Asha Sharma didn’t just talk about making Game Pass more affordable—she actually did it. Earlier today, the Xbox CEO announced via Twitter that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is dropping from $29.99/month to $22.99/month, effective immediately. PC Game Pass is also coming down from $16.49 to $13.99/month. The catch? Future Call of Duty titles will no longer launch on Xbox Game Pass day one. New entries will instead join the service during the following holiday season, roughly a year after release. Existing Call of Duty titles already in the library aren’t going anywhere.
This is a direct follow-through on the leaked internal memo from just days ago where Sharma told employees that Game Pass had become “too expensive for players” and that Microsoft needed “a better value equation.” She found one—and she moved fast.
Reactions Are Very Positive
The initial response has been overwhelmingly positive. Sharma’s announcement post on Twitter racked up 3.5 million views, over 31,000 likes, and more than 4,200 reposts within hours. Windows Central’s Jez Corden ran a poll on Twitter asking whether the news was a “Big win” or “Big fail,” and 85% of the 1,000+ respondents called it a win (as of the time of this writing).
It’s not hard to see why. That $7/month reduction on Ultimate brings the annual cost down by $84. That’s real money that subscribers will feel. And for many Game Pass users who never touched Call of Duty in the first place, this feels like getting a discount for dropping dead weight. The bundling of Activision Blizzard’s flagship franchise into Ultimate was widely believed to be a major factor behind the October 2025 price hike, so its removal as a day-one inclusion naturally clears the path for a lower price point.
For what it’s worth, I actually argued that Game Pass was still the best deal in gaming even at $29.99/month. The additions of Fortnite Crew, Ubisoft+ Classics, and the promise of 75+ day-one releases per year—which Xbox has been doing a great job keeping pace on so far in 2026—made the value proposition hold up in my eyes. But at $22.99/month with all of those benefits still intact minus Call of Duty at launch? That’s a no-brainer.
An Underlying Problem Remains
As great as this price cut is, it doesn’t address the underlying issue that led to the increase in the first place: Xbox Game Pass isn’t growing. The service has struggled to add new subscribers at the rate Xbox needs to make it sustainable long term. And a lower price point, while it may retain players who unsubscribed or were on the verge of leaving, doesn’t automatically translate to new users walking through the door.
The harsh reality is that most casual gamers still don’t even know what Game Pass is. That’s a massive blunder on Xbox’s part. The core gaming audience is well aware of the service and its value, but Xbox has done a terrible job marketing Xbox Game Pass outside of its own circles. When was the last time you saw a Game Pass ad during a major sporting event? A commercial on a streaming platform? A campaign targeting the casual audience that PlayStation and Nintendo reach effortlessly with their marketing?
PlayStation and Nintendo run ads during NFL games, on Hulu, during primetime television—places where non-gamers and casual players actually see them. And it clearly works. Xbox, meanwhile, continues to preach to the choir. Sharma still has to figure out how to get Game Pass in front of the millions of potential subscribers who have never heard of it, and a price cut alone won’t do that. A real, sustained marketing push outside of the core gaming bubble would probably do more for Game Pass growth than any pricing adjustment ever could.
The Precedent Is Set
Here’s where it also gets tricky. The overwhelming majority of Xbox Game Pass subscribers seem fine trading Call of Duty‘s day-one access for a cheaper subscription. But this move opens a can of worms that Xbox needs to be very careful with.
One of Game Pass’s core value propositions has always been that every first-party Xbox title launches on the service day one. It’s been the single biggest selling point since the program’s inception—the thing that made the subscription feel like a no-brainer. By carving out Call of Duty as an exception, Microsoft is establishing a precedent that certain first-party titles can be deemed “too big” for day-one inclusion.
Today it’s Call of Duty. But what happens when The Elder Scrolls VI is ready to ship? What about the next mainline Fallout? If Microsoft decides those franchises are also too massive to absorb into the subscription on launch day, then the foundational promise of Game Pass starts to erode.
Draw The Line
For this to work long term, Call of Duty needs to be the only exception—and Xbox needs to communicate that clearly. The argument for carving it out is sound: Call of Duty is an annual franchise with a massive standalone audience that generates billions in revenue on its own. It’s fundamentally different from a single-player RPG like Fable or a first-party showcase like Forza Horizon 6, both of which benefit enormously from the exposure and install base that day-one Game Pass access provides.
But if Xbox starts quietly expanding the list of exceptions—if “too big for Game Pass” becomes a recurring justification—then subscribers will rightfully question what they’re paying for. The moment fans start wondering whether the next big Bethesda or Activision release will actually show up on day one is the moment Game Pass loses the trust it spent years building.
Sharma has made a strong move here. The price cut is real, the community response is positive, and cutting the Call of Duty cord as a day-one inclusion makes financial sense. But the follow-through matters just as much as the announcement. Xbox needs to draw a firm line and make it clear: Call of Duty is the exception, not the beginning of a new rule.
