What do you need to know
- Xbox Game Pass is an all-you-can-eat gaming subscription service featuring hundreds of games and day one titles from Microsoft’s in-house studios, including ABK titles like the next Call of Duty.
- Similar to Netflix, Spotify and other services, Microsoft is now raising the price on all of its existing tiers, including consoles, Ultimate and PC.
- Additionally, new users will not be able to sign up for Xbox Game Pass for Console. There will be a new “Standard” level coming soon, which will No include first day games but will include hundreds of strong back catalogs similar to EA Access and Xbox Live Gold for multiplayer.
Three things in life are certain, death, taxes and price increases. Today, Microsoft confirmed to us that the details of the long-awaited Xbox Game Pass price hike are well and truly here – but it comes with some major changes to the base level of the Xbox console as well.
Xbox Game Pass is Microsoft’s Netflix-like all-you-can-eat gaming subscription service and one of its more notable recent gaming innovations. For a monthly fee, players get access to hundreds of games as well as the first titles from Microsoft studios. This includes games like Bethesda’s Starfield, 343i’s Halo, but also future games like the next Call of Duty that will launch in the fall.
Microsoft rebranded Xbox Live Gold (the paywall for premium multiplayer titles) as Xbox Game Pass Core a while ago and has made several small price increases over the years. Now we’re getting another name change, as well as a big change to the base level of Xbox Game Pass, as well as a number of price increases.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate prepaid cards are currently $14.99 on Amazon, before raising the price to $19.99.
- Soon, Xbox Game Pass for Console will be closed new users only.
- Users who currently use Xbox Game Pass for console will be able to keep their subscriptionsas well as day one games and hundreds of titles in the back catalogue.
- New Xbox Game Pass users will be welcomed to the new Xbox Game Pass “Standard” in the near future. It’s more like EA Access which includes the Xbox back catalog and doesn’t include day one games. This will cost $14.99 per month and will also include Xbox Live Gold for multiplayer (now confusingly known as Game Pass Core). Excludes Xbox Cloud games. Game Pass Standard will reportedly launch in September.
- From September 12, 2024 Microsoft will only allow users to bundle Xbox Game Pass for console users for 13 months, using prepaid cards and the like that will continue to work. If you have already accumulated more than 13 months, this will not apply to you.
- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate won’t change, but will get a price increase. It will still include PC Game Pass, day one games and hundreds of titles from the catalog, as well as cloud games. However, prices are rising. The new price will be $19.99 per month.
- PC Game Pass is also getting a price hikefrom $9.99 per month to $11.99.
- PC Game Pass will continue to get day one games.
- Xbox Game Pass Core (Xbox Live Gold for multiplayer) increases every year to $74.99 from $59.99, but will remain $9.99 per month.
- The the price increase is global. You can view the new prices for your region here.
- For recurring billing users, new prices will come into effect on September 12, 2024, it gives you time to cancel if you don’t like it.
- UPDATE: Microsoft now has a support page dedicated to these changes here.
According to Microsoft, the vast majority of users today already use Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which is their flagship plan for the service. Game Pass Ultimate includes all games on Xbox consoles and in the cloud, as well as on PC, often with cross-save and cross-progression.
Microsoft joins a long list of subscription services like Netflix, Spotify and others that have been raising their prices in recent years. For users who play a lot of games, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is more than worth it, but for those who don’t, Xbox Game Pass may increasingly look like a subscription service worth cutting out of monthly bills to save money .
The price hike is here because Microsoft allows day one games as standard
Xbox Game Pass is an amazing service for users with hundreds of games and thousands of dollars in annual savings if you really use the service often. me personally do use it often and consistently, especially for Xbox Cloud Gaming. Xbox Cloud Gaming is also designed to allow you to play games you actually own outside of Xbox Game Pass fairly soon, increasing the value of Ultimate.
Still, the fact that “day one games” are no longer the norm seems like a big concession for Microsoft. Since the service’s inception, people have questioned whether or not giving access to games to everyone was a sustainable model, and post-pandemic it may just not be at the previous price point. However, I’m told that the vast majority of users are using Xbox Game Pass Ultimate right now. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will continue to get Xbox titles on day one, including Call of Duty 2024 heading into this holiday season. Also on a positive note, Microsoft has incorporated existing Xbox Game Pass for Console users into the system, allowing them to retain their entitlements. I see it eventually phasing out as more and more users switch to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Truth be told, there are undoubtedly some users who simply don’t see the point in paying for “Xbox Live Gold” multiplayer, given that many titles are now free to play and don’t require any form of paywall subscription. play. For them, something like Xbox Game Pass for Console might be a better choice overall than Ultimate. But I suspect it’s probably a small audience at this point.
Unlike Netflix and Spotify, which have access to an almost infinite number of devices to grow on, Xbox Game Pass as a subscription service is arguably limited to a subset of devices in a subset of scenarios, while simultaneously competing with platforms like Steam on PC and PlayStation on console . Apple and Google are doing everything they can to prevent Xbox Cloud Gaming from becoming a thing, and Microsoft has been trying to move Xbox One owners to the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S as fast as I’m sure they would he wished for it. It will be interesting to see how the service develops from here.