When there was a shakeup at Xbox earlier this year with Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond suddenly departing, no one knew what to think. Asha Sharma was appointed as the new CEO of Xbox, and she has wasted no time in trying to right the ship. She has been engaging with the community on social media and behind the scenes making moves to try and make the Xbox platform more enticing to a wider group of people.

The economy is in a really bad way right now for a few different reasons and prices are on the rise almost everywhere. As far as Game Pass is concerned though, Asha has announced that the price of Game Pass is actually dropping. That is good news for gamers who are looking to try and stretch the dollar as far as it goes. The caveat to this is that Call of Duty will no longer be a Day One title on Game Pass. It will take approximately one year for Call of Duty to arrive. So, for example, when Call of Duty 2026 comes out this holiday season, it won’t enter the Game Pass library until the 2027 holiday season. It is important to note that Call of Duty games that are currently a part of the Game Pass library will stay there. Those games are not being removed from the service.

By doing so, Asha and Microsoft have lowered the monthly Game Pass Ultimate price from $29.99 to $22.99 a month. That is an $84 savings for those who buy Game Pass Ultimate in annual increments. Call of Duty leaving the service as a day one title is the only thing changing about the service. For that $22.99 a month gamers will still get everything else they have always received with Game Pass Ultimate.

With that said, rumors are circulating that Microsoft is exploring the idea of letting gamers build their own Game Pass membership. According to Windows Central, Microsoft might be working on an à la carte version of the service. One of the examples they gave is that gamers could remove the Xbox Cloud Gaming service from their Game Pass membership, which would lower the overall price for them. This is just a rumor at this point, but it would be nice to see that level of flexibility.

What do you think about the price drop for Game Pass? Would you like a scenario where you can build your own Game Pass membership? Be sure to tell us either on our Twitter or on our Bluesky.