 console games, Game Pass Ultimate has ballooned to include over 500 console games, Ubisoft+ Classics, EA Play, PC games, cloud streaming, and multiplayer services. Its price has climbed accordingly, including a hefty 50 percent increase for Game Pass Ultimate just last October.
The financial logic is stark. A Bloomberg report last year cited an anonymous Microsoft employee estimating the company lost $300 million in direct Call of Duty sales due to its inclusion on Game Pass, which saw only limited subscriber growth after adding the franchise in 2024. Today's changes seem designed to plug that revenue leak while still offering a lower monthly fee.
The move also helps Microsoft sidestep some lingering regulatory awkwardness. When the company raised the Game Pass Ultimate price from $16.99 to $19.99 in 2024, the Federal Trade Commission - still appealing the Activision merger - noted it “coincide[d] with adding Call of Duty to Game Pass’s most expensive tier.” The FTC also pointed out Microsoft had previously promised the Activision deal would bring Call of Duty to Game Pass with “no price increase for the service.” Today's price cut, while removing the marquee title, technically keeps that promise.
This price reduction arrives in a broader landscape where entertainment subscriptions have seen massive increases. Federal data shows they rose well ahead of inflation in 2025, and 2026 has already brought significant hikes for Netflix, Spotify, CrunchyRoll, and YouTube Premium. In that context, Microsoft's move to lower a price, even while removing value, is a rare and calculated act of seeming generosity.