For years now, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass has set itself apart by offering subscribers launch-day access to new first-party titles in addition to a large legacy library of older games. That important “day one” perk is now set to go away for all but the highest tier of Game Pass’ console subscribers, even as Microsoft asks for more money for Game Pass across the board.
Let’s start with the price increases for existing Game Pass tiers, which are relatively straightforward:
- “Game Pass Ultimate” is going from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.
- “Game Pass for PC” is going from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.
- “Game Pass Core” (previously known as Xbox Live Gold) is going from $59.99 to $74.99 for annual subscriptions (and remains at $9.99 for monthly subscriptions).
Things get a bit more complicated for the $10.99/month “Xbox Game Pass for Console” tier. Microsoft announced that it will no longer accept new subscriptions for that tier after today, though current subscribers will be able to keep it (for now) if they auto-renew their subscriptions.
I need to figure out what games I still have on my Xbox from Game Pass, buy the ones I really like or wishlist them for a sale, and cancel it. I haven’t even played online with my friends in a couple years, so I don’t really even need the Core plan for now.
Yeah I wound up just buying the Gamepass games I played most on a good sale and canceling Gamepass. I’ve been happy with that.