Xbox Game Pass has long been called the best deal in gaming, and for good reason. You pay a monthly price and get access to (depending on what tier you subscribe to) potentially hundreds of games. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members get day 1 releases from Xbox and third party partners. Well that value is about to be put to the test after today’s announcement from Xbox.
Every tier of Xbox Game Pass is going through a change, though Ultimate is seeing the biggest changes, for better and worse. So what exactly is changing? Lets break it all down.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Let’s start with the biggest tier and the one facing the most changes. First off the bad news. Ultimate is going up a whopping 50% and will now be priced at $29.99USD. This is a huge price increase and is on top of the previous price increases we’ve already seen for Xbox Game Pass. It was just last July that prices increased to $19.99USD so to see another huge increase a little over a year later will be sure to upset some fans.
This price increase does at least come with a ton of new perks. Starting today Ubisoft+ Classics will join the Ultimate tier bringing a ton of games to the service. Ubisoft+ Classics kind of acts like EA Play, where Ubisoft adds older games to the service. We will see if they change how they operate now that they are part of Game Pass, but typically you can expect to get Ubisoft games on Game Pass Ultimate after they release. While EA typically brings all games to EA Play about a year after, Ubisoft is much more sporadic with their additions.
Additionally, Xbox is making a commitment of 75 or more day 1 releases on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. That is a lot of games and a big promise, but with games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, The Outer Worlds 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong and more they are already delivering a big list of day one titles and it will only get better from here.
Also if you are a big fan of Fortnite, Ultimate members will now get access to Fortnite Crew. This is a big addition for those that do play Fortnite as it includes things like the battle pass, LEGO Pass, OG pass and more. It’s valued at $11.99 a month on its own.
The last big addition to this tier is more cloud gaming. Xbox Cloud gaming has left its beta phase and all Ultimate members will now have access to Cloud gaming at “its best quality”.
All of this sounds great in practice as you are adding more value than the price increase is worth. The major problem with it is for players who don’t really care about what is being added. I for example have zero interest in Fortnite or cloud gaming so the added Fortnite Crew and cloud gaming brings zero extra value to me. And while Ubisoft+ Classics is a fine addition, I rarely find myself going back to old games.
In my opinion this is the first big price increase that will test Game Pass users. $30 is a major price to pay and I am sure some will cancel at this price point. Will these added perks bring more people in? We will see. This also comes just a day after Sarah Bond spoke in an interview about how the service brought in 5 Billion dollars in revenue, so the timing is curious to say the least.
Xbox Game Pass Core….Essential
Game Pass Core is now being rebranded as Xbox Game Pass Essential. The good news here is that there is no price increase to the tier and players will now be seeing more games in the service. Essentially players will get access to 50+ games as well as cloud gaming and for the first time can now play these 50 games on PC as well as console. All in all a good deal with no price increase.
Xbox Game Pass Standard….Premium
Another tier to get a name change is the Xbox Game Pass Standard tier which is now Premium. Standard had been console only but it is not being expanded to all platforms including pc, console and cloud. The tier will now have 200+ games at the players disposal however it will still not feature day 1 releases. They are however promising that all Xbox first party games will join the service within a year.
As with the new Eseential tier, no price increase will occur meaning players will get this same service at the same price with more perks.
PC Game Pass
Lastly we have the PC Game Pass tier, which is the only other tier besides Ultimate getting a price increase. Ubisoft+ Classics will also be added to PC Game Pass and because of this will see a price increase to $16.99USD. Its a pretty big increase for only adding Ubisoft+ Classics. So again unless that interests you, you are essentially paying extra for nothing.
How are you all feeling about this latest change to Xbox Game Pass? Will you be changing your subscription now or not? Let us know in the comments.
