Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma has announced that Xbox Game Pass is getting a price cut, at least when it comes to the Ultimate tier. Xbox Game Pass’ Ultimate tier becoming cheaper is bound to excite a lot of gamers, but this price cut comes with the cost of losing a major franchise as a day one release.
Asha Sharma has only been the Microsoft Gaming CEO for a few months now, but she has hit the ground running when it comes to embracing her new role. Xbox’s leadership change has left a lot of gamers curious about where the company’s future is headed. With both Phil Spencer and his anticipated successor Sarah Bond out of the picture, Xbox could be headed in a much different direction than some had expected. Now, Asha Sharma is making some big moves by shaking up not only the Game Pass price, but also its day one launch roster.
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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Will Be Cheaper, but Call of Duty Games Will No Longer Release Day One
Asha Sharma took to Twitter earlier today to announce that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will change from its current $29.99 price to $22.99 a month. However, the one drawback of this change is that new Call of Duty games will no longer be day one launches for the platform. All current Call of Duty games will remain for players, and new releases will eventually come to the Ultimate tier around a year after their initial launch.
So far, Sharma’s announcement has been met with a lot of positive feedback, but there are still some who are upset about Call of Duty being taken off the Game Pass day one schedule. The beloved FPS series launching day one on Game Pass has been a big draw for a lot of gamers, but there have also been some significant downsides. Last year, it was reported that Call of Duty on Game Pass cost Microsoft $300 million in sales. On the bright side, Sharma’s reassurance that Call of Duty games will come to Ultimate eventually is better than being taken off Game Pass completely.
The new Microsoft Gaming CEO’s decision to lower Ultimate’s prices isn’t too surprising in hindsight. Just earlier this month, a leaked Xbox memo revealed that Asha Sharma believed that Game Pass is too expensive. This was the first major hint that a price change would come eventually, but many fans probably weren’t expecting to lose out on Call of Duty day one launches as a result.
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Balance the critic averages
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Sharma closed out her announcement tweet by stating she and the Xbox team will be working to evolve the subscription service in order to make it a more user-friendly platform. It’s unclear what exactly that means yet, but it could lead to steps in the right direction. There are still plenty of great Xbox Game Pass games outside Call of Duty‘s orbit to look forward to. Activision’s military shooter franchise no longer being day one is bound to sting some fans, but the overall change will at least be easier on a lot of gamers’ wallets.
