Xbox increases Game Pass Ultimate price by 50% in subscription overhaul

Game Pass is bigger, but more expensive (Microsoft)

Microsoft has announced some sweeping changes to all Xbox Game Pass tiers, including a drastic price increase for Ultimate subscribers.

Just over a year after it hiked up the prices of Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft has annouced made another major overhaul to its subscription service.

In recent years, Microsoft has pivoted Xbox into a multiplatform brand independent of its consoles. This has been spearheaded by Game Pass, which grants subscribers access to games, online multiplayer, and other benefits.

As announced in an Xbox Wire blog post, Microsoft is rebranding all three tiers, expanding their functionality, and hiking up the price for Ultimate subscribers.

The biggest change is on the Ultimate tier. As of today, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will cost £22.99 in the UK ($29.99 in the US), an increase of over 50% from its previous price of £14.99. This equates to an extra £96 a year.

To justify the price, Xbox is adding some extra incentives, with the promise of over 75 games released day one per year, including the upcoming Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Ninja Gaiden 4.

Additionally, Ultimate subscribers now have access to Ubisoft+ Classics at no additional cost, on top of the previously added EA Play. Starting from November 18, Ultimate subscribers will also get access to Fortnite Crew, which offers battle passes and 1,000 V-Bucks for Fortnite every month.

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The last incentive is the highest quality streaming for Xbox Cloud Gaming, which has officially left the ‘beta’ phase. If you’re subscribed to the Ultimate tier, the streaming quality will go up to 1440p, while Xbox is promising the ‘shortest wait times’ at this tier.

As for the other two tiers, there are no price changes but they have been renamed, with Xbox Game Pass Core now called Essential, while Xbox Game Pass Standard is now Premium.

The game library across these two tiers has been expanded to include PC games, unlimited cloud gaming, and in-game benefits for certain titles, including Overwatch 2 and League Of Legends. You can check out a breakdown below.

New Xbox Game Pass subscription tiers Game Pass Essential (£6.99/$9.99 a month) – 50+ games across Xbox, PC, and cloud. Online console multiplayer. In-game benefits. Earn up to 25,000 reward points a year in the store. Game Pass Premium (£10.99/$14.99 a month) – 200+ games across Xbox, PC, and cloud. Online console multiplayer. In-game benefits. New Xbox published games will join Premium library within 12 months of launch. Stream games with shorter wait times. Earn up to 50,000 reward points a year in the store. Game Pass Ultimate (£22.99/$29.99) – 400+ games across Xbox, PC, and cloud. Online console multiplayer. In-game benefits. Over 75 games released day one per year. Access to EA Play and Ubisoft+ Classics. Stream games at best quality and shortest wait times. Earn up to 100,000 reward points a year.

This Game Pass overhaul comes alongside some changes to Microsoft Rewards. From today, you’ll no longer be able to redeem reward points directly for Xbox Game Pass subscriptions.

Now, you’ll have to redeem points for a gift card in an amount equivalent to the cost of a subscription, in what feels like an awkward change to rinse you of extra pennies.

Ultimate isn’t the only tier to see a price increase, however. PC Game Pass, which now also comes with Ubisoft+ Classics access, has also gone up from £9.99 to £13.49 per month.

Earlier this year, Microsoft claimed Xbox Game Pass revenue reached ‘nearly $5 billion’ in revenue for the first time, but despite these numbers, Microsoft hasn’t released any official subscriber numbers since February 2024, when it hit 34 million.

According to Xbox president Sarah Bond the service is profitable but Microsoft has never revealed any of the figures underpinning the service.

The big question is whether the amount of Game Pass subscribers is actually increasing in any substantial way, as previous independent data has suggested the opposite.

Based on these price hikes and added incentives, it seems more as if Microsoft is desperate to attract new customers, rather than satisfying an already healthily sized userbase.

A breakdown of the tiers (Microsoft)

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