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The prices of the Ultimate and PC tiers are being reduced at the cost of new Call of Duty games on day one.
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another GRTV News, today we're going to be touching a little bit on Xbox and talking about Microsoft for the simple reason that quite a big thing has happened as of recent. It was teased by the current Xbox or Microsoft Gaming boss Ashish Sharma that there were going to be changes to Game Pass because it's just simply overpriced. I think the majority of people would agree with that. I don't think what people would have thought though is that it would have happened so quickly. So Xbox has officially announced that Game Pass is having a price reduction, quite a significant one at that. It's coming at the cost of something that I think the majority of Game Pass users couldn't really care less about, in that the price is dropping but it means that Call of Duty games will not launch as a day one title. Now again, I think the majority of people that play Game Pass probably don't use it predominantly to gain access to Call of Duty games so I think that suits them. There's a lot of other things that people want to access through Game Pass but as it stands, or as it previously stood, the price of it was just too steep that it wasn't worthy of picking up. But this here now makes it more affordable and yeah, pretty positive change you'd have to say. So Xbox Game Pass is getting much cheaper but Call of Duty games will not launch on the service anymore. A week has gone since the new Xbox boss Ashish Sharma said Game Pass is too expensive. She has said quite a lot of things since she replaced Phil Spencer but now it's time to act. Microsoft reveals that Game Pass Ultimate is getting a price cut today. It's not a small cut either as Game Pass Ultimate drops from £29.99 to £22.99 a month while PC Game Pass goes from £16.49 to £13.99 a month. There's a catch however because we're told this means Call of Duty games won't join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch anymore starting this year. They'll instead be added to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass one year after launch. Will you get Game Pass now and what do you think about Call of Duty not launching on the service anymore?
So yeah, I think this is a positive change across the board really. I think the previous price was just simply, quite frankly, way too expensive and I think that it alienated the majority of the user base. This price is still expensive but you, or at least the way they phrased it, you still get Xbox Game Studios titles day one. So that means Forza, that means Gears of War E-Day, that means Halo Campaign Evolved, that means Fable but you don't get Call of Duty games. Which again, I think the majority of people couldn't really care less about that because I think the majority of people who are playing Game Pass pick it up and use it for the access to a variety of games that it gives and I wouldn't say necessarily that that spreads to Call of Duty players. Call of Duty players more often than not are their own thing, sort of similar to FIFA players and GTA players. They're sort of that really broad mainstream audience that probably couldn't care less about, let's say, Vampire Crawlers being added to Game Pass. Not much crossover there. The people who do want Game Pass are the people who want to try that broad variety of things and explore all these different fantastic games that make their arrival on a frequent basis. So I think this is better. It's perhaps slightly too costly still. I mean obviously that is in dollars so you'd have to say it's about £18 a month for Game Pass Ultimate right now. Which, you know, if you're playing a first-party title every three months you're paying for it, really. Let's say, you know, Forza comes out in May and that's gonna be probably a £60 game and then if you add that, Gears of War E, let's say, Halo is, as it's rumoured, release date or whatever in July and then Gears of War E day sometime in September, Fable sometime a little bit after that. Like all of that, if you bundle those games together, it probably, if you bought them all, it probably cost you £200 or more. So paying, let's say, £18 a month for Game Pass is relatively close because it also gives you the bonus of access and all the other things. And again, the first, the non-first-party titles, the third-party titles as we call them, that launch on Game Pass on day one as well as all the other things as well. So I think it's still, I think it's much more affordable. You probably still say it's slightly too expensive but you now know what you're getting with it. If you're going to buy Game Pass it's because you're going to play lots of games and you're going to do it at a quite affordable rate in that regard. So I think it's much better now."
"I think this is a great move and I don't think the majority of Game Pass subscribers will miss Call of Duty not being included. I mean, again, it will be there. It'll just be a year late. If you want to play the game, buy it. If you don't want to play the game, you're not too bothered about it, wait a year, play it through the subscription then. I think that's a good idea."
"And ultimately, I think Ashley Sharma's had a good reign at the top of Xbox so far.
Good changes, positive for the community and consumers and we'll see whether she can live up to it as we continue down the line. But yeah, that's all the time that I have but I'll be back tomorrow for the next GRT News of the Week. So stay tuned for that."
