Asha Sharma’s first major decision as Microsoft Gaming chief cuts the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate by $7 a month but delays new Call of Duty releases on the service by about a year.
The change, announced Tuesday, reduces the Ultimate tier from $29.99 to $22.99 monthly and PC Game Pass from $16.49 to $13.99. In the UK, the Ultimate price drops from £22.99 to £16.99 and PC Game Pass from £13.49 to £10.99.
Future Call of Duty titles will no longer launch on Game Pass the same day they release. Instead, they will arrive roughly a year later, typically during the following holiday season. Existing and older Call of Duty games will remain available on the service.
Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in 2023 for $68.7 billion, and the 2024 release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the first title from the franchise to appear on Game Pass at launch. A Bloomberg report cited by The Guardian estimated that including Call of Duty in the subscription cost Microsoft $300 million in lost sales.
The price increase last October to $29.99 was widely interpreted as a response to the expense of adding new Call of Duty games to the service. Sharma acknowledged in a leaked memo to staff on April 13 that Game Pass had become too expensive and promised a better value equation.
Microsoft’s gaming business has faced pressure. In the most recent holiday quarter, gaming revenue fell 9% to $5.96 billion, with Xbox content and services missing internal projections. Hardware sales declined 32% after the cancellation of two in-development titles, Everwild and Perfect Dark.
Revenue from Xbox content and services, which excludes hardware sales, also came in below expectations, prompting finance chief Amy Hood to announce an unspecified impairment charge on the gaming business during a conference call. Gaming contributed 7% of Microsoft’s total revenue in the fourth quarter, while Azure, LinkedIn, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics each grew at least 10% year over year.
For more on this story, see Microsoft Launches Student Laptop Deals to Counter Apple MacBook Neo.
Sharma took over as CEO of Microsoft Gaming in February, replacing Phil Spencer after his 38-year tenure at the company. She previously led Microsoft’s CoreAI product organization and held executive roles at Instacart and Meta. She promoted Matt Booty, longtime studio chief, to executive vice president and chief content officer.
In her memo to employees, Sharma said the change responds to player feedback and is part of an effort to make Game Pass a more flexible system. Microsoft said in its blog post that the adjustment aims to balance accessibility with sustainability across a diverse global player base.
The company reported 34 million Game Pass subscribers in 2024. Satya Nadella has said the service generated nearly $5 billion in revenue during the 2025 financial year, while former Xbox chief Sarah Bond described it as profitable for both Microsoft and partner developers.
Since 2024, Microsoft has released its first-party games on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch in addition to Xbox hardware, reflecting a broader shift away from console exclusivity. The company has spent over $86 billion on game developer acquisitions since 2014, beginning with the $2.5 billion purchase of Mojang.
Why did Microsoft raise Game Pass Ultimate’s price to $29.99 last October?
The increase was widely seen as a response to the cost of adding new Call of Duty titles to the service after the Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Will current Call of Duty games on Game Pass be removed?
No, existing and older Call of Duty titles will remain available; only future releases will be delayed by about a year.
How does this change affect PC Game Pass subscribers?
PC Game Pass drops from $16.49 to $13.99 monthly in the US and from £13.49 to £10.99 in the UK, with the same Call of Duty release timing applied.
