The Game Pass becomes cheaper, but "Call of Duty" is cancelled

Philipp Rüegg

22/4/2026

Translation: machine translated

Microsoft is lowering the price of the Game Pass plan. But there is a catch: "Call of Duty" will no longer be included at launch.

It was one of the main reasons for Microsoft's takeover of Activision Blizzard four years ago. For a record sum of 68.7 billion US dollars, one of the largest games companies in the world became part of the Xbox division. The jewel in the crown: «Call of Duty». Among other things, this was intended to enrich the Game Pass offering. After two years in which subscribers were able to play the military shooter for free «» at launch, it is already over again.

As Microsoft announced, the price of Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass is falling from 26.99 euros to 20.99 euros per month and from 14.99 euros to 12.99 euros respectively. In Switzerland, the prices are currently unchanged at 22.99 francs for the most expensive plan and 13.99 francs for the PC version. In return, future «Call of Duty» titles will no longer be available at launch, but will be added a year later. Existing «Call of Duty» games will remain included. Other titles from the Xbox game studios will appear in the Game Pass at release as usual.

Calculated over a year, the savings amount to almost exactly the purchase price of «Call of Duty». This primarily benefits anyone who has not played the shooter before.

The beginning of the end?

Microsoft justifies the move with different preferences and tastes. There is no model that is best for everyone, but with this change they are taking feedback into account. The move comes just around a month after the change of leadership at Xbox. Asha Sharma replaced long-time CEO Phil Spencer. Just a week ago a memo from Sharma leaked stating that Game Pass was too expensive for many users. «We need a better value for money. In the long term, we will develop the Game Pass into a more flexible system that takes time to test and learn», it says. We also talked about this in the Tech Affair podcast.

The price of Game Pass was increased by up to 50 per cent as recently as last October. The product does not appear to be financially viable and even blockbusters such as «Call of Duty» are not providing a sustainable increase in users. It remains to be seen whether this is the beginning of the end or whether Microsoft will find a way out of the impasse.

Philipp Rüegg

Senior Editor

Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

As a child, I wasn't allowed to have any consoles. It was only with the arrival of the family's 486 PC that the magical world of gaming opened up to me. Today, I'm overcompensating accordingly. Only a lack of time and money prevents me from trying out every game there is and decorating my shelf with rare retro consoles. more

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