Xbox cuts Game Pass price and drops Call of Duty day one access in response to negative feedback

Xbox is bowing to gamer criticism after a big Game Pass price hike last year, as the service is getting a price cut along with some other changes.

As part of the change, Call of Duty games will no longer be available on Game Pass on day one, but instead will come to Game Pass Ultimate in the following year's holiday season to compensate for the lower price. Along with the news, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said that "Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players."

https://twitter.com/asha_shar/status/2046619416427950442

"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," Xbox said in a statement. "We’ll continue to listen and learn. Thank you for being a part of the Xbox community."

Game Pass Ultimate is dropping from $29.99 a month to $22.99 in the US, which is still an increase from $19.99 that it used to be before October 2025. PC Game Pass, meanwhile, will drop from $16.49 to $13.99 monthly.

"Game Pass continues to be an awesome place for players to discover games, including Call of Duty," Activision said. "Our focus remains unchanged: to deliver the best possible Call of Duty game experience for players across every platform. We’ll continue to support Game Pass through catalog titles and with new Call of Duty games on Ultimate the following holiday after launch (about a year later)."

It's clear that Microsoft and Activision feel that CoD on day one was a massive value to the Game Pass experience, so I'm curious what the player numbers on the subscription service looked like. It must have been substantial for this change to happen.

Now, for CoD players looking to dive in on day one, they will have to purchase the full game or wait an entire year to play it. The price drop felt necessary either way, so hopefully the new price point will allow it to be more accessible to more players worldwide.

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