Xbox Chops Game Pass Pricing and Future Day-1 Call of Duty Access

Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma was recently quoted in a leaked internal memo stating that Game Pass was too expensive and that it didn’t provide adequate value to its consumers, and it seems as though she has now followed through on the implied promise in that internal memo. As announced on Xbox Wire, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass are both receiving price cuts, with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate coming down from $29.99 to $22.99/month and PC Game Pass dropping from $16.49 to $13.99.

At the same time, though, starting in 2026, Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass users will lose launch-day access to Call of Duty games. Starting with the next Call or Duty game, Game Pass players will need to wait “about a year” for Call of Duty to hit Game Pass. Fortunately, current Call of Duty games will remain playable on both PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and other major releases will still hit Game Pass on launch day. It was previously reported that Microsoft lost $300 million in Call of Duty sales by including the popular shooter series in Game Pass, despite Game Pass being an overall profitable endeavor.