Microsoft has announced that both Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass for PC will be receiving a price cut.
Effective immediately, the cost of Game Pass Ultimate will drop from $29.99/£22.99 to $22.99/£16.99 a month, with Game Pass for PC dropping from $16.49/£13.49 to $13.99/£10.99 a month. Game Pass Essential and Game Pass Premium have not been affected and will remain at their current price ($9.99 / £6.99 for Essential, and $14.99 / £10.99).
It was also announced that future Call of Duty titles won’t be released on the service at launch, and will instead be added “during the following holiday season”, roughly a year later. All Call of Duty games currently in the library are unaffected and will remain accessible to subscribers.
“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,” reads a post on Xbox Wire.
In a post on X, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wrote: “Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players. Starting today, we’re dropping the price from $29.99 to $22.99/month.
“Future Call of Duty titles will no longer join Game Pass Ultimate on day one. They will join this tier the following holiday after launch (about a year later). Current Call of Duty titles will remain available to Ultimate subscribers.
“We’ll keep learning and evolving Game Pass to better match what matters to players.”
Sharma’s comments align with a leaked memo from the new Xbox boss, who admitted that Game Pass had become too expensive. “Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation,” the memo read. “Long term, we will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system which will take time to test and learn around.”
Today’s announcement comes just six months after Microsoft raised the monthly cost of Game Pass Ultimate by 50%, and while this price cut isn’t a complete reversal, it will still be welcomed by those subscribed to the service.