Top Line
The latest installment in the powerful game series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Coming to Xbox Game Pass After Microsoft announced it on Wednesday Future price increases This could create an attractive offer for users disappointed by a planned subscription fee increase in September.
Some Game Pass prices are set to increase by September (Photo: Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA) … [+]
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Key Facts
The addition of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III” to Xbox Game Pass makes it the first “Call of Duty” game to be offered on the subscription service, giving users access to a library of video games, deals and discounts for a range of monthly or yearly fees.
Xbox Announced The development comes less than two weeks after Game Pass users were notified about it. Price Increase This will increase the monthly price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (the highest Game Pass tier) from $16.99 to $19.99, and the monthly price of PC Game Pass from $9.99 to $11.99.
A new “standard” Game Pass tier will also be introduced in September for $14.99 per month.
Some users of formerly known as Twitter X were not pleased with the news of the price increase earlier this month, voicing their displeasure that the price change comes ahead of the October release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the next installment in the Call of Duty series that is also available on Xbox Game Pass, which could motivate users to hold on to or purchase the increasingly expensive Game Pass subscription to avoid paying the full price of the $70 video game.
It’s unclear how much of an impact the addition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III to Xbox Game Pass will have. The video game has been out for over eight months, so Best-selling video games of 2023.
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Big numbers
34 million. That’s the number of Game Pass subscribers as of February. The Verge.
Main Background
The addition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III to Game Pass is one of the more direct benefits for gamers from Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, publisher of the Call of Duty series. The subscription service already includes popular sports games like Madden and MLB: The Show, the popular shooter Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and the action-adventure pirate game Sea of Thieves, so the addition of Call of Duty bolsters an already robust video game lineup. However, Game Pass subscribers will soon have to pay more to access these titles, a claim that the Federal Trade Commission is challenging. In a recent complaint, the FTC accused Microsoft of “Product DeteriorationMicrosoft added a new standard Game Pass tier to block access to video games that were pre-installed and playable without purchase on launch day, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The FTC also said that price hikes for existing users are “exactly the kind of consumer harm” that was a concern before the Microsoft-Activision merger.
References
FTC and Microsoft Debate Over Whether Xbox Game Pass Is Now Worse (Forbes)
