{"id":1894616,"date":"2026-04-21T16:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1894616"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:02:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:02:21","slug":"microsoft-drops-price-of-xbox-game-pass-ultimate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1894616","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Drops Price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Microsoft has dropped the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 per month to $22.99 per month, while PC Game Pass is being reduced from $16.49 per month to $13.99 per month. Both changes are effective immediately. Meanwhile, new Call of Duty games will no longer be included as day-one releases in either service, and instead will be added “during the following holiday season (about a year later),” according<\/a> to Microsoft. Call of Duty games that are already part of any tier of Game Pass are unaffected by this change.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“Our 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,” Microsoft said in a statement.\u202f”We\u2019ll\u202fcontinue to listen and learn.”<\/p>\n

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This move follows last week’s leaked memo<\/a> from new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma, in which she told the Xbox team, “Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation,” as well as a subsequent report that Sharma and the Xbox leadership team were considering removing<\/a> Call of Duty from day-one availability on Game Pass.<\/p>\n

Sharma, named to her post following longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer’s retirement<\/a> in February, isn’t wasting time trying to repair Xbox’s trust with the gaming community<\/a> following last year’s eye-watering 50% price increase<\/a> of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Now, even if you purchase this year’s inevitable new Call of Duty \u2013 presuming it stays at $69.99 \u2013 you’ll still come out ahead of where the price has been for the past six months while subscribing to Game Pass Ultimate. Yesterday, Microsoft announced<\/a> the second wave of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in April.<\/p>\n

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, <\/em>Podcast Unlocked<\/a>, as well as our semi-retired interview show, <\/em>IGN Unfiltered<\/a>. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at <\/em>@DMC_Ryan<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n

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Microsoft has dropped the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 per month to $22.99 per month, while PC Game Pass is being reduced from $16.49 per month to $13.99 per month. Both changes are effective immediately. Meanwhile, new Call of Duty games will no longer be included as day-one releases in either service, and instead will be added “during the following holiday season (about a year later),” according<\/a> to Microsoft. Call of Duty games that are already part of any tier of Game Pass are unaffected by this change.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“Our 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,” Microsoft said in a statement.\u202f”We\u2019ll\u202fcontinue to listen and learn.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This move follows last week’s leaked memo<\/a> from new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma, in which she told the Xbox team, “Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation,” as well as a subsequent report that Sharma and the Xbox leadership team were considering removing<\/a> Call of Duty from day-one availability on Game Pass.<\/p>\n

Sharma, named to her post following longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer’s retirement<\/a> in February, isn’t wasting time trying to repair Xbox’s trust with the gaming community<\/a> following last year’s eye-watering 50% price increase<\/a> of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Now, even if you purchase this year’s inevitable new Call of Duty \u2013 presuming it stays at $69.99 \u2013 you’ll still come out ahead of where the price has been for the past six months while subscribing to Game Pass Ultimate. Yesterday, Microsoft announced<\/a> the second wave of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in April.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, <\/em>Podcast Unlocked<\/a>, as well as our semi-retired interview show, <\/em>IGN Unfiltered<\/a>. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at <\/em>@DMC_Ryan<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft has dropped the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 per month to $22.99 per month, while PC Game Pass is being reduced from $16.49 per month to $13.99 per month. Both changes are effective immediately. Meanwhile, new Call of Duty games will no longer be included as day-one releases in either service, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,243],"class_list":["post-1894616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-ign-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1894616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1894616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1894616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1894616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1894616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}