News Grower

Independent coverage of AI, startups, and technology.

Ars Technica Apr 21, 2026 at 18:18 Big Tech Stable Warm

Microsoft removes Call of Duty from Game Pass, lowers subscription pricing

New Xbox CEO says subscription "has become too expensive for too many players."

Signal weather

Stable

The story has moved beyond the first headline and now acts as a reliable context anchor.

By Kyle Orland Original source
Microsoft removes Call of Duty from Game Pass, lowers subscription pricing

Microsoft announced Tuesday that subscribers to its Game Pass service will see significant price reductions starting today. But those subscribers will also be losing included day-one access to Activision's popular Call of Duty series from now on. In the US, the price of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription will drop to $22.99 a month (from $29.99, down roughly 23 percent), while the more limited PC Game Pass will drop to $13.99 a month (from $16.49, down roughly 22 percent). Going forward, neither subscription will include launch day access to new Call of Duty games, which will not be available on Game Pass until the following holiday season. Previous Call of Duty games will continue to be available to Game Pass subscribers, though. "Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players," recently named Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in a social media post accompanying the announcement, echoing sentiments shared in an employee memo leaked to The Verge last week. "We’ll keep learning and evolving Game Pass to better match what matters to players."Read full article Comments

Stay on the signal

Follow Microsoft removes Call of Duty from Game Pass, lowers subscription pricing

Follow this story beyond a single article: new follow-ups, adjacent sources, and the evolving storyline.

We send a confirmation link first, then only meaningful digests.

Story map

Understand this topic fast

A quick entry into the story: why it matters now, who is involved, and where to go next for context.

Why it matters now

This story is still moving and pulling follow-up coverage.
There are already 6 connected articles in the same storyline to continue from here.
The story keeps orbiting around Ars Technica, Call, and Duty, so the entity pages are the fastest way to build context.
Ars Technica already has 4 follow-up stories on the same theme.

Topic constellation

Open the live map for this story

See which entities, story threads, sources, and follow-up articles shape this story right now.

Click nodes to continue

Entity Cluster Article Hub Source

Story timeline

Continue with this story

A short sequence of events and follow-up stories to understand the arc quickly.

Jun 23, 2026 at 22:30 Ars Technica

White House drastically shortens deadline for dropping quantum-vulnerable crypto

Order warns of national security risks if post-quantum cryptography isn't adopted in time.

Jun 23, 2026 at 22:07 Ars Technica

US's climate.gov site, taken down by Trump, relaunched by nonprofit

Climate.us has now restored everything taken down by the government.

Jun 23, 2026 at 20:43 Ars Technica

Odd police video shows drone removing knife from motionless suspect

Promo video comes as more US police departments fly drones as first responders.

Jun 23, 2026 at 18:19 Ars Technica

A curious crossover: The Toyota C-HR review

Although it's on the smaller side, this electric vehicle is not very chill.

Jun 23, 2026 at 17:59 Ars Technica

ABC asks viewers to protest FCC attempt to "control who is allowed" on The View

"The FCC wants to control who is allowed on the show," ABC ad tells viewers.

Apr 21, 2026 at 18:18 Ars Technica

Microsoft removes Call of Duty from Game Pass, lowers subscription pricing

New Xbox CEO says subscription "has become too expensive for too many players."

How reliable this looks

Signal and trust for Ars Technica

This source works at a rapid pace: 100% of recent stories land in the hot window, and 0% carry visible search signal.

Trusted

Reliability

92

Freshness

100

Sources in storyline

1

Related articles

More stories that share tags, source, or category context.

More from Ars Technica

Fresh reporting and follow-up coverage from the same newsroom.

Open source page