Xbox is changing the Game Pass deal again, and this one will split the squad chat for sure.
The headline: Game Pass Ultimate is getting cheaper. Xbox announced that the subscription will drop from $29.99 to $22.99 per month. But there is a catch — future Call of Duty games will no longer arrive on Game Pass on launch day.
Instead, new Call of Duty entries are expected to join the service almost a year later, around the next holiday season. Existing Call of Duty titles already on Game Pass will stay there, including the Modern Warfare reboot trilogy, Black Ops 6, Black Ops 7, and WWII.
For players who mainly subscribed just to play the newest Call of Duty immediately, this sounds like bad news. If this year’s rumoured entry really is Modern Warfare 4, fans who want to jump in day one will likely need to buy it at full price — probably around the usual $70 mark.
But the maths is not as painful as it first looks. Game Pass Ultimate is now $7 cheaper per month. Over 12 months, that is $84 saved, which basically covers the cost of buying a new Call of Duty game separately, with a bit left over.
For Malaysian and SEA players, the value question is extra important because subscription stacking can get mahal very quickly when you already have PS Plus, Netflix, Spotify, mobile game passes, battle passes, and maybe a gacha problem you refuse to admit. If you actually play a lot of Game Pass titles beyond Call of Duty, a cheaper Ultimate tier is still attractive. If you only care about CoD multiplayer every year, buying the game outright may make more sense anyway.
This move also follows a Bloomberg report from last October claiming Microsoft lost $300 million in sales after putting Black Ops 6 on Game Pass at launch. Around that period, Microsoft raised Game Pass Ultimate by $10, likely to soften the hit.
Now Xbox seems to be walking that decision back slightly: keep Call of Duty valuable as a full-price release, then lower the subscription price to make Game Pass easier to sell again. Ultimate still costs $3 more per month than it did six months ago, but Xbox has added extras like Fortnite Crew and the Ubisoft Classics catalog.
Not everyone loves those bonuses. Some players online are already asking Xbox to strip out perks like Fortnite Crew and cut the price even further. Others argue that day-one releases are the main reason Ultimate exists in the first place.
The bigger issue is Call of Duty itself. Black Ops 7 reportedly did not land as strongly as earlier entries in terms of reception or player momentum, so the next game has pressure on its shoulders. If Activision really returns to Modern Warfare, Xbox may be betting that enough hardcore fans will pay full price at launch instead of waiting for Game Pass.
For casual players, getting Call of Duty a year later still has value, especially for campaigns or catching up on older entries. But for multiplayer? Let’s be real — most of the player base moves fast. By the time last year’s CoD hits Game Pass, the main crowd is already grinding the newest weapons, maps, and skins.
So this is not exactly Xbox giving up on Call of Duty for Game Pass. It is more like Xbox admitting that CoD is no longer the automatic subscription-seller it hoped for. For players, the win depends on what kind of gamer you are: annual CoD grinder, Game Pass buffet enjoyer, or someone waiting for the campaign backlog.
Source: Polygon