Microsoft have announced some changes to Xbox Game Pass. As of today, its Ultimate and PC Game Pass tiers are having their prices slashed, but neither will get Call of Duty games at launch going forwards. Instead, new instalments in the shooter series will hit Game Pass about a year after release, with already released CoDs remaining available to play as normal.
As per Microsoft’s post detailing the changes, Game Pass Ultimate’s price is dropping from $29.99 to $22.99 a month, which is £22.99 to £16.99 a month for UK folks. PC Game Pass, meanwhile is dropping from $16.49 to $13.99 a month, that being £13.49 to £10.99 a month. For reference, October’s Game Pass price hike saw PC game pass jump from $11.99 to $16.49, while Game Pass Ultimate jumped from $19.99 to $29.99. So the new numbers are slightly higher than the pre-hike ones.
“Beginning this year, future Call of Duty titles won’t join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch,” Microsoft continued. “New Call of Duty games will be added to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass during the following holiday season (about a year later), while existing Call of Duty titles already in the library will continue to be available.
“Our players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far,” the company added. “We’ll continue to listen and learn.”
This shift mirrors largely the chatter about getting Xbox back on track that’s accompanied new boss Asha Sharma taking the green throne after Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond’s heads rolled off the corporate executioner’s block in February, with one retiring and one resigning. It doesn’t take a genius to infer that last year’s price hike might have been the harbinger of a decrease in subscriber numbers, with a potential upswing in direct Call of Duty launch sales going forward acting as a makeweight to get prices back down to more reasonable levels. Well, I say that, if there was a price tracker for Game Pass, it’d still be telling you that you’re getting a worse deal than you were prior to last year’s hike.
Anyway, what could be better than a return to exclusives that actually just entails games being exclusive to direct sale for a bit, so you can’t get a better deal by paying for monthly access to a big sack of games?
