Microsoft has announced that it is revising prices for its Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Two of the four plans will now be cheaper, but with some changes to their content.
The company is changing the price of the most expensive Ultimate plan from $29.99 to $22.99. However, this plan will no longer get new Call of Duty titles at launch. Instead, they will become available during the following holiday season, about a year later. The existing Call of Duty titles will continue to be available.
The PC Game Pass plan pricing is also being revised, and it will now cost $13.99 instead of $16.49. The same changes with the Call of Duty titles as the Ultimate plan will also apply to the PC plan.
The Essential and Premium plan pricing and benefits remain unchanged.
Microsoft announced changes to its Xbox Game Pass pricing back in October of last year. This included substantial hikes, with the Ultimate plan pricing going up by an eye-watering 50% and the PC plan by 37.5%. The lower two plans didn’t change in price, but received significant cutbacks in game library.
Microsoft tried to justify the price hikes by including things such as Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew, but many found these additions unjustifiable or straight up unnecessary. The reaction from the users was so visceral that the Microsoft website crashed by all the people rushing the discontinue their subscriptions.
Well, as we all know, nothing makes a company act faster than getting hit in the bottom line. Still, the prices are higher than they used to be for the Ultimate ($19.99) and PC Game Pass ($11.99) plans before they were hiked, and this could be seen as a case of price anchoring by Microsoft. The plans are also objectively worse now for many people, who previously would expressly choose them for the day-one Call of Duty titles. Furthermore, the Essential and Premium plans are still borderline pointless due to their limited libraries, and more or less exist as decoys to nudge you towards the Ultimate plan.
Still, if you were thinking of going with the two higher tier plans anyway then they are now cheaper than they were just a few days ago.