Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's price was too expensive for too many fans
Overview & Key Takeaways
Microsoft has slashed the price of Game Pass Ultimate, a rare concession to Xbox consumers faced with rising prices across the board.
On Tuesday, Microsoft reversed course on its 50% price hike on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate it instituted just six months ago. Under new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma, the company has slashed the price of its top-tier Game Pass subscription from $29.99 to $22.99 per month. Subscribers are losing day-one access to Call of Duty games going forward, but that cost-cutting measure looks like the right move. Xbox tested its most loyal customers' breaking point, and it appears that $30 a month for Game Pass finally broke them.
Sharma said it herself both internally and publicly: "Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players," the Xbox CEO posted on her X account. As console and PC component prices creep ever upward, and streaming services push prices up year after year, consumers are feeling squeezed on their discretionary spending. And with console makers fighting to lock in players for life through digital purchases and subscriptions, something has to give.
Fortunately, Microsoft gave. Response from consumers seems to be mostly positive — price drops tend to go over well, if you can believe that.
Consumers have been walloped with staggering price increases over the past year, with the cost of necessities like food, fuel, and home energy costs climbing. U.S. President Donald Trump's illegal tariffs and war on Iran have caused ripple effects on consumer prices. Massive investments in AI infrastructure have caused computer component prices to spike as electronics manufacturers fight for RAM and storage supply. In the last year alone, the cost of PlayStation 5 and Xbox consoles has skyrocketed; over the past year, the Xbox Series X went from $499.99 to $649.99. PlayStation consumers panic-bought PS5 Pro consoles ahead of an announced across-the-board price increase that pushed the top-tier Sony console to $899.99.
That's barely scratching the surface. Netflix costs more. So does a Crunchyroll subscription. Even Fortnite V-Bucks got jacked up in price and Amazon briefly charged a $10 premium for Pokémon Pokopia amid demand. Everything is awful, so seeing a subscription service go down in price for once feels like a rare consumer win.
But not all Xbox Game Pass subscribers are happy. "Why cut Call of Duty, still one of the most played and best-selling games in North America, instead of Game Pass perks like Fortnite Crew, EA Play, and Ubisoft Plus Classics?" some disgruntled fans have asked Sharma. That kind of change would require negotiating with (and potentially offending) Microsoft's partners, and would also be met with some amount of negative consumer sentiment. Pulling day-one Call of Duty games from Game Pass only requires Microsoft to negotiate with itself.
After all, Game Pass subscribers have only enjoyed the perk of playing Call of Duty on day one for the past two releases (Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7). Game Pass Ultimate only includes a handful of Call of Duty games anyway, and Microsoft could always offer a quick mea culpa by adding more back-catalog COD games to the Game Pass library.
Ultimately, the change may net out for Call of Duty players. Game Pass Ultimate will now cost $84 less over 12 months with its new rate. A digital copy of this year's Call of Duty will likely cost the now-standard $69.99.
The bigger concern among some Game Pass subscribers is the precedent Microsoft has now set. If it's removing Call of Duty from Game Pass now, will it carve out similar exceptions for The Elder Scrolls 6 or the next big Halo game? Time will tell, but Microsoft clearly recognizes it pushed its audience to a breaking point with price. It can't afford to do so again by resorting to austerity measures for the Game Pass Ultimate library.
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