Summary
- The price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is increasing to $30 a month, up from $20.
- Microsoft is trying to justify the hike with new upgrades to Game Pass Ultimate, including more day-one titles, and Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew bundled in.
- The Xbox Game Pass Essential and Standard tiers are also being rebranded, but the price of each tier will remain the same.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is a popular way for gamers to play new titles on launch day and stream games from the cloud. However, if you’re a subscriber to Game Pass Ultimate, I have some bad news: Microsoft has announced a substantial price hike for it.
Starting October 1, Microsoft is raising the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $30 per month from $20, a 50 percent increase. If you’re already subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate, the price hike will go into effect on your next billing cycle on or after November 4, while the price increase is already in effect for new subscribers.
In addition to raising the price of Game Pass Ultimate by $10 a month, PC Game Pass subscription prices are also going up from $11.99 to $16.49 monthly, a 40 percent increase.
At the same time as these price hikes, Microsoft is also rebranding its two other Xbox Game Pass plans. Xbox Game Pass Core is being changed to Xbox Game Pass Essential, while Xbox Game Pass Standard is now known as Xbox Game Pass Premium.
“We know not everyone wants the same thing in their Xbox experience, so we’re evolving Game Pass to offer more flexibility, choice, and value to all players, whether you love day one releases, discovering hidden gems, or playing across multiple devices and screens and across Xbox consoles, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud,” Microsoft said in a blog post.
Microsoft is making changes to Game Pass Ultimate to justify the increase
More day-one launch titles are coming to Game Pass Ultimate
The last time Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass Ultimate was last year, when it upped the price to $20 a month, up from $17. However, this time it has announced some notable upgrades to the service to help justify its price hike.
Some of the changes Microsoft has made to Game Pass Ultimate include increasing the number of day-one releases to 75 (approximately 50 percent more than last year), as well as bundling subscriptions to Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew at no additional cost. However, Fortnite Crew isn’t coming until November. This is in addition to EA Play, which was already automatically included with Game Pass Ultimate at no extra cost.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is also receiving an upgrade for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, with the ability to now stream select games at 1440p resolution, which should provide a notable boost in clarity compared to 1080p.
…the price of Game Pass Ultimate for a year now is $360, which is nearly the same price as the 512GB Xbox Series S, which costs $400.
Considering that Microsoft has already raised the price of the Xbox Series X twice this year, with the five-year-old console now costing $650, compared to $500 at the start of the year, it’s hard not to also feel the sting from the price increase of Game Pass Ultimate. If you do the math, the price of Game Pass Ultimate for a year now is $360, which is nearly the same price as the 512GB Xbox Series S, which costs $400.
