Rumor: Another Xbox Game Pass Price Hike and More Bad News May Be Coming

09.05.2024 - 18:32 / gamerant.com / Tom Warren / Xbox Game Pass / Dominik Bo

Another Xbox Game Pass price hike may be coming in the foreseeable future, according to a new report. The same source also raises the possibility of some more bad news for Xbox Game Pass subscribers concerning Call of Duty.

Microsoft's gaming division has undergone some major cuts since the turn of the year. Its latest wave of downsizing happened in early May, when Xbox shut down four subsidiaries of Bethesda parent ZeniMax Media: Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, Tango Gameworks, and Roundhouse Studios.

Amid all this turmoil, Microsoft is now said to be considering another Xbox Game Pass price hike, The Verge's Tom Warren reports, noting that no final decision on the matter has yet been made. The pricing adjustment is said to only be under consideration for the Ultimate tier of the subscription service, which currently costs $16.99 a month. The level of increase that Microsoft is purported to be considering is unclear; the first and so far only time that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate became more expensive, its $14.99 price rose by a bit over 13% in July 2023.

Microsoft is also said to have doubts about bringing new Call of Duty entries to its subscription service, as per the same report. Warren's sources are saying that the company has been weighing the pros and cons of such a move «for quite some time,» and remains undecided as of mid-2024. Many fans have previously identified day-one releases of future Call of Duty titles on Xbox Game Pass as one of the most obvious consumer-facing benefits of Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which was finalized in October 2023 following international regulatory pushback.

Microsoft is now understood to be having second thoughts about such a move, largely due to concerns that it would significantly impact Activision's behemoth revenue stream, one of the biggest moneymakers in the Xbox family. This claim is consistent with a February 2024 scoop from long-time Microsoft leaker Timdog, who was the first to report that Call of Duty may not be coming to Xbox Game Pass after all.

Warren's sources have also suggested that Microsoft's ongoing multi-platform publishing foray, which saw it bring some of its first parties to Nintendo and Sony's consoles, may come at the expense of fewer Xbox Game Pass releases, day-one or otherwise. This refocusing effort is being described as a strategic shift on the company's part, largely aimed at improving its margins in the gaming space. While Microsoft has long been saying that its subscription service is profitable, its long-term prospects have recently been brought into question by a report suggesting Xbox Game Pass growth has slowed down significantly.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the highest tier of Microsoft's