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Xbox Game Pass Drops to $22.99 and Loses Day-One Call of Duty

W16 Published 2026-04-24 5 min read

Microsoft cuts Game Pass Ultimate to $22.99/month and removes day-one Call of Duty access. Plus: Ubisoft cancels Alterra. Roblox releases agentic AI tools for creators.

Headline finding

Microsoft Gaming repositioned Game Pass Ultimate at $22.99/month (down from $24.99) while removing day-one Call of Duty access. The pricing move is defensive on subscriber count, not bullish on demand. Day-one COD removal signals the Activision integration economics are still under pressure 18 months post-close.

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About this issue

This is a summary page for the GIES weekly issue published 2026-04-24. The full issue lives on Substack at giesweekly.substack.com/p/xbox-game-pass-drops-to-2299-and and is the canonical version. This page exists to make the issue discoverable on giesweekly.com and to provide a stable URL for citation.

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