Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price plummets – but there's a catch

As rumoured recently, Microsoft has slashed the price of its highest Game Pass tier. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate now costs just £16.99 / $22.99 per month – a drop of £6 / $7 – but not without cost.

The company has confirmed that future Call of Duty games will not be included in the game catalogue as day one releases. They will be added a year after launch from now on.

This comes after an internal memo from new Xbox boss Asha Sharma was leaked. In it, she told staff that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate was "too expensive" and plans were to make it a better value proposition. It was suggested at the time that COD could be cut from the service, and that has now come to fruition.

Existing Ultimate members will be happy to learn that, while their subscription fees will be cut, existing Call of Duty games will continue to be available in the game library. It's only new releases that will not.

What about PC Game Pass?

Microsoft has also dropped the price of PC Game Pass to £10.99 / $13.99 per month. It will also continue to range existing COD titles.

There are no changes to Xbox Game Pass Premium or Essential at present.

Microsoft made the controversial decision to raise its price plans in October last year, with Game Pass Ultimate seeing a 100% hike. It attempted to mitigate the extra cost by including Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew memberships with the plan (alongside the EA Play, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and PC Game Pass benefits), but gamers found the new costs exhorbitant.

Since that time, Asha Sharma replaced Phil Spencer as CEO of Microsoft's gaming division and vowed to make some changes. This price restructure is likely to be just the start.