- Microsoft has announced big changes coming to Xbox Game Pass
- An Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription now costs $29.99 / £22.99
- It comes alongside a new Premium tier and additional benefits
Microsoft has revealed sweeping changes coming to Xbox Game Pass, with three upgraded plans and a massive price hike for Ultimate subscribers.
Xbox Game Pass Core is now known as Xbox Game Pass Essential and offers subscribers the chance to jump into unlimited cloud gaming in addition to the existing ability to play multiplayer titles.
The modest game library included with the tier is now available to those on PC, too. Subscribers will also be able to benefit from up to $25 per year in store points by playing games with the Rewards with Xbox program.
The price of this tier remains the same at $9.99 / £6.99 per month, so it’s only good news if that’s your preferred tier.
A new Xbox Game Pass Premium tier replaces the old Xbox Game Pass Standard and also retains its current price tag of $14.99 / £10.99 per month.
As with Essential, the new Premium tier features unlimited cloud gaming and a massive library of more than 200 games that can be played on both Xbox and PC.
The service will also grant access to new Xbox-published games within one year of launch, though significantly, this does not include new Call of Duty titles.
Premium members will be able to take advantage of up to $50 per year in store points by playing games with the Rewards with Xbox program, too.
Things only really start to look bad when you examine the new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It now includes a Fortnite Crew membership (offering the game’s battle pass, 1,000 V-Bucks per month, plus a few bonus skins) and Ubisoft+ Classics such as Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
Subscribers will also get day one access to major upcoming games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Ninja Gaiden 4and The Outer Worlds 2, alongside a library of more than 400 games.
Cloud gaming also gets a big upgrade on Ultimate, with the shortest waiting times and resolutions up to 1440p. On top of this, subscribers will be able to earn up to $100 per year in store points by playing games with the Rewards with Xbox program.
Unfortunately, all of this comes at a massively increased price.
An Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription now costs a whopping $29.99 / £22.99 a month, up from $19.99 / £14.99 – ouch.
Worse still, we’re not seeing any kind of annual subscription option on the Xbox store – so it doesn’t seem like you can save by buying 12 months in one go. We have reached out to Microsoft to ask whether this will be an option, though.
All in all, this means that an Xbox Series S, which now goes for a recently increased $379.99 price, and a year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate ($359.88) will cost a total of $739.87 in the US – about $10 less than the $749 PlayStation 5 Pro!
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