Xbox has announced it’ll be raising Game Pass prices, raising its Ultimate tier to $35.95 per month (up from $22.95 per month) ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7‘s release.
Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox Game Pass will be receiving significant changes starting today. The biggest change is that the service is receiving a major price increase, taking its Ultimate tier from $22.95 to $35.95 per month.
This was the service’s most popular tier, as it gave day one access to Xbox’s exclusive games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Grounded 2, Doom: The Dark Ages and more.
Microsoft is claiming these pay increases are in service of an “upgraded” experience, offering more bang for players’ buck. In a statement, they’d write: “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”.
As a result, the gaming service is receiving new plan names and pricing.
Firstly, Xbox Game Pass Core is being removed, with subscribers being automatically shifted to Game Pass Essential tier. Game Pass Standard tier has also been removed, with subscribers moved to Xbox Game Pass Premium. The Ultimate tier has retained its name but has been enhanced with a few additional features, accompanied by a price increase.
New Xbox Game Pass Tiers
Starting today, Xbox Game Pass will have revamped tiers, which Microsoft claims will meet more flexible demands for gamers.
- Xbox Game Pass Essential (formerly Core): Required to play games online and will now include cloud gaming, in-game benefits and rewards. Subscribers to this tier will also gain access to a catalogue of 50+ games that are playable on both console and PC.
- Xbox Game Pass Premium (formerly Standard): Includes Cloud gaming in addition to 200+ games on Xbox consoles and PC, as well as new Xbox-published games to the service (excluding Call of Duty) within a year of launch, in addition to rewards.
- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: Xbox Cloud Gaming will now stream at a higher 1440p resolution, leading to a more seamless experience for those who use the service (and have a decent enough internet speed to match). Subscribers will also gain access to over 75 day-one releases a year and receive new rewards, including Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ classics.
The pricing update for these services will change to:
- Xbox Game Pass Essential – $12.95 per month (previously $10.95 per month)
- Xbox Game Pass Premium – $17.95 per month (previously $15.95 per month)
- PC Game Pass – $19.45 (previously from $13.95 per month)
- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – $35.95 per month (previously $22.95 per month)
Rewards for subscribers
Now, let’s talk about one of the most significant changes in the price update: the rewards.
With Ultimate, players can score 100,000 rewards points per year to spend at the store. Gamers will earn these points just by playing games. You can use these points to buy games, add-ons and more.
Gamers will also receive points after completing daily, weekly and monthly quests. Ultimate and Premium subscribers will receive exclusive quests, with limited-time offers and quests available to earn more points.
So, Xbox has found a way to turn your gaming experience into MMO daily missions, which I’m unsure how to feel about. Without knowing what these quests look like, it’s tough to gauge how much this could dictate and affect people’s gaming habits. Will someone log in, hoping to play Silksong after a long day at work, only to see they can score points by playing three matches of Halo instead? Daily’s in gaming already get enough criticism for turning people’s hobby into busy work. It’ll be disappointing to see Xbox go the same way.
Discord has a similar quest system, offering users new ways to get icons or badges by playing certain games for a period of time, joining specific servers or by streaming the game to friends in a server.
See the rewards outline for different tiers below.
The price increase has been met with a negative response across social media so far.
The website to cancel Xbox Game Pass subscriptions overloaded shortly after the announcement was made. GameStop would also poke fun at the price increase on X.
Either way, it’s been a sad day as gaming’s best deal ended up being too good to be true after all.
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