Alright, so Microsoft finally did something about Game Pass pricing, and yeah — it’s a big one. Starting April 21, 2026, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has been cut from $29.99 per month down to $22.99 per month. PC Game Pass is also getting cheaper, dropping from $16.49 to $13.99 per month. If you’re in the UK, Game Pass Ultimate is now £16.99 per month (down from £22.99), and PC Game Pass is £10.99 per month (down from £13.49). Both changes are live immediately, and if you’re already subscribed, your next billing cycle will reflect the new rate starting April 22.
Sounds like a W, right? Well, hold on — because the trade-off here is one that’s going to sting for a lot of people.
Call of Duty Is Out of the Day One Club
Here’s the catch: new Call of Duty titles will no longer be dropping into Game Pass on launch day. Going forward, any future Call of Duty release will be added to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass “during the following holiday season” — which basically means you’re waiting roughly a year after launch before it hits the subscription. If you want to play the next CoD on day one, you’re buying it at full price.
Now before anyone loses their mind — every Call of Duty game already in the Game Pass library stays right where it is. Black Ops 6, Black Ops 7, all the catalog titles, none of that is going anywhere. It’s specifically new releases going forward that won’t hit the service at launch. Activision themselves confirmed: “Our focus remains unchanged — to deliver the best possible Call of Duty game experience for players across every platform.” They’re still backing Game Pass through catalog support, just not day one drops anymore.
Microsoft’s take on the whole thing, via Xbox Wire: “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. We’ll continue to listen and learn.”
That’s about as corporate as it gets, but what they’re not saying out loud is obvious — putting a $70 game like Call of Duty into a subscription service day one was absolutely wrecking their revenue. Microsoft ate that cost for two straight years covering Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7, and it apparently cost them hundreds of millions in lost sales. The math simply stopped making sense.
This Is All Coming From the New Xbox Boss
If you’ve been following Xbox news lately, none of this should come as a surprise. Asha Sharma took over as Xbox CEO from Phil Spencer back in February, following the genuinely shocking news that Spencer — who’d been with Microsoft for nearly 40 years — was retiring. Sharma came in with a very different energy, and it’s been clear from the jump that she wasn’t going to just keep the wheels turning as they were.
Just last week, a leaked internal memo from Sharma went public, and she was refreshingly blunt: “Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation.” She also pointed ahead, saying the plan is to evolve Game Pass into “a more flexible system” over time, but that it’ll take time to test and learn. Today’s price drop looks like step one of that evolution.
Sharma also stated that the current Game Pass model “isn’t the final one” and that the subscription is “central to gaming value on Xbox.” In other words, she’s not scrapping the model — she’s rebuilding it into something that actually works for the people paying for it.
And while the memo leak probably wasn’t the ideal way for this to get out, the response has been real action rather than just PR spin. Give credit where it’s due.
For context, this price drop comes about six months after Microsoft did the complete opposite — hiking Game Pass Ultimate by $10 to $29.99 per month in October 2025, a move that also gutted Microsoft Rewards by removing credits that subscribers used to automatically earn just for being on the service. That update went over about as well as you’d expect, and clearly the feedback didn’t stop coming in.
Sharma’s Moves Are Adding Up
The price adjustment isn’t the only thing Sharma has put her stamp on since taking over. She also personally killed off the “This Is An Xbox” marketing campaign, which was honestly one of the more controversial branding directions Xbox had taken — positioning the brand as something much broader than just a console, but never quite landing the message in a way that resonated with core players.
Instead, attention is now being pointed toward what’s coming next in terms of hardware. Project Helix — the codename for Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox console — has been slowly gaining more detail over the past few months. Confirmed at GDC 2026, the console is built around a custom AMD SoC co-designed with the next generation of DirectX and FSR technology, and is described as delivering a massive leap in ray tracing performance. Developer alpha units are reportedly heading out in 2027, so a public launch window is still a ways off — but the direction is clear. Sharma has said the hardware will “lead in performance,” and the Project Helix details surfacing so far back that up.
So Is This Actually a Good Deal Now?
Honestly? For most subscribers, yes. If you were purely on Game Pass to play Call of Duty at no extra cost on launch day, this stings — that’s a real loss. But the reality is that the rest of the value proposition is still intact. Hundreds of games still hit the service on day one, cloud gaming is still included, online multiplayer is still there, and you’re paying $7 less a month than you were yesterday.
Is it a perfect solution? No. But it’s a more honest one. Microsoft is basically admitting they overcorrected with last year’s price hike, and they’re adjusting. Whether this leads to something more flexible down the line — like cheaper tiers, a la carte options, or better Rewards integration — remains to be seen. Sharma herself said as much. This is the beginning, not the end.
For now, though, if you were on the fence about subscribing after last year’s hike, the bar to jump back in just got a little lower. Just don’t expect to boot up the next Call of Duty on day one from the dashboard — that’s a separate conversation you’ll need to have with your wallet.
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