As everything keeps getting more expensive, especially streaming subscriptions, Microsoft has offered a bit of relief by making it cheaper to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions now cost $22.99 per month in the US, down from $29.99.
PC Game Pass has dropped to $13.99 from $16.49.
Console plans like Game Pass Essential and Premium will maintain their current pricing.
Microsoft last raised Game Pass rates in 2025, when it introduced a new three‑tier structure and added benefits at the top end. Ultimate still offers access to the Game Pass catalog across console, PC, and cloud, as well as extra services like EA Play and Ubisoft+ Classics in supported regions. But just last week, the new Xbox head, Asha Sharma, told employees that Game Pass had “become too expensive for players” and needed “a more flexible system.”
Subscribers also continue to get day‑one access to quite a few Xbox first‑party titles, plus rotating perks and in‑game content for select games.
But the subscriptions’ reduced prices come at a different cost: New games in the Call of Duty series will no longer launch on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass day one. Instead, Microsoft says it will add each new CoD title the following holiday season, roughly a year after release. Existing Call of Duty games already in the catalog stay in place under the new plan.
Players who want immediate access to the next Call of Duty will likely need to buy it outright. But for players who are not CoD enthusiasts, this feels like a pretty sweet deal.
