{"id":598080,"date":"2026-04-21T18:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/598080\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:48:08","slug":"xbox-game-pass-ultimate-gets-a-price-cut-but-loses-new-call-of-duty-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/598080\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gets a price cut but loses new Call of Duty games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">After Xbox CEO Asha Sharma <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/911182\/microsoft-xbox-game-pass-too-expensive-leaked-memo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">admitted last week<\/a> that \u201cGame Pass has become too expensive for players,\u201d Microsoft is dropping the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Starting today, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate drops from $29.99 to $22.99 a month, and PC Game Pass moves to $13.99, down from $16.49 a month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">The price drops are being fueled in part by future Call of Duty titles no longer joining Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. \u201cNew Call of Duty\u202fgames will be\u202fadded to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass during the following holiday season (about a year later), while\u202fexisting Call of Duty titles already in the library will continue to be available,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/2026\/04\/21\/xbox-game-pass-update\/?ocid=XGP_soc_omc_xbo_tw_Text_lrn_4.21.A\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">says Microsoft<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">The rest of the Game Pass lineup remains unchanged, after Microsoft originally hiked prices in October. Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, and Essential will all continue to include access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. \u201cOur players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there\u202fisn\u2019t\u202fa single model\u202fthat\u2019s\u202fbest for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback\u202fwe\u2019ve\u202fgotten so far,\u201d says Microsoft. \u201cWe\u2019ll\u202fcontinue to listen and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">I wrote last week that part of the cost increase for Game Pass was due to Microsoft\u2019s decision to add Call of Duty to the subscription service. I reported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2024\/5\/8\/24151814\/microsoft-xbox-layoffs-strategy-changes-arkane-tango\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nearly two years ago<\/a> that Microsoft had been debating whether to put new releases of Call of Duty into Game Pass, with concerns from some at the company at the time that the revenue generated from typical Call of Duty sales would be undermined by Game Pass.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Microsoft went ahead and added Call of Duty to Game Pass, but the removal of new entries in the franchise from the service is a clear indication that it was a mistake to add Activision\u2019s big revenue driver into the subscription mix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Xbox CEO Asha Sharma admitted last week that \u201cGame Pass has become too expensive for players,\u201d Microsoft&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[559,1281,3,172,74,1298],"class_list":{"0":"post-598080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-gaming","9":"tag-microsoft","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-tech","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-xbox"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}