One of the biggest pieces of Xbox news we’ve had since Phil Spencer’s retirement and Asha Sharma In February, he was promoted as the brand’s new CEO its decision to lower the price of Xbox Game Passand Xbox Game Pass Ultimate especially. Last week, it dropped the monthly price of its Ultimate subscription from $29.99 to $22.99, a major price cut.
The price drop has almost completely reversed the price walk We bought it in October last year This saw the price of Game Pass Ultimate jump from $19.99 to $29.99 and was very well received by fans – although it did come with the disadvantage of losing the first day. Xbox Game Pass access to a new one Call of Duty games.
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Interestingly, the two have different views on how Game Pass availability affects Call of Duty sales, with Harding-Rolls commenting that “Microsoft was leaving a significant amount of revenue on the table with the loss of premium sales.” It was reported earlier Microsoft lost $300 million in Call of Duty sales due to Game Pass.
However, Piscatella claims that “The data has never told me that Call of Duty’s move to Game Pass has had a huge impact on the game’s sales” and that “it’s not at all certain that putting Call of Duty on Game Pass on day one has had any significant impact on the game’s sales on, say, PlayStation platforms.”
“If future versions of Call of Duty deliver the experience players want, sales will thrive whether they’re included or excluded from Game Pass,” he said.
Both analysts again agree on the expected impact of the price drop on Game Pass subscribers, predicting that the lower price will drive growth for Microsoft’s service in 2026. “I think the price reduction should help increase the number of subscribers,” Piscatella said. “Though given the discount, I doubt it will increase Game Pass costs in the short term. But we’ll see.”
Harding-Rolls believes that we “will see Game Pass ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) rise again in 2026, reducing the chance of subscriber loss compared to the significant price increases implemented in October 2025.” He also notes that Call of Duty’s move away from single-day access doesn’t mean same-day access for Game Pass titles. in general is at risk, he does It suggests that Microsoft may be willing to take a similar “windowing” approach with other big IPs.
Do you agree with Piscatella and Harding-Rolls’ analysis? How do you feel about the Xbox Game Pass price cut and what does it mean for the wider Xbox business overall? Share your thoughts below.
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