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Getting less for less

Microsoft removes Call of Duty from Game Pass, lowers subscription pricing

New Xbox CEO says subscription “has become too expensive for too many players.”

Kyle Orland – | 65
Your cheaper Xbox Game Pass subscription will no longer include access to new Call of Duty games. Credit: Getty Images
Your cheaper Xbox Game Pass subscription will no longer include access to new Call of Duty games. Credit: Getty Images
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Microsoft announced Tuesday that subscribers to its Game Pass service will see significant price reductions starting today. But those subscribers will also be losing included day-one access to Activision’s popular Call of Duty series from now on.

In the US, the price of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription will drop to $22.99 a month (from $29.99, down roughly 23 percent), while the more limited PC Game Pass will drop to $13.99 a month (from $16.49, down roughly 22 percent). Going forward, neither subscription will include launch day access to new Call of Duty games, which will not be available on Game Pass until the following holiday season. Previous Call of Duty games will continue to be available to Game Pass subscribers, though.

“Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players,” recently named Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in a social media post accompanying the announcement, echoing sentiments shared in an employee memo leaked to The Verge last week. “We’ll keep learning and evolving Game Pass to better match what matters to players.”

Splitting the baby

The price of a Game Pass subscription has risen steadily since the service launched as a $10 per month collection of about 100 console games in early 2017, including a whopping 50 percent price increase for Game Pass Ultimate last October. But the offerings included in a Game Pass Ultimate subscription have also expanded over time to include access to over 500 console games, Ubisoft+ Classics and EA Play subscriptions, downloadable PC games, streamable cloud games, and console multiplayer services that previously needed a separate Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Last year, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft estimated it had lost $300 million in direct sales of Call of Duty games due to the title’s inclusion in Game Pass, according to an anonymous employee. At the same time, Game Pass saw limited subscriber growth immediately following the addition of new Call of Duty games to the plan in 2024.

Today’s pricing and game availability adjustments could help remedy both problems, while still saving money for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers who buy Call of Duty separately.

When Microsoft raised the price of its Game Pass Ultimate subscription from $16.99 to $19.99 in 2024, the move drew an angry response from the Federal Trade Commission, which was at the time still appealing Microsoft’s merger with Activision on antitrust grounds. The FTC noted that the price increase—which came alongside the elimination of a cheaper $10.99 “Console” subscription tier—“coincide[s] with adding Call of Duty to Game Pass’s most expensive tier.” The FTC also noted at the time that Microsoft had promised Call of Duty’s Game Pass availability would come with “no price increase for the service based on the acquisition.”

Today’s Game Pass price reduction comes after entertainment subscriptions in general saw massive price increases well ahead of inflation in 2025, according to federal data. So far in 2026, we’ve also seen significant price increases for Netflix, Spotify, CrunchyRoll, YouTube Premium, and others.

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Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor
Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper.
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Mungus the Unhyphenated
Mungus the Unhyphenated
This seems like a step in the right direction. CoD has a dedicated audience, but it's only a fraction of the of the greater GamePass audience. Honestly, I don't think having CoD is a make-or-break deal for GamePass, or ever was. It seemed more like appeasing Activision as part of the acquisition deal. I'm happy if it's all in the rearview mirror now, and maybe XBox can get back to business on a more even keel.

There's more to XBox/Microsoft Games than Activision and CoD -- They should be able to stand on their own two feet without needing the additional promotion. And if they can't, then that's a whole other discussion, and not necessarily something to prop up at the expense of the rest of GamePass.
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