Xbox has just announced a major Game Pass pricing and content cut. Starting today, April 21, Game Pass Ultimate drops from $29.99 to $22.99 a month, while PC Game Pass drops from $16.49 to $13.99 a month. Prices may still vary by region, but both subscription tiers are becoming cheaper everywhere.
The big tradeoff of this change is that beginning this year, future Call of Duty games will no longer join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. Instead, new CoD titles will be added during the following holiday season, which equates to roughly a year.
Xbox stated that every single existing Call of Duty title will remain playable on both tiers, as the company is not looking to reduce the existing value for the customers who have already paid.
This confirms the recent rumor that Microsoft was looking to reduce the pricing on Xbox Game Pass, and doing it through removing the biggest money-making franchise that brings big revenue through sheer sales is the no-brainer option.
It’s still an obvious value loss, as there were lots of players who subscribed to Game Pass specifically to play Call of Duty. On the other hand, the change would be welcomed by almost everyone else who simply do not care.
This is the first big decision made by Xbox’s new head, Asha Sharma, after Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond left the company in February.
Reportedly, Microsoft is also no longer looking for explicit revenue growth to 30 percent from the Xbox division either. It’s hard to tell how true this is, and if the player feedback and the general dissatisfaction the players had for the recent direction Xbox took played any part.
Asha Sharma stated that she was looking for ways to connect with the Xbox playerbase and make the decisions that would benefit both the players and the company in the long run. And slashing the price on Xbox Game Pass is as good a start as any, even if it comes with a significant drawback.
