Microsoft Adjusts Game Pass Pricing and Alters Call of Duty Release Strategy Following User Feedback

Microsoft has announced a reduction in the cost of its premium Game Pass subscription and a change in how it handles new Call of Duty releases. According to Xbox, Game Pass Ultimate will now cost $22.99 per month, down from $29.99, while the PC version will decrease from $16.49 to $13.99 monthly. New Call of Duty games will be added to the service around a year after their release, during the subsequent holiday season, instead of being available on day one. Existing Call of Duty titles will remain accessible to users. This adjustment does not completely undo the 50% price hike implemented in October 2025, which raised the cost from $19.99 for console and $11.99 for PC. The company stated that this change is in response to extensive user feedback, aiming to make the service more appealing to its diverse player base. The decision means that purchasing Call of Duty and a year of Game Pass Ultimate will be slightly more cost-effective, with total savings of $72 per year, largely offset by the $69.99 cost of the game. Microsoft initially added Call of Duty to Game Pass in 2024, with the year's Call of Duty Black Ops 6 breaking subscription records. However, the 2025 release, Black Ops 7, did not perform as well, leading to a reevaluation of the release strategy for the series. The company's latest financial reports showed a 5% year-over-year decline in content and services revenue, attributed to the performance of first-party content, and a 32% drop in hardware revenues. Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma expressed the need to evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system, which will require time to test and refine. Game Pass, a key feature of the Xbox business, has faced criticism and is perceived to be underperforming, with the company ceasing to report subscriber numbers in 2022. The Call of Duty franchise is under scrutiny following Xbox's $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2022.