Cheaper Xbox Game Pass comes with a big Call of Duty change

If you’ve been eyeing up Xbox Game Pass but couldn’t quite justify the monthly hit, there’s some decent news. Microsoft has just dropped the price of its top tiers in the UK, bringing Game Pass Ultimate down from £22.99 to £16.99 a month, and PC Game Pass from £13.49 to £10.99.

That’s a pretty chunky saving, especially considering the service still gives you access to hundreds of games, cloud streaming and day-one releases for first-party titles. But before you start mentally reallocating your subscription budget, there is a bit of a trade-off here. And it’s a big one if you’re into shooters.

Going forward, new entries in the Call of Duty series will no longer launch on Game Pass on day one. Instead, they’ll be added around a year later, usually during the following holiday season. Existing Call of Duty titles already on the service aren’t going anywhere, but that headline perk of getting the latest release instantly has now been pulled back.

It marks a fairly significant shift in strategy. Microsoft spent years pushing Game Pass as the place to play major titles the moment they drop, and that approach even extended to Call of Duty after its massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Now, it looks like the cost of that model is starting to show.

Part of the reasoning comes from the new Xbox leadership. CEO Asha Sharma has reportedly described Game Pass as becoming “too expensive for players”, with a need to rebalance the value of the service. Cutting the monthly price is the first step in that, but removing day-one access to one of the biggest franchises in gaming suggests there’s a wider rethink going on behind the scenes.

It’s not hard to see why; while Game Pass has been a big success in terms of engagement, it has also raised questions about how it impacts game sales, especially for blockbuster releases. Dialling back the biggest perk while lowering the price feels like Microsoft trying to find a middle ground that keeps both players and publishers on side.

For now, though, the takeaway is fairly simple. Game Pass is cheaper than it was last week, which is great if you’ve been holding off. Just don’t expect to jump straight into the next Call of Duty the day it lands.

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