Microsoft (MSFT) announced on Tuesday that it will lower the prices for two of its Xbox Game Pass subscription tiers, a move that runs counter to the prevailing industry trend. The company stated that its Game Pass Ultimate subscription will decrease from $29.99 per month to $22.99, while the PC Game Pass will be reduced from $16.49 to $13.99 per month. The prices for the standard and premium tiers of Game Pass will remain unchanged.
However, the announcement included a significant caveat: future installments of the popular Call of Duty franchise will no longer be available on the subscription service on their release day. Instead, they will be added to Game Pass approximately one year after their initial launch. Previously released Call of Duty titles are not affected by this change.
This price reduction for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass reverses a price hike implemented in October of last year, which had drawn criticism from the player community. At that time, Microsoft had increased the Ultimate subscription fee by 50%, from $19.99 to $29.99 per month, and raised the PC Game Pass from $11.99 to $16.49.
The price adjustment marks one of the first major decisions by Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Microsoft's gaming division. Sharma took over the role in February following the departure of the well-regarded former CEO, Phil Spencer. This decision is likely to garner favor for her among gamers. Sharma had already gained player support in her inaugural statement as CEO, emphasizing that she would not "chase short-term gains or flood our ecosystem with a lot of soulless, AI-generated content."
Microsoft's move comes at a time when console and game prices are rising industry-wide, influenced by factors such as tariff policies from the previous U.S. administration, a global shortage of storage chips, and soaring game development costs. Earlier this month, Sony (SONY) increased the price of the PlayStation 5 console by $100, despite it having been on the market for over five years. Microsoft also raised the price of its Xbox Series X console, and Nintendo (NTDOY) increased the price of the original Switch model, although the price for the new Switch 2 remains steady.
Game software itself is also becoming more expensive. Nintendo has adopted a variable pricing strategy, with some titles priced at $70 and others, such as Mario Kart World, reaching as high as $80. The company also differentiates pricing between digital and physical editions of games. For example, the upcoming title Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is priced at $60 for the digital pre-order version and $70 for the physical edition.
Microsoft's decision to lower subscription prices stands in sharp contrast to the recent wave of price increases implemented by other subscription services over the past few months.
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