Baldur's Gate 3 director reacts to Xbox Game Pass removing Call of Duty from day one access alongside price drop — "It is a good thing creatively"

A few weeks after reports suggested the new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma was pushing for "lower-priced tiers" of Xbox Game Pass and said the service "has become too expensive for players," Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has now gotten a sizable price cut. Originally $29.99/month, its price has now been reduced to $22.99/month — a large $7 drop.

It's almost a full reversal of the huge price hike that came last October, though it hasn't come without a different cost for subscribers; new Call of Duty titles will no longer be available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass on day one, and will instead come to Microsoft's subscription service one year after launch. Still, the overall reception to this change so far has been positive.

One reaction that stands out is Michael "Cromwelp" Douse's — the publishing director at Larian Studios, the developer behind the Game of the Year-winning 2023 RPG Baldur's Gate 3 and the highly anticipated upcoming RPG Divinity. Ultimately, he's a fan of the removal of Call of Duty from Game Pass, arguing "it is a good thing creatively."

"It is a good thing creatively for the CoD team and the game's quality to know that people are gonna buy it," he commented in response to Asha Sharma's announcement of the news on social media. "Nice to see Xbox team follow the Sony model of putting a game on sub after the peak sales windows." He's referring to how the PS5 maker operates PlayStation Plus.

The crux of Douse's argument is that with Call of Duty off Game Pass, its developers will hopefully be able to enjoy more creative freedom and less demand to deliver games that maximize profitability to a degree that's harmful to quality. It's worth noting that Game Pass availability infamously cost Call of Duty hundreds of millions in sales, which could have resulted in overhead pressure to get future games to sell more.

It's a good point, though while this move may ultimately be better for the shooter franchise, some feel it might be worse for Microsoft and Xbox Game Pass. After all, day-one availability for first-party Xbox games is one of the biggest advantages Game Pass has over something like PlayStation Plus, and the ability to offer that for a franchise as gargantuan as Call of Duty was arguably one of the biggest wins Microsoft got out of its $69 billion Activision Blizzard merger.

With that said, putting a series as massive as Call of Duty on Game Pass day one was also undoubtedly a huge reason why we saw the price increase we did last year, and many ended up canceling their membership due to the hike. By taking the FPS juggernaut off Game Pass at launch, Microsoft will likely get those aforementioned sales back, and can draw players back to the service now that it's nearly as affordable as it was before.

Viewed that way, it's a win-win, and Game Pass users do still eventually get Call of Duty access a year after release, too. But while Douse sees the removal of the series from the day-one catalog as a win, it wouldn't surprise me if he was against the price drop; he reacted negatively to reports of Sharma's plans to lower Game Pass pricing, arguing that making the service too cheap threatens sustainability.

Do you agree with Michael Douse that it's good for Call of Duty to be off of Xbox Game Pass, or were you disappointed to see that news? Let me know down below, both in the comments and in our poll.

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