Microsoft announced Tuesday that subscribers to its Game Pass service will see significant price reductions starting today. But those subscribers will also be losing included day-one access to Activision’s popular Call of Duty series from now on.
In the US, the price of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription will drop to $22.99 a month (down from $29.99, down roughly 23 percent), while the more limited PC Game Pass will drop to $13.99 a month (from $16.49, down roughly 22 percent). Going forward, neither subscription will include launch day access to new Call of Duty games, which will not be available on Game Pass until the following holiday season. Previous Call of Duty games will continue to be available to Game Pass subscribers, though.
“Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players,” recently named Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in a social media post accompanying the announcement, echoing sentiments shared in an employee memo leaked to The Verge last week. “We’ll keep learning and evolving Game Pass to better match what matters to players.”
Splitting the baby
The price of a Game Pass subscription has risen steadily since the service launched as a $10 per month collection of about 100 console games in early 2017, including a whopping 50 percent price increase for Game Pass Ultimate last October. But the offerings included in a Game Pass Ultimate subscription have also expanded over time to include access to over 500 console games, Ubisoft+ Classics and EA Play subscriptions, downloadable PC games, streamable cloud games, and console multiplayer services that previously needed a separate Xbox Live Gold subscription.