is a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.
Microsoft is raising the price of its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription again and rebranding some of its Xbox Game Pass plans. Starting today, Game Pass Ultimate will be priced at $29.99 per month instead of $19.99 — a 50 percent increase. Microsoft is attempting to justify the price hike with a variety of upgrades across all of its Xbox Game Pass tiers.
Xbox Game Pass Core is being rebranded to Xbox Game Pass Essential, and the Standard plan is now Xbox Game Pass Premium.
“What’s new for everyone across all three Xbox Game Pass plans is bigger game libraries, including PC games across each of the plans,” explains Dustin Blackwell, director of gaming and platform communications at Microsoft, in a briefing with The Verge. “There is also unlimited cloud gaming, which is new to Essential and Premium subscribers.”
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is moving from $19.99 a month to $29.99 a month, which is a surprising $10 increase. While Microsoft increased the price of Game Pass Ultimate last year without improving the subscription, it’s adding a bunch of improvements this time around. “[Game Pass Ultimate] will now include access to more than 400 titles globally, this includes the majority of our partners who want to continue to bring their future games to Xbox Game Pass,” Blackwell explains.
Microsoft is adding 45 games to Game Pass Ultimate today alone, including Hogwarts Legacy, a variety of Assassin’s Creed titles, and many more Ubisoft games. “We’re also now giving access to more than 75 day one releases each year,” Blackwell says. “That’s a 50 percent increase over the day one titles we provided last year.”
Ubisoft Plus Classics is also now part of Game Pass Ultimate, a perk that provides access to a selection of Ubisoft games across console, PC, and cloud. On November 18th, Fortnite Crew will also be part of Ultimate, which gives subscribers the Fortnite Battle Pass, 1,000 V-bucks each month, and more. “With Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft Plus Classics, those combined add about $28 a month in value to Ultimate subscribers,” Blackwell says.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is also coming out of beta and getting 1440p resolution support and bitrate improvements for certain games on select devices. These cloud improvements are exclusive to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.
Finally, Microsoft is also reworking its rewards program. Ultimate subscribers can now earn up to $100 per year (100,000 points) in the store just by playing games.
Game Pass Premium will be priced at the same $14.99 monthly price of the existing Standard subscription, but it will now have a bigger library of games to choose from. More than 200 games will be available on both Xbox and PC, giving Game Pass Premium subscribers access to PC games for the first time — including Diablo IV and Hogwarts Legacy today.
Game Pass Premium is also getting unlimited cloud access for the first time, meaning you no longer need a Game Pass Ultimate subscription to get access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. Premium subscribers will be able to stream titles from the Game Pass library, as well as select titles they own.
While Game Pass Premium won’t get access to day one launch titles like Game Pass Ultimate does, Microsoft is now making a clear commitment to bring new Xbox-published games to this subscription tier “within a year of their launch.” This excludes Call of Duty titles, but every other Microsoft-owned Xbox game will be available.
Microsoft is also expanding its in-game Game Pass perks down to the Premium subscription, instead of being locked to Ultimate. Subscribers will get in-game benefits in games like League of Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X. Premium subscribers will also be able to earn up to $50 a year by playing games through Microsoft’s rewards program.
Xbox Game Pass Essential
Game Pass Essential will be priced at the same $9.99 monthly price of the existing Core subscription, but it will now include more than 50 titles in the library instead of the more than 25 games that were available in Core. You’ll also be able to play all of these titles on PC or console, and there’s even unlimited cloud access, which was previously only available through the Game Pass Ultimate tier.
Essential subscribers will also be able to stream select games they own, as well as access in-game benefits from Riot Games and earn up to $25 a year in the store through Microsoft’s revamped rewards program.
PC Game Pass price changes and more
Microsoft is also increasing the price of its PC Game Pass subscription today, moving from $11.99 a month to $16.49 monthly — a nearly 40 percent increase. Microsoft isn’t trying to justify this increase with any added extras for PC players, though.
“The only change happening for PC Game Pass subscribers is that they won’t be getting Ubisoft Plus Classics, but they’ll be getting about 50 additional Ubisoft titles across PC Game Pass,” Blackwell says. “It will continue to get day one titles.”
With PC games also being added to both Xbox Game Pass Essential and Premium today, I get the feeling that Microsoft may eventually rethink its dedicated subscription for PC gamers and try and tempt subscribers over to its Essential, Premium, or Ultimate tiers instead.
While the Xbox Game Pass Essential and Premium tiers aren’t seeing price increases in the US today, pricing will be adjusted for these plans in some markets. All existing Game Pass Core and Standard subscribers will be automatically upgraded to the Essential and Premium plans. Any price changes begin today for new subscribers, or at the next billing cycle for existing Game Pass subscribers.
The price increases come after Microsoft has been increasingly investing in Game Pass deals over the past year. “This last year alone we’ve made our largest investment in Game Pass so far, signing deals with more than 150 partners to expand the catalog over time,” Blackwell says.
Microsoft is also set to increase the price of its Xbox consoles in the US again later this week, with the Xbox Series X now $150 more than it was just six months ago. Microsoft and Asus also just announced that the upcoming Xbox Ally X handheld will be priced at $999.99 in the US.
“We understand price increases are never fun for anybody, but we’re trying to reinforce by adding more value to these plans as well,” Blackwell says. “It’s something we don’t take lightly, and we’re listening to the feedback of players and the community to try to provide them with more of what they’re asking for.”
