I’ve always been a massive advocate for Xbox Game Pass. Having the ability to play AAA day one releases on a console without having to fork out $120 per game seemed like a great concept for a subscription service, it still does.
That’s why I’m in two minds about today’s price-hike announcement, and let’s be clear, that’s what it is despite being dressed up as a “we are renaming the plans” thing, but it’s hard to ignore such a significant rise in price.
To break it down, Xbox Game Pass subscribers can choose from three “upgraded” tiers: Essential, Premium, and Ultimate that replaces “Core, Standard and Ultimate”.
To be fair to them each plan does now feature an expanded game library. included in the lower tiers now is a nice selection of PC games and all plans now have unlimited cloud gaming. There’s also the in-game benefits and a revamped “Rewards with Xbox” experience (does anyone even use that?).
It’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers where the most significant changes have happened (Ironically the only tier not to change its name). This is the plan that has the day-one releases, plus integration with Fortnite Crew, EA Play and Ubisoft+ Classics. You also get enhanced Xbox Cloud Gaming streaming quality, now supporting up to 1440p.
Quick side-note: Xbox Cloud Gaming has officially moved beyond its “Beta” phase, now delivering smoother gameplay and more responsive experiences than ever before. This is good news for Australia as our NBN services have also had an upgrade to download and upload speeds that are finally fast enough to use a service like this the way it was intended.
So what are the prices of the new plans… well I hope you are sitting down.
I’m going to rip that bandaid off with the big one, the Ultimate plan is now priced at $35.95 per month that is up $13 from the $22.95 we were paying, which just seems excessive. The Premium tier sits in the middle at $17.95 per month, offering the best value with over 200 games and access to new Xbox-published titles within a year of launch. Previous Core subscribers will transition to the Essential plan at $12.95 per month, providing a curated library of 50+ titles, online multiplayer, and cloud gaming.
Here’s why I’m in two minds about this. I think we all were wondering how a company could sustain the promise of day one releases of AAA games at such an affordable price and the writing was on the wall for price hikes in much the same way that we’ve seen every major streaming service almost regularly increase over the last few months. But at what point does this just fail to be worth it for the consumer and did anyone actually expect such a large hike all at once? I mean sure, $22 to $24 would expected almost part of a natural cycle, but to jump to $36, wow, they didn’t even buy me dinner first.
At this stage the buzz online is of people either cancelling subscriptions entirely or changing their plans from Ultimate to Premium. That seems like the best and most obvious choice as you still require one of the plans to play online with your console.
It will be interesting to see how this will affect the upcoming release of Call of Duty Black Ops 7 which has traditionally been a great money maker for them. Will players choose to buy the game outright now instead?
As someone who plays and reviews titles on the regular I am in a position where I can still see value in the Ultimate Game Pass subscription but I’ll put it out there, if it goes up again, I’m probably out.
