April 21 (Reuters) - Microsoft has dropped the price of its video game subscription service and the platform will not include future "Call of Duty" game releases on launch day, the company said on Tuesday, in the first major strategy shift under new gaming boss Asha Sharma.
Starting Tuesday, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will now cost $22.99 a month from $29.99 while PC Game Pass is priced at $13.99 from $16.49 monthly, the software firm said in a blog.
After years of betting that subscription services and
cloud gaming would become the next big driver for the Xbox brand, consistent Game Pass price hikes, declining console sales and a lack of compelling titles left Microsoft trailing rivals Sony and Nintendo.
Removing launch inclusions of "Call of Duty" from the service means undoing a decision made just a few years ago after Microsoft bought the game's developer Activision Blizzard for a mammoth $69 billion, hoping that the game's heft would attract users to Game Pass.
New "Call of Duty" games will be added to Game Pass services around a year after their release, the company said.
Prevailing uncertainty around the future of the Xbox was exacerbated with the exits of Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond in a leadership shake-up in February, leading to Microsoft insider Sharma taking up the top role to steer the company's gaming division.
The Verge reported last week, citing an internal memo to Xbox employees, that Sharma admitted that Game Pass had gotten too expensive for players.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
