Xbox announced overnight that Xbox Game Pass subscriptions are dramatically increasing in price with some shuffling of features including some new benefits. Oh, and some new names we need to try and remember.
Xbox Game Pass Core, is now Xbox Game Pass Essential.
Xbox Game Pass Standard, is now Xbox Game Pass Premium.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, remains Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Xbox Game Pass Essential is $12.95 per month or $155.40 per year.
Xbox Game Pass Premium is $17.95 per month or $215.40 per year.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is $35.95 per month or $431.40 per year.
Screenshot from Xbox Australia website so you know it’s not a typo:
Some form of Game Pass is required still to play Xbox games online.
Essential will now include some Cloud and PC Games, with a library of 50+ games in addition to some benefits in games such as League of Legends, Overwatch 2 & Warzone.
Premium will include a library of 200+ games, including Xbox published games within a year of launch, excluding Call of Duty. The other benefit listed over essential is shorter cloud gaming queue times.
Ultimate will continue to include 400+ games including all Xbox published games, but will now include Ubisoft+ Classics, EA Play & Fortnite Crew (from Nov). Cloud gaming at this tier will be at 1440p with the shortest wait times.
There is also changes to the rewards system with each tier getting a tiered reward cap, detailed in this image below (but in USD):
Xbox is also highlighting that Hogwarts Legacy is coming to Xbox Game Pass (Premium and Ultimate) today along with some other titles, especially Ultimate with the addition of Ubisoft+ Classic.
This comes after Sarah Bond recently told Japanese Outlet Game Watch that “Last fiscal year, Xbox Game Pass sales reached a record high of $5 billion. It’s a profitable business…”.
It seems that if you are a big Fortnite player who wants Fortnite Crew, plays Ubisoft+ Classics via the service and dabbles on EA Play, on top of playing many day one Xbox Published titles, in additional to some Cloud Gaming here and there, then Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is still of similar value.
We’ll be sure to collect some thoughts over the next couple of days for discussion on the 1-Up Gamescast at the end of the week.
1-Up Games 
2 responses to “Xbox Game Pass prices have increased”
I wonder how many people actually weight up what games they want to play, versus the cost of gamepass. For the most part, I have been buying all my games, and just doing 1 month subs for games where i play once, like Indiana jones, and cod.
but I’m becoming more inclined to wait for these games to drop in price and get them forever, i did that with the 1st and 2nt current doom games, and now contemplating to do it for DARK AGES
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Fair call out I reckon, the number of people calculating the spend has to be increasing today.
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