Microsoft is responding to complaints about expensive Xbox Game Pass subscriptions with price cuts, although there are conditions attached.
Game Pass Ultimate has dropped from $30 per month to $23 per month in the U.S., effective immediately. PC Game Pass, meanwhile, is dropping from $16.49 to $14 per month. Game Pass Essential and Premium tiers still cost a respective $10 and $15 per month. These prices are still higher than they were in the past, but are closer to their pre-2025 rates.
However. Microsoft is no longer making new Call of Duty games available through Game Pass Ultimate on launch. You’ll have to wait until the next holiday season, or roughly a year later, to play. Existing games will still be available, but you’ll have to buy the latest games up front if you want to play them right away.
Why is Microsoft lowering the price of Xbox Game Pass?
Its new gaming CEO claims the service is too costly
Newly installed Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma is direct about the reasons for the Xbox Game Pass price cut. Ultimate “has become too expensive for too many players,” she said on X. The executive added that Microsoft would keep “learning and evolving” to adapt Game Pass to what players want.
The statement reflects a leaked memo The Verge obtained earlier in April. Sharma reportedly told employees that Game Pass had grown expensive, and that Microsoft needed a “better value equation.” This meant making the service “more flexible,” and that time would be necessary to “test and learn” how well the new approach worked.
Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass Ultimate from $20 to $30 per month in October 2025. While the company added perks to help justify its decision, some gamers complained that this negated the point of their subscriptions. Depending on your habits, it could be cheaper to simply buy the games you want rather than paying as much as $360 per year.
Other criticisms of Microsoft’s Xbox strategy remain
Its consoles still face tough competition
While the Game Pass price cuts address one sticking point, there are still lingering complaints about Microsoft’s Xbox division. Hikes unofficially attributed to tariffs and component costs now have the Xbox Series S starting at $400, while the Series X begins at $600. That’s competitive with PlayStation 5 pricing, but makes the $450 Nintendo Switch 2 (or skipping a console entirely) more compelling.
- 4K Capability
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Yes
- 4K Capabilities
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2160p
Microsoft is also struggling to attract Xbox-exclusive games. While its 2023 acquisition of Activision Blizzard ensures a steady stream of games from series like Call of Duty and Fallout, many third parties still release games either cross-platform or exclusively for rivals. The unviability of exclusives has reached the point where Microsoft will release a remaster of the original Halo‘s single-player experience (Halo: Campaign Evolved) for the PS5 in July.
The firm has already teased work on an Xbox Series X successor, Project Helix, that is expected to reach gamers in 2028. Former Xbox president Sarah Bond described the next Xbox as “very premium,” raising concerns that it might be unaffordable for mainstream players.
Many of these decisions came before Sharma took the lead from Bond and fellow company veteran Phil Spencer, however. As such, it’s not certain that Microsoft will stay on the same track.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
