Xbox Quietly Nuked Call Of Duty And Every Other Game Pass DLC Discount

Players are still discovering new ways in which their Xbox Game Pass subscriptions are getting worse. Call of Duty is the latest target, with a 10-percent discount on Call of Duty points and add-on content like the BlackCell premium battle pass bundles. While small, the savings can quickly add up for dedicated fans over the annual lifecycle of a new entry in the series like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Microsoft has since clarified that all DLC discounts have gone away and been replaced with additional rewards points for Ultimate subscribers instead.

Spotted by CharlieIntel, the 10-percent discount on buying Call of Duty points no longer appears for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers in the Xbox store. This impacts any add-on content players buy throughout the year, of which there is increasingly a ton. It’s another stealth nerf to the program not mentioned in Microsoft’s official blog post about the pricing changes this week. PC Game Pass going from $12 a month to $16.49 wasn’t listed either.

Xbox has removed the 10% discount that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members could get on add-on content for Call of Duty – including removing the discount on Call of Duty Points and BlackCell as part of the changes to Game Pass this week. pic.twitter.com/ipaMgENuwi

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) October 3, 2025

A spokesperson for Microsoft contacted Kotaku after this article was originally published to explain the change in more detail:

This is not specific to any one game and reflects all games and DLC purchases. Instead of a discount on the purchases, Ultimate and Premium subscribers will earn 10% and 5% – respectively – in points when purchasing select games and add-ons from the Game Pass library. Ultimate members continue to have 20% discount on select games from the Game Pass library. On top of that, all Rewards members will earn points when shopping games and add-ons on the Store, while Premium and Ultimate subscribers will earn even more, 2x and 4x respectively. See more detail on the Game Pass Rewards program here.

In effect, players can still get the 10 percent savings on COD points and BlackCell bundles, but it will only be available for subsequent purchases after they’ve acrued enough rewards to redeem a $5 Xbox gift card.

The upfront DLC savings are the second discount that’s eroded under the new version of what used to be considered the best deal in gaming. Microsoft is also capping the Xbox Rewards fans can earn at lower tiers of the Game Pass subscription, as well as removing the option to spend those loyalty program points on additional months of Game Pass for a cheaper price. “They’ve been slowly enshitifying Rewards for a while now but this really is the nail in the coffin for anyone who uses points to pay for Game Pass,” wrote one user on the subreddit. “You simply can’t earn enough in a month to pay for a month after this change.”

Microsoft had previously teased the release of its first $80 games this fall beginning with The Outer Worlds 2, but ultimately ended up reversing course amid an ongoing backlash from players and likely soft-preorder numbers for the upcoming RPG shooter. So far at least, the tech giant hasn’t offered any signs it plans to compromise on the latest price hikes, even as it touts Game Pass’ profitability and annual revenue of $5 billion. “They’re on their villain arc,” one player quipped in response to the Call of Duty discount change.

Update 10/4/2025 8:15 a.m. ET: Added comment from a Microsoft spokesperson clarifying the DLC discount changes.